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View From The Pressbox-A Weekly Commentary On Sports
By Joe Milliken, Message Sports Editor
Friday, January 02, 2009 10:09 AM
The awards and accolades for Springfield High School senior student athlete Grant White continue to roll in.
After leading the Cosmos football team to an undefeated season and Division III state Championship last month, then leading the South to a win in the recent Vermont Senior Bowl, White has now been nominated for the prestigious “Joe Montana High School Quarterback Of The Year Award”, given out to the nation’s top high school quarterback.
White is one of 100 high school quarterbacks selected throughout the country, which will be narrowed down to seven national finalists to be announced in December.
The senior QB passed for 26 touchdown passes (including two in the Senior Bowl) this fall and rushed for at least another dozen or more, while leading the Cosmos to their first football state championship since 1947.
And speaking of Cosmos football players having great seasons, junior wide receiver and back up quarterback Brandon Boyle was also nominated in the top 100 for the “Jerry Rice High School Wide receiver Of The Year Award”, given out to the nation’s top wide out. Boyle caught an impressive 18 touchdown passes this season.
“It’s a tribute to both of them,” Springfield coach Mike Hatt told Eagle Times sports editor Charlie Lentz recently. “It is very apropos they were both recognized by the same organization.
“I’m just so happy for Grant. What people don’t see is our spring football drills for the last four years, getting up at six in the morning – we call it ‘putting money in the bank.’ The put the money in the bank and it paid dividends.
“For Brandon to get that (recognition) just speaks to his ability on the field. Every second that Brandon is out there, he is enjoying himself.
‘A lot of our kids could have been recognized. Ninety–nine percent of the guys who put in the work are never recognized. It’s good to see our kids from Springfield are getting their due because they are great kids. They’re All–American kids.”
A–men to that!
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In Ludlow recently, the first Kevin Stillwell Snowboarding Scholarship award has been awarded to Kai Lichenstiger and Austin Rebetz, two snowboarders from Ludlow, who wish to pursue weekend training at Okemo Mountain.
Kevin Stillwell was a member of the first snowboard team from Black River High School, and passed away at age 25 from complications due to diabetes.
The scholarship is part of the McCostis Scholarship Fund (MSF) of the Ludlow Teen Center, which helps to support Okemo Valley youth interested in pursuing training in alpine racing, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding. Scholarships are awarded on both academic and athletic performance, as well as individual need.
Sue McCostis is a Ludlow Teen Center board member and a ski instructor at Okemo Mountain, who started the Scholarship fund.
Other MSF scholarships have included one for Sue McCosti in freestyle skiing; her husband Dick (also a ski instructor); the Peter Noyes Memorial Ski Scholarship and now, the snowboarding scholarship in Kevin’s memory.
Other local athletes funded by the MSF include: snowboarders Taylor Spaulding of Chester, Connor Brown of Springfield and alpine skier Addison Provance.
Earlier this year, snow academy scholarships were also awarded to freestyle skiers Chris Teitsma of Springfield, as well as alpine skier Matt Devereaux of Ludlow.
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As the local basketball season approaches, the Springfield Elks Lodge will be holding their annual Elks “Hoop Shoot”, the national free throw shooting contest for youngsters ages eight through 13, on Saturday, December 13 at Springfield High School.
Local winners will compete against other contestants in the district event in Bellows Falls, with the winners competing in the state competition in Barre. State winners will then compete at the Northeast Finals in Nashua, N.H.
From there, the winners will compete in the National competition in Springfield, MA, and will have their names inscribed on the Elks National “Hoop Shoot” plaque, on permanent display in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
One past winner of the Springfield Elks hoop shoot was Grant White, Springfield's quarterback of the state champion Springfield Cosmos. Grant participated for some six years and advanced to the “Northeast Hoop Shoot” finals in Nashua in 2002 and 2003, while finishing second overall 2002. Over three million youngsters throughout the country entered last year's competition for boys and girls in age categories 8–9, 10–11, and 12–13.
Each contestant has 25 shots at the hoop. The boy and girl in each age group with the best scores advance through four tiers of competition to qualify for the national finals in Springfield, Mass.
The director of this years’ Springfield Elks local hoop shoot competition is Victor Baskevich and for more information on the “hoop shootout” call Victor at 885-4355.
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As the NFL playoffs approach, the Patriots suffered a huge loss over the weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers on a cold and rainy day in Foxboro.
However this was not a typical loss for the Patriots in the fact that they usually make the other team beat them.
But on Sunday they were their own worst enemy, committing five turnovers that turned into 30 unanswered points for the Steelers, while also getting shut out in the second half, 23–0.
From here, New England will probably have to run the table in their remaining four games and hope some other AFC teams lose, in order to have a shot at a wildcard playoff spot.
One of the major tie–breakers is a record in your own division and record against AFC opponents, both of which New England has not done well this year.
The only other hope for the Pats would be to win the rest of their games and hope the New York Jets fall flat on their face and lose three out of their last four games. Which of course, is certainly possible in the always unpredictable NFL.
With all this said, if you had said at the start of the year that the Patriots would lose Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Adalius Thomas and Lawrence Maroney, and that they would still be in the hunt for a wildcard? You would have taken that in a heart beat. “It ain’t over, ‘till it’s over.”
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Don’t look now, but the upstart Boston Bruins are shocking the NHL, (and their fans) after knocking off rival Montreal and the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings within a week, to take not only the lead in their division, but also the best overall record (at press time) in the conference.
Not even die–hard Bruins fans (including this editor) could have seen this coming.
The Bruins are indeed on a roll right now, having won (at press time) 11 out their last 13 games including eight straight at The Garden, and have the hottest goal tending tandem in the league with Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez.Thomas owns the best goals–against average in the entire league, while his back up, Fernandez, is 7–0–1 in his eight starts.
Some of the amazing offensive numbers the “Black and Gold” have been putting up lately include six or more goals in five out of their last six games and 20 goals overall in just three contests.
On top of all this, they still have the “enforcers” to go along with the great offense and stingy goal tending, with young forwards Milan Lucic and Shawn Thorton protecting their skill–player teammates.
There is certainly a l-o-n-g way to go in what is a grinding NHL regular season, but this is the most fun this hockey fan has had watching the Bruins in perhaps a decade.
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