We were just sitting around waiting for Obama to pay our mortgage and melt the ice on our driveway, so we had some time to come up with a few observations about 1,000-point scorers, the secret workout that has given nine players on one local high school the ability to dunk, who’s really going to win the Clark Tournament and some of the dumbest words in the English language. Plus, when you hit the “click here” link, 50 percent of you absolutely, 100 percent are guaranteed to be insulted. So, click here to read more.
First off, the best basketball player in the state is neither in CMass nor that basketball hotbed that often gets confused with Rucker Park, EMass. She is in Western Mass. Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir of New Leadership in Springfield is the new all-time state scoring leader. The Girl From Springfield surpassed the former record holder, the lovely and talented Becky Lobo last week. By the time she’s done, the Girl From Springfield, headed to Memphis on a full ride, will eclipse the 3,000-point mark and unless the next Michael Beasley transfers to Maynard as an eighth-grader, it probably won’t happen again. Here’s some quick math to put that into perspective. Let’s take a very good CMass sophomore, say Richard Rogers from SJ. He’ll play right around 20 games per year for three years. That means in those 60 or so contests, he’d have to toss up 50 per to get near 3,000. Good job by the Girl From Springfield.
We’ve been on a mission to figure out who’s for real in D2 boys, who will compete in the Clark and in the playoffs and we still can’t figure it out. We tried comparing two leagues, the Mid-Wach C and the SWCL. Seems about even, but, for what it’s worth – and admittedly, it’s not much, we give the slight edge to the MWC. It could be argued that that league’s best player is Lunenburg’s DJ Guillette, who we witnessed shred Clinton Friday night. The junior is the real deal on offense: Slashes to the rack, finishes strong, has a nice touch from the outside and hits his free throws. We have a hunch Lunenburg will at some point in March pull of an “upset,” not only because they have a go-to scorer, but also because they have reliable guard play and the personnel to simply outrun teams.
Take a small break and just read this short paragraph. A word that should make you angry is “artisan.” A really contrived synonym for artist, people who describe themselves as an “artisan” are people who spend their time working on making necklaces out of recycled cans and “waiting to be discovered.” The older folks know exactly what we mean and you younger kids will hate them just as much when you have to pay taxes.
Here’s the insult we promised. Everyone who weighed in our WWE-like manufactured debate about LeBron versus five local high school players and said LeBron would win is just a silly goose.
Finally, it’s been called to our attention that just about every player on the Mohawk Regional basketball team can dunk. We obtained secret footage of the workout that made it possible. Check it out.
Stay gold.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
HUDSON HIGH VS. LEBRON. 5 on 1. WHO WINS?
A local high school team will get its shot at LeBron and nobody’s quite sure what will happen. We’ll explain later in this article. But, first a few observations about some basketball. The season is old enough now where we can safely say that there are no runaway favorites in any division.
Here’s a quick peripheral opinion of the races and how they may shape up as the season winds down. D1: The favorites: SJ, North, Fitchburg. The Team or Teams none of the favorites will feel very good about playing in an elimination game: Marlboro, Wachusett, South, Doherty. The deal: Can we please recognize that Fitchburg is also a basketball town? With no superstars, the Raiders do, in fact, play “a tough schedule.” That’s a fact. Because the Burg is sorta out of the way from Worcester and extensive media coverage, we don’t get to see their players “grow up” the way we do with players from the I-High and the Worcester privates. Because these guys weren’t grabbing headlines from a few good games as sophomores, doesn’t mean they can’t play.
D2: The favorite: Groton-Dunstable. Teams they might not want to play: St. B's (obviously) Tantasqua (obviously), any team from the Mid-Wach C, including but not limited to Hudson, Clinton, Oakmont, Lunenburg, or Grafton and Northbridge.
D3: Favorite: Sutton. Teams that have a shot to take down the Sammies: Whitinsville, Maynard, Nashoba Tech, WB.
Here’s the LeBron thing. Move over Greatest Baseball Player Ever, step aside “Will anybody ever drop 100 in an NBA game?” This debate took place during water breaks and puffs of inhalers at a local gym where about a dozen “former athletes” play pickup hoops. Scenario: Take any above-average local high school team as it stands right now. For this argument, let’s use Hudson High. Hudson leads by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter. The other team benches everyone and sends only LeBron onto the floor for the final 8 minutes. So, it’s Hudson High, with a 20-point lead against LeBron. Five on one. Who wins? Amazingly, 75 percent of the debaters said LeBron would win.
“He would just pull up and shoot a trey, which is like a free throw to an NBA guy.” “If he missed, he would just rebound until he scored.” “He would block every shot the high school team took.”
What do you think? Let us know at tom@cmassinsider.com.
Here’s a quick peripheral opinion of the races and how they may shape up as the season winds down. D1: The favorites: SJ, North, Fitchburg. The Team or Teams none of the favorites will feel very good about playing in an elimination game: Marlboro, Wachusett, South, Doherty. The deal: Can we please recognize that Fitchburg is also a basketball town? With no superstars, the Raiders do, in fact, play “a tough schedule.” That’s a fact. Because the Burg is sorta out of the way from Worcester and extensive media coverage, we don’t get to see their players “grow up” the way we do with players from the I-High and the Worcester privates. Because these guys weren’t grabbing headlines from a few good games as sophomores, doesn’t mean they can’t play.
D2: The favorite: Groton-Dunstable. Teams they might not want to play: St. B's (obviously) Tantasqua (obviously), any team from the Mid-Wach C, including but not limited to Hudson, Clinton, Oakmont, Lunenburg, or Grafton and Northbridge.
D3: Favorite: Sutton. Teams that have a shot to take down the Sammies: Whitinsville, Maynard, Nashoba Tech, WB.
Here’s the LeBron thing. Move over Greatest Baseball Player Ever, step aside “Will anybody ever drop 100 in an NBA game?” This debate took place during water breaks and puffs of inhalers at a local gym where about a dozen “former athletes” play pickup hoops. Scenario: Take any above-average local high school team as it stands right now. For this argument, let’s use Hudson High. Hudson leads by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter. The other team benches everyone and sends only LeBron onto the floor for the final 8 minutes. So, it’s Hudson High, with a 20-point lead against LeBron. Five on one. Who wins? Amazingly, 75 percent of the debaters said LeBron would win.
“He would just pull up and shoot a trey, which is like a free throw to an NBA guy.” “If he missed, he would just rebound until he scored.” “He would block every shot the high school team took.”
What do you think? Let us know at tom@cmassinsider.com.
Monday, January 12, 2009
GIRLS' HOCKEY CATCHING ON IN SHREWSBURY
SHREWSBURY – Diving feet first isn’t exactly the ideal position for any hockey player, let alone an entire team.
But, when Shrewsbury Athletic Director Jay Costa came back from a hockey meeting and announced to not-yet-officially-named coach Frank Panarelli that the Colonials start-up girls’ team was in business and in a league, the diving began.
“We had been talking about starting a team for a few years,” said Panarelli, who coaches the inaugural edition of the Colonials’ hockey team that includes a roster made up of seventh-twelfth graders. “With budgets being what they are in all schools, we had to be a self-sufficient program and raise all the money to start the team ourselves.”
A group of parents, led by Doug Ineson , got busy raising funds. An effort to recycle old appliances and computers raised close to $9,000 and each player kicked in an additional $500 to cover costs and the program was born.
“It’s really been great so far,” said Panarelli, who is joined on the bench by his son, Nick, and Paul Wood, who volunteer as assistants. “I was kind of expecting to show up at practice and see kids holding on to the boards to keep their balance while they skated, but that wasn’t the case. We have a lot of girls who have played hockey for a while, both on boys’ teams and on girls’ teams, and they’re very enthusiastic and coachable.”
The Colonials started out like many new teams – slowly - but rebounded after a pair of season-opening losses to reel off four straight wins. That’s thanks to some talented players, led by sophomore goalie Steph Folsom. Shrewsbury was also able to get a waiver that allows seventh and eight-graders to play, which came in very handy for Panarelli. Turns out his leading scorer is Samantha DiReda and she’s still in junior high. The Colonials also have some talent along the blue line in junior Julia Martin, a converted forward.
Shrewsbury is captained by Martin, Alyssa Ineson and Tess Parks. Then, there’s Monique Arsenault. The last name should be familiar to hockey fans, but they may have a tough time drawing the connection to Shrewsbury.
That’s because there isn’t one really. Arsenault, you see is from Maynard, and plays on the team via co-op agreement.
“It makes perfect sense geographically,” Panarelli said with a laugh. “Jay [Costa] told me there was a girl from Maynard interested in playing and I said, ‘Sure.’ I think the MIAA is really pushing to have girls’ ice hockey on Central Mass. become as big as it is in Eastern Mass., so they’re going out of their way to find chances for kids to play.”
Panarelli is no stranger to rebuilding or to making Shrewsbury hockey history, so taking on this challenge completed a hockey circle of sorts.
“I was on the first hockey team Shrewsbury High ever had [in 1981],” Panarelli explained. “My son, Nick, played in the school’s 500th game. It’s pretty cool because I scored a goal in the first game and he scored a goal in the 500th.”
The Colonials, who call the New England Sports Center home and practice about once per week, play a schedule composed predominately of Eastern Mass. teams but do face local competition in Algonquin, Gardner and the St. Peter-Marian-St. Bernard’s co-op.
But, when Shrewsbury Athletic Director Jay Costa came back from a hockey meeting and announced to not-yet-officially-named coach Frank Panarelli that the Colonials start-up girls’ team was in business and in a league, the diving began.
“We had been talking about starting a team for a few years,” said Panarelli, who coaches the inaugural edition of the Colonials’ hockey team that includes a roster made up of seventh-twelfth graders. “With budgets being what they are in all schools, we had to be a self-sufficient program and raise all the money to start the team ourselves.”
A group of parents, led by Doug Ineson , got busy raising funds. An effort to recycle old appliances and computers raised close to $9,000 and each player kicked in an additional $500 to cover costs and the program was born.
“It’s really been great so far,” said Panarelli, who is joined on the bench by his son, Nick, and Paul Wood, who volunteer as assistants. “I was kind of expecting to show up at practice and see kids holding on to the boards to keep their balance while they skated, but that wasn’t the case. We have a lot of girls who have played hockey for a while, both on boys’ teams and on girls’ teams, and they’re very enthusiastic and coachable.”
The Colonials started out like many new teams – slowly - but rebounded after a pair of season-opening losses to reel off four straight wins. That’s thanks to some talented players, led by sophomore goalie Steph Folsom. Shrewsbury was also able to get a waiver that allows seventh and eight-graders to play, which came in very handy for Panarelli. Turns out his leading scorer is Samantha DiReda and she’s still in junior high. The Colonials also have some talent along the blue line in junior Julia Martin, a converted forward.
Shrewsbury is captained by Martin, Alyssa Ineson and Tess Parks. Then, there’s Monique Arsenault. The last name should be familiar to hockey fans, but they may have a tough time drawing the connection to Shrewsbury.
That’s because there isn’t one really. Arsenault, you see is from Maynard, and plays on the team via co-op agreement.
“It makes perfect sense geographically,” Panarelli said with a laugh. “Jay [Costa] told me there was a girl from Maynard interested in playing and I said, ‘Sure.’ I think the MIAA is really pushing to have girls’ ice hockey on Central Mass. become as big as it is in Eastern Mass., so they’re going out of their way to find chances for kids to play.”
Panarelli is no stranger to rebuilding or to making Shrewsbury hockey history, so taking on this challenge completed a hockey circle of sorts.
“I was on the first hockey team Shrewsbury High ever had [in 1981],” Panarelli explained. “My son, Nick, played in the school’s 500th game. It’s pretty cool because I scored a goal in the first game and he scored a goal in the 500th.”
The Colonials, who call the New England Sports Center home and practice about once per week, play a schedule composed predominately of Eastern Mass. teams but do face local competition in Algonquin, Gardner and the St. Peter-Marian-St. Bernard’s co-op.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
BLOWOUTS A PLENTY, BC IRRELEVANT
Well, at least we’ve outlasted the 375-pound guy who vowed to make 2009 the year he finally gets to buy dress pants without elastics. Our resolution for 2009 was pretty simple: To be right about every opinion we have regarding the big stories in sports. So far, we have been. If you need proof, or if you weren’t really quite sure which you were leaning toward an issue – local or national – we’ve got you covered with the following entry. Here you’ll be educated about local high school hoops and college football. Click here for more.
Since there was more ice in the area over the few weeks than in all of the alleys of Lawrence combined, getting a handle on local hoops has been a little tough. Mostly, folks have been guessing. Educated guesses, mind you, but guessing nonetheless.
Here’s where us being right begins. This year there will not be a slew of repeats as far as Central championship winners go. We’ve seen a talented Tantasqua program come back to earth a bit, although they’ll be around in the end. A team we like now in D2 boys in Groton-Dunstable. If the postseason began now, they’d be our pick to win it all. The Crusaders have a chance to pull off the rare sweep in basketball championships, as we think their girls squad will be in the mix as well. Unfortunately, they’ll have to get through what we feel is the best girls team in the area period in Millbury.
In D3 boys the rust from the lack of gym time is starting to come off, so the contenders have emerged and it looks like Sutton and Maynard will get to know each other quite well in postseason tournaments. Do not count out West Boylston just yet.
Speaking of high school hoops, there’s been some pretty eye-catching scores popping up aside from some perceived upsets. How about teams pounding opponents so badly the losing club didn’t break double-digits? Yikes. This brings up another issue entirely and it’s one that we’ll rant about on the site very soon. The amount of blowouts seems to be a little steep this season. We’ll have to check our history books to see if anything like this has occurred before, but, it seems that on both the boys and girls sides, there is a huge gap between the good teams and those still searching for the winning formula.
Raise your hand if you care at all about Boston College. Just as we thought. The school’s football team is dead to the common sports fan in what is believed to be an area that is crazy about sports. This is because the school’s elitist attitude does not appeal to the regular guy. It’s that simple. Until the school decides it wants to sacrifice some of its “integrity” and lower admissions standards for athletes like BCS schools do, it will remain anonymous to those without a direct connection to the school (graduates, families of players). There’s nothing wrong with having academic standards, but it really can’t be both ways. We’re still trying to jog the memory a little bit, but we seem to recall some sort of story about the BC hoop team and academic standards a few years back that caused a slew of moral stances to be taken and minds to be changed.
Check back again later. We’ll try to do better next time.
Since there was more ice in the area over the few weeks than in all of the alleys of Lawrence combined, getting a handle on local hoops has been a little tough. Mostly, folks have been guessing. Educated guesses, mind you, but guessing nonetheless.
Here’s where us being right begins. This year there will not be a slew of repeats as far as Central championship winners go. We’ve seen a talented Tantasqua program come back to earth a bit, although they’ll be around in the end. A team we like now in D2 boys in Groton-Dunstable. If the postseason began now, they’d be our pick to win it all. The Crusaders have a chance to pull off the rare sweep in basketball championships, as we think their girls squad will be in the mix as well. Unfortunately, they’ll have to get through what we feel is the best girls team in the area period in Millbury.
In D3 boys the rust from the lack of gym time is starting to come off, so the contenders have emerged and it looks like Sutton and Maynard will get to know each other quite well in postseason tournaments. Do not count out West Boylston just yet.
Speaking of high school hoops, there’s been some pretty eye-catching scores popping up aside from some perceived upsets. How about teams pounding opponents so badly the losing club didn’t break double-digits? Yikes. This brings up another issue entirely and it’s one that we’ll rant about on the site very soon. The amount of blowouts seems to be a little steep this season. We’ll have to check our history books to see if anything like this has occurred before, but, it seems that on both the boys and girls sides, there is a huge gap between the good teams and those still searching for the winning formula.
Raise your hand if you care at all about Boston College. Just as we thought. The school’s football team is dead to the common sports fan in what is believed to be an area that is crazy about sports. This is because the school’s elitist attitude does not appeal to the regular guy. It’s that simple. Until the school decides it wants to sacrifice some of its “integrity” and lower admissions standards for athletes like BCS schools do, it will remain anonymous to those without a direct connection to the school (graduates, families of players). There’s nothing wrong with having academic standards, but it really can’t be both ways. We’re still trying to jog the memory a little bit, but we seem to recall some sort of story about the BC hoop team and academic standards a few years back that caused a slew of moral stances to be taken and minds to be changed.
Check back again later. We’ll try to do better next time.
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