Sports squawk

- The crowds seem to get bigger by the week at the Boys and Girls Club. Wednesday night's St. Joe's-Wahconah nightcap featured the loudest Hennessy League crowd I've heard this season. The Crusader faithful heaped the praise on goalie Andrew Leitch in the third period, with chants of "He's a freshman" and "He's our hero." The latter is a new one; the former is usually less than complimentary when coming from upperclassmen.

- Of course, Leitch earned the praise from his classmates with his third-period glove work Wednesday night. Wahconah has one of the toughest offenses in the league, and it threw everything it had at the St. Joe's net in the third period. Leitch was up for the challenge - and so was the Crusader offense, finding ways to give its goalie some breathing room late.

- By comparison, Taconic's win over Mount Everett was so slowed by penalties that it made St. Joe's-Wahconah feel like a 4-on-4 game.

- Just a quick reminder that Wahconah's girls basketball boosters will dedicate their program to late coach "Boog" Powell at Thursday night's girls basketball game against Monument Mountain. I'm told by Wahconah softball coach/expert hockey scoreboard operator Ken Pease that Spartan coach Tom Kinne, a good friend of Powell's, will speak during the ceremony.

-M.S.

Posted by Matthew Sprague at 3:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got to my first hockey game of the season tonight - St. Joe's 7-3 win over Wahconah at the Boys and Girls Club.

There was a decent crowd at the game, including a lot of students. The fans were into it, too - even getting worked up on simple glove saves.

In honor of the new season, here's a favorite song of mine from the late Warren Zevon, whose talents are appreciated by at least two Eagle sports staffers.

The song is called "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)." The lyrics were written by noted sports columnist/author Mitch Albom. If you listen to the song, you may recognize the guy yelling "Hit somebody!" in the chorus. (In case you don't listen to it, I'll just reveal his identity: David Letterman.)

The song is so good, director Kevin Smith ("Clerks," "Mallrats," etc.) - a big hockey fan himself - wants to make it into a movie.

Anyway, here's the song, from Zevon's 2002 album "My Ride's Here."

- Matthew Sprague, Eagle sports editor

Posted by Matthew Sprague at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of tidbits:

- Ashley Raftery's solid service was no surprise to Lee volleyball coach John Warner after Wednesday night's three-set sweep at Monument Mountain.
She's had that kind of success since the start of the season.
"Her serve percentage is somewhere between 83 and 85 percent serve-in," the coach said. "Phenomenal serve percentage. She didn't miss a serve the first three matches of the season. She has been ... very reliable. She's got depth on her serve, it's got penetration, it's a biting serve. It's one of the effective weapons we have."

- Despite staying unbeaten, Warner still sees room for improvement.
"We need to hone our blocking," he said. "As we head forth into the postseason, the offenses become much more potent. We need to establish a double block on some of the more potent hitters, and the middle block is a little late. As we progress, the speed of the hitters becomes that much faster."

- Piazzo said he wouldn't trade his current Monument team -- which has already qualified for Western Mass. tournament play -- for any other team playing right now.
"I'm very, very comfortable with this team," he said. "I really like these girls. I can't imagine them being any more tenacious. We need to work on a couple things. I'd like to find our team's Michael Jordan -- the person who can score those final points at the end of the game to put it away. That's our goal between now and the end of the season."

- In the middle of a hotly contested set, Piazzo wasn't above a little comedy. In between points, a couple of Monument players were slipping on a spot in the front row. Piazzo, who was out on the court to talk to his players during a stoppage of play, did his best to fake a slip on the spot before drying it with towels himself. That brought a decent ovation from the Monument fans in attendance.

- The Thunderstix craze apparently isn't limited to Los Angeles Angels fans (though it'd be just fine, frankly, if it was). A couple of Spartan students figured out halfway through the match that a couple of empty Mountain Dew bottles can serve as a substitute for the noisemaking props when you bang them together.

- Matthew Sprague, Eagle sports editor

Posted by Sports Reporter at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it hasn't happened quite as often as I wanted, but we're getting the Eagle's new stat service going this season far better than any other year so far. I've been keeping tabs on girls' soccer and golf leaders and here's how we stand through last Thursday's games.

In soccer, players from the top two teams are also dueling on the top of the goals list. Wahconah's Darcey Sullivan is on top of the girls' soccer goals list, and she'll only grow her lead after her electric performance on Friday night in Wahconah's first game since the passing of girls soccer coach/girls' basketball coach/athletic director/youth sports leader Robert "Boog" Powell. McCann, by virtue of its strong Tri-County showing is the only school with multiple players.

In golf, the scoring championship looks to be a two-man race between Barrett Ramsay, who made his debut as a fresh face two years ago with a Western Mass. title, and Garrett Alibozek, the new kid on the block and the freshman out of Hoosac. Expect this one to go down to the wire. Strangely enough, the first player from the current top team in the county, Jon Jewell, of Wahconah, stands fifth.

Posted by Chris Carlson at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It would be easy to look at the IOC's first-round knockout of Chicago in 2016 Olympic Games voting as a blow to Chicago as a city. A former co-worker of mine humorously blamed it on mercurial Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley.

This isn't so much Chicago's fault, though, as the fault of recent history.

Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Games. Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Games. Vancouver gets the upcoming 2010 Winter Games. That's three Olympics for North America in the last 13 years. The U.S. has hosted two of them. South America has never hosted an Olympic Games.

If New York City couldn't land the Olympics, Chicago wasn't going to, either.

I also believe that, while politics play a large role in the IOC's ultimate decision, there was little that American politics (or politicians) could do to help the Second City. The President showed up in Copenhagen with the First Lady - and Oprah - to help pitch a possible Chicago Games. None of it mattered. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the rest of the 1995-96 Bulls could have been there, and a win wasn't going to happen for Chicago.

In the end, I think it was a case of bad timing for the Windy City.

What a victory (and a challenge) for Rio de Janeiro and the country of Brazil, though. Talk about an extended view on the world stage - Brazil had already landed the 2014 World Cup. Now it gets the Summer Games in 2016.

For Americans, the question is this: Is there a city vying for the 2018 Winter Games? (Denver/Colorado Springs, perhaps?) How about the 2020 Summer Games? (How would the Olympics look in Dallas/Fort Worth?)

- Matthew Sprague, Eagle sports editor

Posted by Chris Carlson at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The more they stay the same. That's the story of the first week of high school golf.

After an abbreviated Week 1 of the golf season, Mount Greylock and Taconic look like the teams to beat for the second consecutive year.

Both are unbeaten (The Braves are 2-0, the Mounties 1-0) and also lead the county in scoring average.

Also once again, the early leader for the scoring championship comes from Greylock.

Last year, All-Eagle MVP Dylan Dethier walked away with the scoring crown. This time around, Taylor Dunn's +1 against St. Joseph's leads the league early on.

Look for weekly updates to the list here, along with occasional updates on our High School Extra page, which will run Thursdays during the fall season. As the season progresses, I also plan to have the standings listed here as well.

--Chris Carlson

Posted by Chris Carlson at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Arrivederci, sayonara, au revoir les Canadiens. The Bruins knocked the Habs into next year when they swept their playoff series in four games on Wednesday night.

I know it's only one playoff series, and there's a long way to go before the B's can vie for the Stanley Cup. But the view from here is the Bruins looked awfully impressive in disposing of their long-time rivals.

They played strong positional hockey, for the most part, giving the Canadiens few passing lanes for breakout plays, and won all the battles for loose pucks, which resulted in those David Krejci-Michael Ryder goals last night. They also maintained their composure, and when was the last time you could say that about a Bruins' team?

The Canadiens, on the other hand, were disappointing. They took the play to the Bruins at some points, but every time the B's began to roll they folded. Their defensemen had a horrible series. Too many bad clearing passes, and failures to clear rebounds in front of Carey Price. Sure their best defenseman, Andrei Markov, couldn't play, but really, that's no excuse. Teams that care suck it up during the playoffs. The Celtics lost Kevin Garnett, who means a lot more to them than Markov means to the Habs, yet they're still compete. This is the first time that I can remember that the Bruins had a decided talent edge on the Canadiens.

Time to break up the gang in Montreal. Go Habs Go!

Posted by Chris Carlson at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)