Thursday, February 26, 2009

For The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 26, 2009 @ 01:32 AM

MILTON — With 2:23 left in the game Wednesday night, Milton’s Emanuel Hutchinson’s dunk brought the house down and seemingly brought Nauset to its knees in the first round game in the Division 2 South Sectional tournament.

“I had to get that one,” Hutchinson said after seventh-seeded Milton’s 67-58 victory against its 10th-seeded foe. “I told my family I’d get them one.”

Hutchinson, whose coach, Sean LoPresti, charged him with carrying the Wildcats after team leader and senior Marcus McDermott left with a leg injury earlier in the quarter, would have to wait a few minutes to make good on his promise.

He was called for traveling on the dunk, and Nauset (15-6) went on a 5-0 run, cutting the lead to 58-53 with 2:16 to play.

Fortunately for Milton (17-4), a hobbled McDermott had returned to thunderous applause and “M-V-P” chants about two minutes before Hutchinson’s negated slam.

McDermott quickly halted Nauset’s run with a jumper, his only field goal in the final quarter of a game-high 22-point performance.

Fortunately for the Hutchinson family, the junior had another chance at a game-clinching dunk after he stole the ball at half court with 1:30 left and went untouched to the hoop to put Milton up, 62-55.

More importantly, six of Hutchinson’s 14 points came in the fourth quarter when he was needed most.

“My coach told me ‘Marcus is down; you have to step up,’” said Hutchinson, who added 12 rebounds and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line in the second half.

“He said, ‘Get down low and rebound,’ and that’s what I did, and that’s how we got the outcome.”

The Wildcats also got a home game when No. 15 Academy of Public Service stunned No. 2 Duxbury, 77-66, Wednesday night. Milton will host the Academy (12-7) Friday at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals.

With Milton up, 48-44, with 6:02 left in the game, McDermott drove to the basket and landed hard on his right leg.

“All my weight landed on my calf, my calf cramped up like crazy, and I couldn’t move it,” said McDermott, who left the game for nearly two minutes.

“It stiffened up for five seconds. The trainer put ice on it and then it was fine. It’s still a little sore but it’s all good.

“It slowed me down a little, but my teammates were making plays so it worked out.”

The victory was also McDermott’s first non-preliminary playoff win since he joined the team after spending two years at Beaver Country Day.

Milton beat Duxbury, 71-68, in the preliminary round last year before losing to Nauset on the road in the first round of the tournament. The previous year the Wildcats lost to Franklin after beating Randolph in the preliminaries.

“It’s good to get out of the first round,” said McDermott, who hit four big 3-pointers in the first half to give Milton a 33-28 halftime edge and keep his team afloat.

Which is exactly what Hutchinson did when McDermott couldn’t.

“Manny’s a good player,” LoPresti said. “He was playing against bigger guys, which is not always easy to do, but when Manny wants to play he’s tough to defend. He’s very athletic.”

Milton also got a lift from senior Tim Potts’ 15 points.


Globe South High School Hockey

Lyons has second

chance to shine

Lackadaisical student says,


'I learned my lesson'





By Justin A. Rice
Globe Correspondent / February 26, 2009

Brittany Lyons only knows one speed: overdrive. Skating her first shift for the Winchendon School since suffering a broken fibula in the season opener in early December, Lyons found it difficult to control her emotions.

The former Canton High scoring machine was so excited, she slammed a foe into the boards after an end-to-end chase similar to the one that caused her own injury.

"I just pinched her too hard against the boards," Lyons recalled of the play, on the last weekend of January, in the Stanstead College Tournament in Quebec. "In the [penalty] box I was like 'Come on. The first shift back and I already got a penalty.' You want to score, you don't want to sit in the penalty box."

The center's self-admonition wasn't in her mind for long.

On her next and only other shift of the game, she scored. Lyons played one shift apiece in the next two games of the tournament but managed three more goals, the final two coming on the same shift in the last four minutes of a 7-2 victory against St. Louis Selects in the championship game.

In six games since her return, Lyons has six goals for Winchendon (20-5-3), keeping pace with the 286 goals she scored over four years at Canton High. But now she is also helping set up her teammates at the college preparatory/boarding school. In four seasons at Canton, she netted 36 assists. Since returning to the Winchendon lineup, she already has 10.

She credits that sharp uptick to a supporting cast recruited to play for Winchendon's first-year women's hockey program.

But as far as her on-ice fervor has taken Lyons, including earning a spot on the U19 US national women's team, her hockey-first attitude has also come at a high cost. Lyons's grades at Canton High were so poor that she failed to meet NCAA Clearing Houses requirements to play Division 1 athletics, forcing her to spend this year at Winchendon to improve her academic standing.

"I do regret skipping out on classes and not doing work, getting work done," Lyons says of her time at Canton High. "I did learn my lesson. Having to come here, missing out on going Division 1 right away, definitely it was a kick in the butt. I learned my lesson and hopefully I'll move on from here. [It was] a little late but better than never."

Lyons, who says she skated by with Cs and Ds at Canton, is now earning As and Bs, with the occasional C, and even made honor roll while running cross-country in the fall to get in better playing shape.

"This year is going to put me in the right direction and the right path to where I want to go," said the 18-year-old, who has Olympic dreams. "Public school wasn't the place for me, without rules and restrictions. Here it's work and then play. At Canton it was play before work, or no work."

Her father, Gene Lyons, said the structure and smaller class sizes at Winchendon are better for his daughter, who he said always turned down offers for extra help at Canton.

"The first day there she was looking out the window and a teacher said to her 'Brittany, look up here, not out the window.' I tell you, I really think it worked for her," the elder Lyons said.

More than anything, however, the injury was the bigger catalyst for Lyons to refocus her priorities.

"I don't want to get religious, but I believe God was letting her know 'You need to stop and smell the roses,' so to speak," said Dan McLean, the Canton girls' hockey coach. He took over the program a year after Lyons led the Bulldogs to a 20-0 record her sophomore year before losing in the Division 1 state championship game.

McLean said Lyons never liked missing ice time for a minor penalty, let alone a minor injury. And that's why her six-week rehabilitation, the longest period she's ever stayed away from the rink and lacrosse and soccer fields, was life-changing, according to Winchendon coach Mike Kennedy.

"When you take hockey out of a hockey player's life, they really have to rethink things," Kennedy said. "She had to start saying to herself 'What if I can't play hockey ever again? What will I do?' "

Had that turned out to be the case, Lyons's last stand would've come in the final period of the regular season opener against Cushing Academy on Dec. 5. With Winchendon trailing 2-1, Lyons had just returned from a shift at forward when Kennedy asked his captain to go back out and stalk the puck on both ends of the ice.

"I cut in going for the puck and was forced out by two defenders, lost an edge and went into the boards," Lyons said of the moment before crashing into the boards with only her left foot to brace her impact. "I tried to get up to skate back to the bench and couldn't even put any pressure on it at all."

Lyons returned to Canton to recover. By the fourth week of her rehab, she became so anxious to hit the ice she took to walking around the living room in skates. When those skates finally touched ice on Jan. 19, Lyons could hardly stand to put pressure on her leg.

"That very first practice I looked like a learn-to-skate kid," she says. "It hurt so bad putting a skate on."

In the end, however, all that pain turned out to be the kind that only made Lyons stronger.

"This year has been crazy, a lot of ups and downs," Lyons says, "but it's going to keep going up, I hope."


Globe North High School Hockey

A rookie survives

trial by fire

Rare freshman goalie at

the Prep helps squad land tourney berth

St. John's Prep freshman David Letarte takes a breather during practice as the varsity goalie.

St. John's Prep freshman David Letarte takes a breather during practice as the varsity goalie. (John Blanding/Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice
Globe Correspondent / February 26, 2009

David Letarte started this season as goalie for the St. John's Prep junior varsity, but a 2-0 shutout victory against St. John's High of Shrewsbury caught the eye of the Eagles' varsity coach, Kristian Hanson.

Hanson immediately bumped the freshman's status to varsity, and eventually the team dug itself out of an 0-3-1 start and inched its way into the postseason, starting with last night's matchup against Reading Memorial High, the defending Division 1A champion, in the first round of the Division 1 North sectional.

Despite making a turnaround in the unforgiving Catholic Conference, Hanson freely admits being unsettled about entering postseason play with a first-year player in net.

"It's pretty unusual to have a freshman goalie, especially at St. John's. I'm sure there's only been a freshman goalie a couple times in the program's history," said Hanson, now in his second season at the Danvers school after a successful run at Salem High. "Yeah, of course I worry, but I worry going into the playoffs anyway; it's a one-game elimination scenario."

The Eagles only learned the identity of last night's foe on Tuesday, leaving Letarte little time to study the scouting report. The Division 1 North and South pairings were finalized on Tuesday after the two play-in games for the 1A tournament were held Monday night. "I don't have a lot of knowledge about the teams we are playing but I know they'll be playing really hard," said the 15-year-old, who compiled a 5-3-6 record with a 1.80 goals-against average and a save rate topping 90 percent.

"I think I'll pretty much be all set because I have my whole team in front of me. Everybody gives me support and I think I'll be all right once the first game starts," Letarte said. "I'm a little nervous but I can't think about that, I have to think about how far we've come."

Finishing the regular season 7-6-7, St. John's was 0-2-1 when Letarte started his first varsity game, a 5-1 loss to Catholic Memorial, the second-ranked team in the Globe's Top 20. Then the Prep finally collected its first victory, 6-1, against Woburn, before skating to a 2-2 deadlock with Boston College High.

"That was the turning point in the season," Hanson said of the tie against a team that St. John's would later beat, 2-1, on the road. "The kids started to believe in one another and say, 'Maybe we can do this, maybe we can make the tournament.' It certainly wasn't easy; we had enough tough games between then and now," the coach said.

The team finally reached .500 on Jan. 17, after beating Bellows Free Academy in consecutive games. And for the second straight year, February was kind to the Eagles, who were 6-0 in the second month of 2008 before going 1-2 in round robin play in the Super 8 tournament.

And this month, the team is 3-1-2, including a 4-4 tie with top-ranked Malden Catholic, a 6-1 victory against St. John's High and a 5-3 win against Springfield Cathedral on Valentine's Day to clinch the playoffs. "So we've only had one loss in February the last two years," Hanson said.

Beyond graduating two goalies last year, Hanson's team also lost 13 position players. Of the 74 goals scored by St. John's last season, 60 came from seniors, including 24 by Christian Cowles. This season's leading scorer, Colin Blackwell (18 goals, 9 assists), only scored twice last year.

"A lot of the seniors last year took me under their wing and guided me," Blackwell said, while also crediting his current teammates for his success this winter. Senior Derek DuBois has chipped in with seven goals and three assists, and senior Justin Dirienzo has four goals with 10 assists.

While most teams starting out as roughly as the Eagles did might splinter, Blackwell said, they bonded in defeat. "We couldn't make excuses," he said. "We kind of put that behind us and just came together. That brought us together and built camaraderie. The team played a lot better after that stretch."

Going forward, Letarte said, he and his teammates can draw on the strength they gained from those dark days. "Everybody just lifted their heads and said, 'We have a long season ahead of us. We can't give up now because the season just started.' "

When Letarte started minding net around the age of 6 or 7, he recalled, he had to be persuaded to stick with it by several coaches. One of his coaches, ex-Bruin Barry Pederson, had talked him into playing net in the first place. It was only two games later when Letarte was asking to be let loose, saying he'd rather score goals. "No one else would go in, so I kept playing" as goalie, he said.

A few years later, when Letarte was in the Squirts division, his coach again had to talk him into staying in net, although Letarte was allowed to flee every now and then. Eventually he attended Bob Rotondo's Puckstoppers goaltending clinic in North Andover, and the position stuck.

"Everything turned around and I started loving goalie," said Letarte, now 6 feet tall and 165 pounds. "I was limber, I was able to stretch out and stuff. I think a lot of kids were afraid to go in net because you have pucks coming at you and you always get stingers."

Today, even Letarte finds it hard to believe he became a starting varsity goalie well before his 16th birthday (it's next month).

But then again, Letarte said, "No one thought we could come this far. No one thought we would even get into the playoffs."

Monday, February 23, 2009



Blue Hills goalie does

remarkable job in new position


scopa jl 022109-2.jpg
Jeff Loughlin/The Patriot Ledger
Although he is new to the position this season, goalie Dom Scopa of Braintree is leading Blue Hills into the Div. 3 South hockey tournament.

For The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 22, 2009 @ 07:42 PM
Last update Feb 23, 2009 @ 03:48 AM


CANTON — Vinnie DelVecchio knows how difficult it is to secure goaltenders for youth hockey teams.

“Most people don’t want to play goalie, it’s not a glorified position,” said DelVecchio, who as a coach of his daughter’s youth team has to rotate players alphabetically into the net each game.

“You look like a big pillow and people shoot pucks at you 80 miles per hour.”

But the former UMass-Boston goalie never imagined he’d be summoned to convert a high school defenseman into a netminder. That’s exactly what happened when DelVecchio’s brother, Rick DelVecchio, an assistant at Blue Hills Regional High School, asked him to work with junior Dom Scopa, who not only had never played goalie before this season but was cut from the team a few days before he was brought back to play in the net.

Scopa, who was used to having projectiles flying towards his facemask as a baseball catcher on the school’s junior varsity team, was just glad to be back on the team let alone become a functional goalie, which he became in leading Blue Hills to a tournament berth this season. The team (16-3) will play either Bourne or Attleboro Wednesday or Thursday night at Metropolis Rink in Canton.

After spending the entire offseason working out with a personal trainer in hopes of landing a spot on the Blue Hills varsity, Scopa was let go in the final round of cuts before being asked if he was willing to try his hand in net.

“I was upset,” the junior said. “I wanted to make the team a lot but what are you going to do? You don’t make it, you don’t make it. I was going to work harder and try to make it next year and then I had the option to play goalie and I took it.”

Blue Hills head coach Steve Woods only cut Scopa in the first place because the program was forced to cut its JV team after realizing there weren’t enough goalies for the younger team. He couldn’t afford to carry another defender on the varsity team who only has one more year of eligibility.

“To do the program justice, we had to be younger,” Woods said.

With 38 players trying out for one team, Woods was prepared to take 27 or 28 instead of his usual 22-member varsity squad.

“Of that 27 or 28, we figured there would be two or three goalies,” Woods said.

They figured wrong. Freshman transfer student, Pat Eklund, and sophomore Bill Byrd weren’t quite prepared for the starting job, Woods said. The coaches knew Scopa also played catcher so they dispatched their captain, Mike Riley, who was friendly with Scopa off the ice, to ask Scopa to try his hand in net. Scopa said yes, but there was a problem: had had no pads. They quickly borrowed equipment from last year’s goalie even though his is much smaller than Scopa’s 6-2, 240-pound frame.

“The equipment was a little short because of his size, but being a kid who wanted to play he made it work,” Woods said. “He figured at least for right now he’s part of the team. That was his main thing, being part of the team.”

Four days later, Scopa won his first varsity game against Bourne, 6-3, making more than 20 saves.

“At first I was nervous,” said Scopa, who boasts a 2.19 goals against average with 16 wins and two losses for Blue Hills.

“I didn’t want to be terrible. I knew I wasn’t going to be that great. I didn’t want to make it so the team would lose. I had to (start) one time or another so it was better sooner than never.”

Woods and his staff did their best to give Scopa pointers and keep an eye on him during practice, but Scopa didn’t really start to catch his stride until after DelVecchio came aboard. The new coach was immediately impressed by Scopa’s athleticism and size, saying he’s as big as an NHL goalie, but also said Scopa’s footwork needed work.

“One of the biggest aspects of playing goalie is angles and positioning,” DelVecchio said. “You can put anybody in there, but if their angles are off the whole net is open. Positioning and angles are a huge piece of it.

“For me I (tend goal) without thinking, but for someone who hasn’t done it they have to think about it every single time.”

At the same time, DelVecchio said it’s easier to coach Scopa because he’s a blank slate without bad habits.

Scopa said the biggest adjustments for him was skating with all the pads on and adjusting to goalie skates, which have a flatter blade so a goalie can skate with ease from one side of the crease to the other.

Scopa said playing catcher also helped with the transition because his legs are strong from squatting over the plate, he’s used to getting up and down off his knees and he’s handy with his glove. The biggest advantage is that he’s used to having projectiles flying at his face, which is exactly what keeps most youngsters from getting behind the plate or in net in the first place.

“Kids don’t want to see rubber pucks coming at their head,” Scopa said. “I play baseball so I’m used to baseballs coming at me.

MetroWest Daily News
Posted Feb 22, 2009 @ 10:33 PM

BOSTON -- It was hard to tell if the Wayland girls swim team was more excited to beat rival Lincoln-Sudbury's state record in the 200-yard freestyle relay yesterday morning or to win its fourth straight Division 2 state swimming and diving title.

"Winning a state title is a true testament to the team and how far they've come all year," Wayland coach Mike Foley said from the deck of Harvard's Blodgett Pool, a day after Wayland's boys accomplished the same feat, "but that relay is something they worked so hard for. It is just four girls that love to swim on that relay so I'm just so proud of their accomplishment, getting that little extra goal for our program today."

Last weekend at the North Sectional meet at MIT, Wayland lost in the same event to L-S by two-tenths of a second as its league foe set the state record (1:38.06). Yesterday, Wayland smashed that mark with a time of 1:37.02 on its way to scoring 308 points to take the team title, 114 more points than its nearest competitor, Weston.

Foley said he knew his relay team - consisting of junior Emily Wright, sophomore Emily Downs, sophomore Michelle Cunningham and senior Olivia Blahut - was well rested and had a chance to break the record.

But Blahut said the biggest X-factor was that there was no carrot to chase without L-S, which swam in the Division 1 meet yesterday afternoon in the same pool.

"The whole time we were nervous and just pretended we had someone ahead of us and we had to out-touch them," said Blahut, who also won the 200 freestyle in 1:57.46, ahead of Weston senior Shelby Friel (1:57.19).

Weston coach Claude Valle said Wayland breaking a state record without a formidable foe in the pool was an impressive accomplishment.

"It's tough, you have to be really self motivated," he said. "You have to race to win because you could easily back off when you're that far ahead. You have to keep pressing and pressing. That's what makes it so impressive to do that."

Wearing matching pink shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Flip that Crazy Switch" on the front and "Movin' & Grovin' All Winter Long," on the back, Weston once again played the bridesmaid yesterday. The team was second to Wayland for the fourth straight year. Valle, who took over Weston's program from Pete Foley - Mike's father - after serving as an assistant for 20 years, estimated that Weston also finished second at the meet the last 10 or 12 years as well.

"I was Mike's math teacher back in the day," the second-year head coach said. "We feel like when we get beat by Wayland we know we got beat by a quality team that does things the right way. That doesn't take anything away from what we've done this year. But they swam great today."

Valle credited his senior captains (Friel, Cale Potter and Turner Skenderian) for holding the team together after it graduated a formidable group of seniors last year.

"Those three girls made it happen," Valle said. "We graduated 12 section qualifiers from last year and those girls made it a mission for their team not to let our team fall off and they sure made it happen."

Besides her second-place 200 free finish, Friel was also third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 59.94. Potter scored three points in the backstroke and was on the fourth-place 400 freestyle relay team (3:45.97). Skenderian was sixth in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 25.54. She also anchored the 200 yard freestyle team (1:50.85) that finished second to Wayland (1:50.31) and kicked off the 200 free relay team (1:41.38) that finished second behind Wayland's record-setting time.

The first leg of that race was swum by Weston freshman Maddie Pierce.

"You could tell the whole time that ever since sectionals they were after Lincoln-Sudbury and wanted that record," said Pierce, who was also second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:14.25 and second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.53.

Pierce said Weston will surly reload to do battle again with Wayland.

"We're coming after them," she said. "We're getting a lot of great additions in the next couple of years and we're ready to go."

But nothing could've stopped Wayland yesterday as its also won the 400 freestyle relay in 1:09.98 and Kristen Hehir took home the diving title with a final score of 409.40.

"It just gets better and better every year, which is crazy because it gets harder every year and we outdo ourselves," said senior captain Leah Jacques, who got a personal best in the 100 freestyle (55.71, eighth place).

"To do it once is hard enough, four in a row is incredible," Blahut said. "The first time no one really looked at us to win. As the years went on the targets on our back has grown. We just try to keep in mind how hard we work. It's gone pretty well."

Saturday, February 21, 2009

For The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 20, 2009 @ 10:38 PM
Last update Feb 21, 2009 @ 12:30 AM

BOSTON — Before stepping off the podium at the Reggie Lewis Center Friday night, Hingham High School senior Danielle McNiff joined her sister, Shauna, on the highest perch, put her arm around her twin and posed for a photo.

After winning her third straight 1,000-meter state title at the Division 3 Indoor Track & Field Championships, Shauna is no stranger to the podium. But the senior is not as accustomed to being joined by her sister, who qualified for next Saturday’s All-State meet for the first time by finishing fourth.

“I knew she had it in her, but it was a dream of mine to be up there with her, sort of a sister legacy,” Danielle said after clocking a time of 3:05.72.

Shauna – who won in 3:01.81 to help Hingham edge Hopkinton for the team title, 50-47 – was glad to share the spotlight with her sister.

“It was really nice to have her with me on the podium,” said Shauna, who is also a cross country and outdoor track star. “I get more attention than her sometimes, so it’s good to have her with me.”

It wasn’t the last time the McNiff sisters shared the podium. They stood at the top again after helping Hingham break the meet record it set last year (9:43.06) in the 4x800-meter relay, clocking a 9:41.46.

“Two seniors ran this last year,” said Danielle, who ran the second leg.

“Kathleen (O’Neil) and I are the newbies, and there was a lot of pressure to perform well.”

The title marked the 10th straight time Hingham’s 4x800 team won a championship in indoor or outdoor track.

“We’re excited to hit 10, but we’re pumped for two more titles. (We have) high hopes,” senior Mackenzie Lussier said of shooting for 4x800 titles at the upcoming All-State and New England meets, also held at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Hingham, which won its sixth straight Patriot League title this year, also got a boost Friday night from its 4x200 relay team’s victory in 1:46.95. Junior Molly O’Dea won the 55 hurdles in 7.34 seconds, and senior Julia Mirochnick was third in the 55 hurdles in 8.93.

Canton also performed well in the relays, finishing fifth in the 4x800 with a time of 1:54.08.

Other Ledgerland qualifiers for All-States included Duxbury sophomore Julia Nee (fourth in the 300 dash with a time of 42.72) and Milton’s Cheryl Tran, who was third in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 2 inches.

Milton junior Emily Hughes finished fifth in the mile with a time of 5:22.03.

Senior Starr Nathan of Randolph was second in the 600 with a time of 1:36.61. Nathan was also fourth in the long jump (16-11) as her team finished tied for seventh place with 18 points.

Randolph coach Bob Pillarella said Nathan has been going back and forth between the 300 and 600 all season but started to focus on the 600 a few weeks ago.

“She felt strong in the 600 event,” he said. “That’s the one she’s going after now.”

Randolph’s Ashlee Pitts was third in the 55 with a time of 7.47. Canton’s Sam Smith placed fourth in the 55 in 7.56.

For The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 20, 2009 @ 10:34 PM
Last update Feb 21, 2009 @ 12:31 AM

BOSTON — Paul Connor only abandoned the 300 meters for the 600 meters five weeks ago, mainly to gear up for this spring’s outdoor track season.

But last year’s 400-meter All-State outdoor champ from Milton High School never dreamed he’d win this year’s 600 title at the Division 3 Indoor Track & Field Championships.

“The first time I did the 600, I ran a 1:30 and I thought it was good, but my coach was like ‘Yeah, it’s good, but you can get faster,’ ” Connor said Friday, after coming off the podium at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Connor, whose winning time was 1:24.04, said when he started running the 600 he’d simply draft behind the pack before overtaking the leaders.

“(Friday) was different, because I was four seconds ahead of everybody, so I couldn’t follow,” he said.

Connor said he finally felt comfortable in his new event two weeks ago at the Bay State Conference meet, when he ran his fastest time of year – 1:23.31.

“I’m trying to get 1:22. (Coach Chuck Ajemian) wants me down to 1:20 but I don’t know if I can do it,” Connor said. “I just need someone to run with (at All-States).

“If I have someone to follow I can beat him.”

But Ajemian didn’t know if Connor will be in the fast heat at next Saturday’s All-States (also at the Reggie Lewis Center), a placement he said will be crucial for Connor to have a chance at the title.

“He’s not fast enough in the 300; he’s really a 400 runner,” Ajemian said. “The idea was to get him ready for outdoor and the best shot was to use the 600 to train for the 400. He couldn’t win a state title in the 300, but I think he can win in the 600. It will be tough now, if he’s not in the seeded heat.”

Milton senior Shad Sommers also qualified for All-States by finishing fifth in the shot put, with a toss of 47-04.75.

Connor wasn’t as successful in the 4x200 relay (Milton finished 11th, in 1:37.09), but other teams from Ledgerland fared well: Hingham finished fourth (1:35.78), Randolph placed fifth (1:36.11) and Canton was sixth (1:36.35).

Randolph finished second in the 4x400 relay (3:28.47 – a time that broke the previous meet record), while Hingham ran second in the 4x800 (8:30.97).

Other local All-State qualifiers included Randolph senior Jean Emanuel (third in the 300; 36.45), and Hingham junior Dana Lindberg (third in the 55; 6.64). Lindberg was also fifth in the long jump (20-04).

Sixth-place finishers were Duxbury’s Jonathan McKinley (4:37.68 in the mile), Canton’s Michael Bates (6-0 in the high jump).

Monday, February 16, 2009

Canton

Reebok sits tight amid turmoil

Some from UK to be offered local jobs

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / February 15, 2009

In a worldwide economic storm, Reebok International's headquarters in Canton is clearly feeling the turbulence.

Jobs in this country and overseas are being eliminated or moved, and the net effect on Canton, where Reebok is the largest employer, is still being calculated.

"As we said way back, we are restructuring our business in Europe and elsewhere," said Reebok spokeswoman Josie Stevens. "We're certainly not packing up shop and going home. At the same time . . . we're going to continue investing in key areas of the business."

Overall, the shoe and apparel maker has announced the elimination of 300 jobs worldwide. Most of the casualties are in sales and marketing departments, with about 100 layoffs at the Canton campus on Foster Street, and another dozen at the headwear-manufacturing division in Mattapoisett.

Last month, the company also announced it will close offices at the Reebok Stadium in the British town of Bolton, cutting 160 jobs and a 116-year association with the town.

Some Reebok employees formerly based in Europe are likely to be relocated to Canton as Reebok continues a "joint operating model" with its parent company, Adidas AG.

About 55 Bolton employees will be offered posts at the Adidas UK headquarters in Stockport, Stevens said, but Bolton's 105-member product-creation team will be consolidated with the apparel and production departments already located in Canton.

"It makes sense to relocate the rest of apparel, footwear, and product creation teams here so everything is based here," said Stevens, who noted that there are currently 10 job openings in Canton. "We're bringing them back here to join the family. We're basically bringing those teams together."

Stevens said it's unclear how many of the 105 employees will move to Canton, because UK employment laws require a negotiation process with each employee that can last as long as 90 days.

"The truth is it's a difficult message to mix when you're laying off people, but with restructuring comes opportunity to revisit and relocate people," said Stevens.

She added that the company - which brought more tax revenue ($830,000) to Canton than any other single entity in the fiscal year that ended June 30 - is more committed to the town than ever, even though plans to expand the campus have been put off indefinitely.

John J. Connolly, chairman of Canton's Board of Selectmen, expressed concern about the job cuts, but welcomed the opportunities for Canton.

"If people have to be relocated, I'd rather have them relocated to Canton than Oshkosh or another city," he said. "I don't want to look at it that way, but I have to look at reality; we'll welcome them with open arms in Canton, absolutely."

Named after an African gazelle, Reebok was established in 1958 by grandsons of Joseph William Foster, who made the first known spiked running shoe in the 1890s in Bolton. In 1979, Brockton native Paul Fireman bought the distribution rights for North America. The company established headquarters in Avon, then moved to Stoughton in 1990 and Canton in 2000. The Canton facility was expanded six years ago, and today, Reebok is the town's largest employer, with about 1,100 workers.

The company, which employs 8,500 people worldwide, has been active in local charities, even in these tough economic times, said Connolly and Paul Hannigan, executive director of the Canton Association of Industries.

The Canton Reebok Homecoming Road Race has raised money for town services and schools for the last four years.

Among its activities, Reebok has provided scholarships, contributed to the Fire and Police departments, and each year outfits one Canton High School athletic team with new uniforms.

"Since they've been here, I've never known Reebok to say 'no,' " said Connolly.

Stevens did not have statistics on how many Canton residents work at the headquarters, but said most live 30 to 60 miles away.

Speculating on which employees will relocate to Massachusetts, Stevens, who hails from England, said: "There's going to be some people that don't want to come. Why? I can't imagine why. I love it."

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Mayhem reigns as

Avon/Holbrook skates

past Rockland in chippy affair




Marc Vasconcellos/The Enterprise
Avon/Holbrook's Ronald Murray attempts to keep the puck in Rockland's end of the ice as he's pursued by Brian Nicholson during the Panthers' 7-5 victory on Wednesday night.

Enterprise Correspondent
Posted Feb 11, 2009 @ 10:54 PM
Last update Feb 12, 2009 @ 01:06 AM

ROCKLAND — It’s a small wonder the official scorer of a chippy contest last night between Avon-Holbrook and Rockland didn’t have a crippling hand cramp at the end of the 6-5 victory for A-H. After the dust cleared, the gentleman who signed the score sheet, B.E. Stowell, and wore “Rockland Ice Rink” embroidered on his black jacket not only had to account for the 11 goals, but also used all 13 rows allotted for the home team’s penalties while only leaving five blank in the visitor’s column.

But in the game’s final minutes, it was especially unclear how many players should’ve been on the ice for each side at certain moments as 10 players were disciplined in the final three minutes. An A-H assistant coach and a Rockland player were also ejected with 1:48 to play.

“Mayhem,” was the word A-H head coach Adam Levesque used to describe the end of the game before adding, “(It was) undisciplined hockey on both sides. That had been brewing all game. It was brewing all game and it got out of control at the end.”

Rockland coach Mike Flaherty said it was not one of his team’s better nights.

“I don’t think (the referee) properly explained who was coming in and who was not, but that’s something we have to know what’s going on,” Flaherty said. “We need to be more disciplined than that. Usually we don’t take a lot of penalties. For some reason tonight we didn’t want to play disciplined.”

But as badly behaved as the players on both teams were on Wednesday night, they collaborated for an equal-and-opposite offensive reaction on the scoreboard — including hat tricks by Liam Coyle of Avon and John Mulready of Rockland.

After A-H took a 3-1 lead into the second period, thanks to two Liam Coyle goals and another by his brother, Connor, Rockland tied the game with 10:05 to play in the second period after Mulready scored his second goal within two minutes. Liam Coyle responded 31 seconds later with his final goal before Rockland junior forward Zach Meshau tied the game at 4-4 with 3:35 left in the second period.

But A-H (11-5-2) reclaimed the lead and added to it when Pat Riordan scored with 24 seconds left in the second and his teammate, J.J. Gallagher, scored 12 seconds later.

“We fell behind and tried to keep up,” said Mulready, a freshman forward who stole the show on Rockland’s senior night. “We got back in it but let it slip away.”

And while all the traded goals made it seem as if the two teams were stealing a page from Monday night’s Boston University-Northeastern Beanpot final, Muldready said Rockland missed BU’s 5-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden.

“We had a game that night, we all missed it,” he said.

The Bulldogs (10-5-2) also had a game the night before the Beanpot, a 4-4 tie against Nashoba Regional that nevertheless clinched Rockland’s first playoff berth in five years.

“We’re very proud of that,” Flaherty said.

But Flaherty wasn’t proud of his players on Wednesday night.

“They know better,” Flaherty said. “The rule in hockey is if someone does something to you, don’t react because the refs are looking for that. My guys know that, but for whatever reason they didn’t stick to it.”

After things settled down in the final moments, Mesheau scored the game’s final point on a wrap-around goal with 53 seconds remaining.

A-H’s open-netter at the buzzer wasn’t counted on the score sheet.

“That’s the way it’s been all year,” Flaherty said. “We get down by a couple and get right back in there. We couldn’t climb all the way over the hill tonight.”



Friday, February 6, 2009

Enterprise Correspondent
Posted Feb 06, 2009 @ 08:48 PM

BROCKTON — A couple hours before headlining the Brockton Rox’ seventh annual Hot Stove Banquet on Friday, former Red Sox relief pitcher Lee Smith was handed a miniature batting helmet to sign. The helmet already had Jim Rice’s autograph scrawled across the plastic brim.

“Man, he’s taking up all the room,” Smith said, lamenting Rice, who spoke at the Rox’ offseason fundraiser last year and was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his 15th and final year of eligibility.

For his own part, Smith, whose 478 career saves place him third all-time in Major League Baseball, has been on the Hall ballet the past five years, but to no avail.

“They told me (Jonathan) Papelbon spoke the year before (Rice), but the one guy I was concerned with was Jim Rice, hoping I could follow that same path,” said Smith, 51, who has been the San Francisco Giants’ roving pitching instructor since two years after he retired in 1998.

“Maybe the Rox will be a good luck charm for me, too, with — maybe — an induction to the Hall.

“Jimmy was on there for 15 years and his stats didn’t get any better. With baseball it’s more of a prestige thing. Like you gotta pay your dues. Like you have to do in the minors. I’m not bitter about it. I’m just glad to get enough votes to stay on the ballet because there’s a lot of guys I played with who I thought were really good players that are not on the ballet anymore.”

Smith, who was scouted by Negro Leagues legend Buck O’Neil and drafted by the Cubs in 1975, almost didn’t stick around the minors long enough to pay his dues — in baseball, that is.

“(Basketball) was my first love,” Smith said when informed a huge high school game was being played across the parking lot from Campanelli Stadium between Brockton and Durfee. “But my fastball was better than my jump shot.”

Despite his 6-foot-6 frame, the Shreveport, La., native played shooting guard for three years at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., before giving baseball one more shot.

Smith said he originally quit the sport after being moved to the bullpen.

“(Cubs Hall of Famer) Billy Williams gave me a nice talking to about giving this baseball thing another chance,” Smith said. “I can’t say I don’t reckon what he said to me.”

As it turns out, once Smith got to “The Show,” he not only spent his entire career pitching out of the bullpen, but he recorded the game’s final out more times than any other pitcher in history. He finished 802 games in 18 seasons and pitched for eight different teams, including a three-year stint with the Red Sox from 1988-1990.

While in Boston, Smith met his wife, Cheryl, who was attending Boston College. The couple, who now reside in Shreveport, lived in Quincy for two years and have five children ranging in age from 21 to 5-year-old twins.

It was Cheryl who convinced her husband to take the job as the pitching instructor for South Africa’s 2006 World Baseball Classic team after debunking his misconceptions about the country being in the Serengeti jungle.

“I was like, they don’t play baseball in South Africa,” Smith said before adding that once he got there he was impressed by a few cricket bowlers. “I saw a couple guys I’d like to get on the mound.”

Playing without a single MLB player, South Africa gave Canada a scare before finishing 0-3 in the 2006 Classic. Smith said his team will feature a handful of pro players this year.

Smith also coaches in the annual European Baseball Academy for Major League Baseball International in Tirrenia, Italy, which provides instruction to young players from Europe and Africa.

“It means a lot,” Smith said of being an ambassador for the game abroad. “I’ve gotten a lot more publicity through that than my actual playing days, because when I played they didn’t have all those things.”

Smith headlined Friday night’s event at the the Shaw’s Center, which also included former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, baseball promotions trailblazer Mike Veeck, and Rox new manager Chris Carminucci.

And even though Smith, like Rice, now has the luck of the Rox on his side, don’t expect the self-described “Southern boy’’ to hold his breath when Hall of Fame induction season rolls around again this year.

“My first couple years I used to stay around the television and see if I was gonna make it,” Smith said. “Now, I set up a fishing trip.”

Franklin 4, Westwood 0:

Century mark for Porter


MetroWest Daily News
Posted Feb 05, 2009 @ 11:58 PM


MetroWest Daily News
Posted Feb 05, 2009 @ 11:58 PM


CANTON — With 44 seconds left in the opening period of yesterday's Franklin girls hockey game at the Metropolis Rink, a shy 10-year-old girl wearing a pink hooded fleece and matching gloves pulled a poster board from a garbage bag and raised it above her head.

The powder blue poster read: 100/SNIPE/PORTER.

"We had to keep it hidden just in case," said Roberta Porter after watching her older daughter, Rachel, score her 100th career goal for the Panthers, thereby allowing younger daughter Shannon to break out the sign.

"It's a relief," Roberta added. "Now we can go the rest of the season knowing she's made the goal."

Rachel Porter reached the milestone early in the 4-0 victory against Westwood after taking a pass from senior Melissa Coughlin while standing directly between the circles in front of the goal.

The senior captain made two lateral moves before flipping the puck past Wolverines goalie Janice Michaud into the top right corner.

And even though she was swarmed by her teammates, Porter managed to see her sister's sign.

"I came home yesterday and there was a poster but it didn't have anything on it, I didn't know what it was for," said Porter, who had a hat trick yesterday in becoming the first Panther ever to reach 100 goals. "She whipped it out of nowhere. (The support) is pretty insane. We don't have as much support as the guys' team and it really means a lot. They were loud, I heard them."

In the second period, Porter and Coughlin traded places as Porter provided the assist on Coughlin's goal at the 12:31 mark.

Porter, who came into the season with 76 goals, scored twice against Boston Latin on Sunday to bring her total to 99. She has at least one point in every game this winter except one - the Panthers' 1-0 loss in their previous meeting against Westwood.

"That was the beginning of the season, we've struggled all year," Westwood coach Andrea Boudreau said. "The puck went in the net for her tonight and it didn't the last time we played. I think Rachel's a great player. She plays well all the time. I'm sure she had extra motivation to go out and get her 100th goal and once she got it, it gave her more confidence to keep going."

Porter scored at the 10:32 mark of the final period before striking again 28 seconds later, with both goals coming off Coughlin assists. All those points brought Rachel's total to 26 goals and 10 assists on the season, despite the fact that she joked with her coach - Margie Burke - that she was waiting to score her 100th goal on home ice.

"We weren't going to put up with that," said Burke, whose team improved to 7-5-1 (6-5-1 SEMGHL). "We needed the two points too bad to get into the tournament. We still need four more points and we have six games left."

The other star of the night was Franklin sophomore goalie Kailyn Burke, who earned her first shutout of the season with a 23-save effort.

While Burke said it's not unusual for a player of Porter's caliber to average 25 goals a year, the coach said Porter didn't come close to that mark her freshman year and has more than made up for it since then. "She has (come a long way)," Roberta Porter said. "She started playing when she was five, that's a lot of early mornings at the rink."

Porter's mom was also happy her older daughter got her 100th goal so Shannon didn't have to smuggle the poster marking the occasion out of the rink.

"Fortunately we didn't have to do that," Roberta said.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Barry Almeida of

Longmeadow hopes

to lead Boston College

to Beanpot and NCAA title glory

Sunday February 01, 2009, 6:24 PM

By JUSTIN A. RICE

CHESTNUT HILL - Preparing to play a game for the Omaha Lancers last spring, Barry Almeida Jr. of Springfield got word that the latest NCAA Frozen Four champion was Boston College, a team he committed to play for in 2006 during his junior year at Longmeadow High School.

To this day Almeida doesn't let onto the bitter sweetness of hearing the team he was supposed to be playing with won it all.

"It was unbelievable when I heard they won, I was so happy because two years before that they made it to the finals and probably should've won a national championship," said Almeida, now a 20-year-old freshman forward at BC.

A freak eye injury forced Almeida to sit out half a season and spend another season and a half in the United States Hockey League. "You can't really control that, but it's just an honor to come to BC. After they won, we were No.1 in the country, so it was awesome coming in on top."

Barry Almeida Sr., a corrections officer for the Hampden County Sheriff's Department and avid hockey player himself, said the Eagles' championship was harder on his son than most people realize.

"He was supposed to be on the 2007 team, in a way he was happy to see them win, but he was supposed to be on that team," said the elder Almeida, who skated for Ludlow High School in the late 1970s.

Things have a way of evening out, and the younger Almeida, who says a piece of glass cut his retina after a bottle suddenly exploded during a bonfire, not only won a championship of his own last season in the USHL, he scored the winning goal in overtime to take home the Clark Cup. After netting three previous playoff goals, the Game 5 backhander broke the southpaw's scoring slump.

"It was pretty special, I got the opportunity to play with some great players out there," said Almeida, who's had several surgeries on his left eye. "I wasn't having the best playoffs, and I talked to my coach (the game before), and luckily I was able to pull through for my team."

But while Almeida's hockey future hung in the balance after the injury, he never feared losing his scholarship to Boston College and says his eye, which was bloodshot during an interview, no longer causes him problems.

"Coach (Jerry) York and the coaches here were very good to me, and they honored (my scholarship)," said Almeida, who has collected five goals and six assists through 22 games for the No. 14 Eagles this season. "They said even if I couldn't play hockey again I could still come to Boston College, which is unbelievable to hear when you're down."

The elder Almeida said Chicago, which picked his son No. 7 overall in the USHL draft, hounded him to play before doctors cleared his son for action. After the elder Almeida made it clear his son couldn't play, Chicago released him on waivers, and Omaha immediately signed Almeida, who joined the team for the second half of the season. Almeida said he would have returned earlier if his parents let him, but acknowledged everything worked out for the best because he joined BC more prepared than he otherwise would have been.

"That probably made him hungrier," the elder Almeida said. "He just wanted to get out there and start playing again."

After the injury, he also played for the U.S. Junior Select Team that captured the bronze medal in the 2007 World Junior A Challenge in British Columbia. In 2005, he competed for a U.S. Select Team that traveled to the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the Under-18 Junior World Cup.

But the Frozen Four has still eluded Almeida.

"That's all I want to do is win another one," he said. "We have a really good team with great players, great guys. So I think it's very possible, and that's the ultimate goal."

Winning in the Beanpot tonight against Northeastern University at 8 and again Feb. 14 at TD Banknorth Garden is another huge goal for Almeida and the Eagles. Almeida was able to watch last winter's annual tournament between BC, Boston University, Northeastern and Harvard thanks to a teammate with a satellite dish, which also allowed him to stay tuned to the Red Sox season. While Almeida grew up watching BC in the Beanpot, he wasn't surprised to find his Omaha teammates from all over the continent also had an appreciation for the legendary tournament.

"Everyone involved in hockey has an understanding of the Beanpot," he said with the amendment that the Beanpot still wasn't in their blood. "If they didn't know they had an idea of what it is. It was pretty cool. They didn't grow up with it; Massachusetts people have more of an understanding of what it means."

Sunday, February 1, 2009

It's a lonely job

for TV repairmen as well

At Philip's TV in Brookline, owner Allen MacPherson (left) visits with Herb Pratt, who had to close his JP repair shop.
At Philip's TV in Brookline, owner Allen MacPherson (left) visits with Herb Pratt,
who had to close his JP repair shop. (George Rizer/Globe Staff)


By Justin A. Rice
Globe Correspondent / February 1, 2009

Surrounded by new high-definition and liquid-crystal-display televisions at Philip's TV & Computer in Brookline, TV repairmen Herb Pratt and Allen "Red" MacPherson remain throwbacks to another era.

As American consumers switch to hard-to-fix flat-panel TVs, demand for repair shops like Philip's is fading. A third of US households now have at least one high-definition television, double the percentage that had an HDTV set two years ago, according to research by the Leichtman Research Group.

"The new phonebook got delivered today and I just looked at it," said Pratt, whose Jamaica Plain repair shop, Herb's TV, went out of business last August after 40 years on South Street. "There's very few [TV repair shops] left."

Outliving and outlasting their peers is nothing new for Pratt, 81, and MacPherson, 78, who have long been friends even though they are former competitors. Pratt, who has kept up his TV repair license, stops by Philip's every now and then to hang out.

"Nobody in their right mind gets into this business anymore," said MacPherson, who has owned Philip's TV for 50 years. "TVs are getting cheaper and cheaper and people are less and less likely to repair them. They're almost becoming disposable."

And more and more of the analog sets that were MacPherson and Pratt's bread and butter for many years will undoubtedly end up on the junk heap after the transition to digital broadcasting. The government has mandated that, as of Feb. 17, broadcasters must switch from analog to digital broadcasts to free up more room in the wireless spectrum for public safety communications.

With roughly 6.5 million US households relying on analog sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals, according to The Nielsen Co., the Obama administration had lobbied Congress to extend the deadline for the transition to digital broadcasts. But though the US Senate approved a four-month delay on Monday, the House rejected it, leaving the Feb. 17 deadline intact. As of that date, TVs with analog tuners that are not hooked up to satellite or cable will need a converter box to receive broadcasts.

The industry has come a long way since 1948, the year Pratt got into the business, just as televisions really began to sell after the war. Then, the sets had 10- or 12-inch screens, weighed about 100 pounds, and sat in wooden cabinets and steel chassis.

"Anyone with a little radio experience, they'd be put to work installing TVs," said Pratt, who repaired radios during World War II when the government prohibited the sale of new ones.

Today, according to Chuck Borstel of the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure, just 14 people are licensed to do television and radio repair in Suffolk County, 11 of them in Boston. Only a few TV repair shops remain in the city, among them the South End's Hite Radio & Television Co., which has operated on Washington Street for about 70 years, and Vinh's TV Repair in Dorchester, which has hung around for 22 years. Pratt estimates that three or four more existed 10 years ago when TVs first started becoming cheaper to replace than repair, and another 10 operated in the city two decades ago.

While Borstel said he believes there is a viable market for home theater installation these days, Pratt said it is impossible to earn a living fixing flat-panel TVs alone, because their circuit boards can't easily be repaired like those in older TVs. They often need to be replaced at a cost of $400 to $500, not including labor.

"Even big stores say 'this will cost too much to fix, but come on down and buy a new one,' " said Pratt.

Dave Hayes, 66, of Holbrook, came on down to Philip's TV recently when he couldn't find a 9-inch television/VCR online. He bought a used set from MacPherson for $129 and says he'll use it to record programs only.

"I'll watch it on a 42-inch plasma; I'm not completely in the Stone Age," Hayes said.

MacPherson, who also sells new flat-screen TVs, says he is hanging on by doing computer repairs and consulting. He also sells air conditioners in the summer, and he is doing a decent business selling and installing the converter boxes that allow analog TVs to be used after the transition to digital broadcasting.

Before closing his store, Pratt decided that selling the converter boxes was more hassle than it was worth.

"Now and then I stop in and say hello [to MacPherson] and the phone will ring three times in five minutes and it's someone with a converter box [problem]," Pratt said.

Currently there is a waiting list for the $40 government-issued coupons consumers can put toward the $60 boxes because the $1.34 billion program is already over budget. MacPherson said the boxes, which bring him about $15 profit per unit, are a labor-intensive sale because of all the misinformation surrounding them. He has sold about 75 boxes the last few months, and says he provides support that Best Buy or Radio Shack does not.

"Brookline has a senior population and they need tender loving care, and that's why we're still here," said MacPherson.