By Christopher Tremblay

Staff Sports Writer

Growing up, Hopedale’s Hudson Terando took the lead from his older brother, Gabriel, who is currently playing soccer for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Terando, who is five years younger than his older brother, after giving it a shot, liked the sport so much that by the age of 10 he joined the New England Football Club team and has been with them ever since.

“I found that I really like the sport,” Terando said. “But it was my brother had a big influence on my decision to play and once I started he was a big help to me giving me advice and with my training.”

When he entered the Hopedale Junior/Senior High School he made the Blue Raiders Junior varsity squad as a seventh-grader. It wasn’t until his freshman campaign with the soccer team that Coach Greg LaBossiere made him a swing player between the JV and Varsity teams. 

Terando had always thought of himself as a midfielder as it exemplified his passing and dribbling abilities on the field. He continued to work hard at his craft and finally got his first varsity start as a sophomore.

“My first start came against Nipmuc, it was a very close game and I assisted on the game-tying goal,” he said. “I was very happy that day and it showed that I really deserved to be on the varsity team as a starting midfielder.”

The now-junior co-captain of the soccer team also takes part in Hopedale basketball and tennis, but soccer is definitely his number one sport.

Finding himself primarily as a role player last fall, LaBossiere will be looking to rely much more heavily on the junior this year.

“Hudson is probably the most talented kid on the team this year; he was named to the Dual Valley Conference All Star team last year,” the Blue Raider coach said. “We only have two starters back who played significant minutes for us last year, so I am looking for him to take the reins and supply a big leadership role.”

The Hopedale Coach is confident that Terando can become an important cog in the Blue Raiders season. According to LaBossiere, Terando picked up the team last fall with some huge goals and big assists when the team needed it.

With the lack of experienced varsity players coming into this season LaBossiere was in need of a talented athlete to be a captain and thus looked to Terando for his assistance on and off the field. Typically, the Hopedale Coach doesn’t usually name juniors as captains, but this year he will be leaning on his junior co-captain to help guide the Blue Raiders.

Terando is all in on his new role.

“I just want to be able to help the team in whatever way that I can,” he said. “Coming into the season I knew that it was going to be a difficult year after losing 12 seniors from last year’s team, but I am hoping that I can develop the younger players going forward.”

Earlier in the year Terando scored two first half goals against Whitinsville- Christian and then found himself double and sometimes triple teamed in the second half; something the junior is definitely not used to. 

Both the Coach and his midfielder are looking to get back into the State Tournament once again this fall. Hopedale puts together one of the tougher schedules in Division 5 and LaBossiere is oping that the Blue Raiders can once again take advantage of the power rankings.

Last fall Hopedale earned themselves a number four seeding in the Division 5 Tournament, where they defeated Blue Hills 6-0 and Springfield 2-1 in overtime before falling to Sutton 2-1 in the Round of Eight. 

“The kids are not use to having a season where the wins are not up there, but with the power rankings we still should get into the tournament and be able to do something,” the Hopedale Coach said. “I told them that the results may not be in front of them in terms of wins and losses, but if they stay competitive we’ll be fine.”

Whatever it takes, Terando wants to be back into the tournament, but this year he wants to help the team go further than the Round of Eight.