LYNNFIELD — After a year of being courted by several college basketball coaches and recruiters, Lynnfield senior Billy Arseneault made it official last Friday- he will be taking his basketball talents to Assumption College in Worcester.
Arseneault signed the dotted line during a ceremony at the Lynnfield High gymnasium.
“It was a long process from start to finish and I am glad it’s finally over,” said Arseneault.
Several other Northeast-10 schools were chasing Arseneault, including Merrimack, Stonehill and Bentley as well as Bridgewater State, where his older brother Tom is on the wrestling team.
Arseneault said Assumption came into the mix after he send his Hudl highlight video to several coaches after the end of this past season. Things fell into place during a hectic April vacation week.
“Within 15 minutes of posting the video, I got a call from the Assumption coach,” said Arseneault. “He thought I had already been picked up by another D2 team, and he offered me a scholarship on an overnight visit to the school on Tuesday of April vacation week.”
Arseneault had a breakout season as a junior when he earned the first of back-to-back Cape Ann League Player of the Year awards. He averaged 15.8 points and 7.1 assists per game.
His senior year was even better in spite of the fact that he was often double-teamed. He averaged 20.7 points and nearly eight assists per game. He quickly adapted to being the focal point of most opponents’ game plans, opting to pass the ball to open teammates.
“I definitely saw a lot more box-and-one this year, which caused tension but opened up more chances for me the thread the needle to teammates,” he said.
He finished his 3-year varsity career with 1,022 points, becoming only the second Pioneer (Mike Kennedy was the first) to hit the milestone in the Scott MacKenzie era, and seventh overall.
“His numbers are impressive, but even more so considering how many times he made that pinpoint pass only to have a teammate miss a layup or open shot,” said MacKenzie. “I say it all the time, he leads the league, and maybe the state in missed assists.
“He is the best player that I have been fortunate enough to coach in my seventeen years affiliated with the program. Skill, IQ, the ability to make his teammates better, everything. And to think that Billy is a kid who, yes, was born with talent but truly worked at his game to become the player that he has become is something that I hope translates to younger kids in town. To be great, you need to have a ferocious work ethic and, without a doubt, Billy is great.”
Arseneault will be joining an extremely young Greyhounds team that won just seven of 27 games last season and featured a starting lineup of three sophomores, one freshman and a junior.
“They struggled with injuries this winter, but we have a good recruiting class coming in,” said Arseneault. “I hope to play a lot but I’ll have to work for it. They have a freshman guard who is a scorer and I think they want him to play more off-ball, so the opening is there.”
Arseneault plans to major in sports management with a minor in business or marketing.
