After a 13-year hiatus, professional basketball is coming back to Barre.
The VT Coyotes, a new minor league team under the American Basketball Association (ABA), will begin competing in the 2025-26 season. The team plans to play its home games at the Barre Municipal Auditorium.
“We are very excited to be back in Barre,” American Basketball Association CEO Joe Newman said in a statement from the organization on Sunday. “The community really supported the ABA well before … This team should be a great success on and off the court.”
The ABA calls itself a “re-launch” of the American Basketball Association, a storied organization that merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976. The ABA states on its website that it started in 2000 “in partnership with the NBA.”
A year out from its first season, the VT Coyotes are in the early stages of development. The team is building up its coaching staff now, and the association plans to announce a head coach on Oct. 15, the statement said.
Team staff plan to recruit players from Vermont and surrounding states during the upcoming basketball season. Other teams in the ABA’s East Region include Vermont’s Bennington Martens, the Maine Bulldogs and the Providence Pirates.
The new team revealed its logo last week — a coyote howling over a crescent moon.
While the Coyotes are the newest semi-pro sports team in Vermont, the league isn’t new to Barre. More than a decade ago, the town was home to the two-time national champion Vermont Frost Heaves, which were part of the ABA from 2006 to 2008.
The team went “from no one, to No. 1, in just one year!” CBS affiliate sports anchor J.J. Cioffi said after the team won its first title.
The Frost Heaves folded in 2011 after team managers were unable to raise enough money to keep the team playing.
VT Coyotes team owner Anthony Marques was involved in player development with the Frost Heaves.
“My experiences helped me learn that there is more to basketball than dribbling one,” he said in the statement. “I learned about the business side of the game and the attention to detail that is required to build a high quality basketball product on the court and an organization that serves the community off the court.”
Barre City Manager Nick Storellicastro said he is excited to see the VT Coyotes come to town.
The town understands the logistics of having a long-term home arena, the Barre Municipal Auditorium, that’s fit for the team to play. The auditorium space, he said, means a lot to people who grew up playing basketball there.
“‘We’re going to the aud. We’re going to the aud,’” Storellicastro said he hears from residents.
It’s the same home site as the former Frost Heaves.
“When they were here, they were quite successful and popular,” Storellicastro said. “We know the city has supported basketball in the past.”
“We recently had an exhibition game here in Barre,” Storellicastro said, where the city’s first responders played against the Bennington Martens to raise money for flood relief.
Storellicastro is hopeful for partnerships between the VT Coyotes and local schools and businesses. As a parent, he said, it’s a positive for his children to have professional players they can root for. Home games driving spectators to downtown restaurants is another opportunity “for sponsorship and for increased traffic.”
