Sports Writer to Be

In New Mexico, district tournaments are the rage this weekend. Last night Rio Grande beat Valley to put the Ravens in the round of 8 once more, and end the Vikings' season. Valdez stood in line for 2 hours and was turned away. Also, for the first time since anyone can remember, look who's number one in 5A:

BOYS CLASS 5A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Eldorado (3) 24 2
2. Cibola (3) 23 3
3. La Cueva 18 5
4. Hobbs 9 4
5. Valley 6 -
Others receiving votes - Alamogordo 6, Rio Grande 2, Sandia 2.

Only one week remains in the regular season in New Hampshire's Class L Boy's Basketball. Salem's at Trinity and Nashua is at Merrimack. Tonight I will be covering Dover at Central. Here's my pre-game report: And by the way, here's Mike Mutnansky's blog, and listen to Friday Night Lights tonight

Ten and five Dover finishes the season with the Queen City Trifecta, taking on all three Manchester Public High schools in their last three games. Tonight they're at Fouteen and One Central. Dover and coach Mike Romps--having a solid season, highlighted by an eight game winning streak, which was promptly followed by a three-game losing streak, recently broken by a win last Tuesday night over Class L's slump-buster Pembroke. Seventy-one fifty three was the final; a critical win for the Green Wave as they try to position myself for home court advantage for Super Thursday, thirteen nights from tonight. Shavar Bernier had 23 for Dover, and Sophomore Joe Cheslock had 16 in the win. Bernier also had twenty-five for dover in a one-oh-one, eighty-five loss earlier in the week to Exeter.

Central--what more can be said about the Little Green? Three weeks ago junior point guard Lionel Guard quit the team amid controversey, and it hasn't affected this team one iota. They are the number two team in the state and are riding a twelve-game winning streak into tonight's game. A week ago tonight they beat Bishop Guertin by thirty-one, Sophomore Tyler Roche had twenty-one against the Cardinals, including fifteen in the fourth quarter alone. Tuesday night he had twenty-eight points including five threes against Pinkerton. So much has been said about Roche and his front-court mate Sam Carey, both deadly inside and from long range, Carey playing with a purpose and intensity and a work ethic unmatched in Class L this year. No team, except Trinity, has been able to stop these two. And the scary thing is that Roche is only a sophomore, the rest of Class L has to endure two more years of Tyler Roche's dominance from long range.

For Dover to win tonight, of course they will have to contain Roche and Carey and that's going to be hard to do. But if they are able to dig deep and do what they did against Salem a month ago when they beat the Blue Devils by three. They were able to stop Salem's offensive attack, and most importantly, were able to force Salem to miss crucial three-pointers. If they can contain Central's three-point shooters tonight, they might have a chance at the upset. I have seen Dover play this year, they are a team that can hit the long ball but can also play effective defense, Coach Mike Romps has trained this team to draw fouls well.

Both teams wear green, and have the word green in their mascot names, a more appropriate night for this game would be the night of St. Patrick's day--but on March 17th, only four teams will still be standing in Class L. Central will probably be one of them, will Dover? A win tonight will have a lot of people thinking they just might. The Green Wave at the Little Green tonight in Manchester--this is John Doyle for Friday Night Lights: High School Sports in Action.

TIME TO MAKE A DECISION

by John Doyle, the Sportswriter to Be

A friend and co-worker of mine, the director of student activities at the small New England college I work for, dropped by my office this morning. In his hands was an information packet sent to him by the Portland Sea Dogs of the Eastern League, "Double-A" affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. We started a rather lengthy conversation about one of my passions, minor league baseball. Knowing that I am a devout follower of minor league ball, he asked me whom will I root for when the Portland Sea Dogs play the New Hampshire Fisher Cats this season. After explaining that since I live in Dover, I would be dividing my time equally between Portland and Manchester, I told him I would be rooting for "the Dogs, of course. The hot dogs."

He laughed, but it's true. When it comes to minor league baseball, I go to the games more for the atmosphere than the actual game itself: to enjoy a warm summer evening with friends, eat a hot dog and slurp a cold beer, maybe keep a scorecard, have meaningful conversation with those around you, and see the future stars of MLB, all for a ticket price that is equivalent to half a beer at Fenway.

I can not, however, bring myself to actually root for a team. Sure, I want the Sea Dogs and Fisher Cats to be successful, but if I had a good time at the game, then who really cares who won and lost? Overall, I hope they do well, but if a good time was had at the ballyard, what do I care about the outcome of the game?

The normally astute Joe Sullivan, whom I have come to know and talk to occasionally on the high school basketball circuit, wrote a particularly abrasive column in the Union Leader a few weeks ago on the upcoming Fisher Cats' season. He wrote that while he hopes Manchester's baseball experiment is successful, he hopes the Fisher Cats' season, on the field, is a nightmare. He based his desire on the fact that the 'Cats are the "Double-A" affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, and any success the 'Cats have on the field will mean success for the Jays, and consequently mean trouble for his beloved Red Sox (whose cap Sullivan wears in the picture next to his byline).

Methinks Joe, whom I consider a friend, worries a little too much. Success on the field for the Fisher Cats will not immediately translate to another year of agony for the Sox. And besides, the "Double-A" prospects will perform the same whether they play in Manchester or New Haven, where they resided last year. Nevertheless, his column, and my friend's question this morning, got me thinking: perhaps the time has come to declare an allegiance to Portland or New Hampshire.

Portland has been where I have gone for my minor-league fix for a while now. My parents lived in Portland for about four years and I have been a devoted follower of the Sea Dogs ever since I went to my first game in 2001. Last year, my first back in New England, was their first of their relationship with the Red Sox, and I attended thirteen games. While Sea Dogs baseball has always been popular since the team was introduced in 1994 as an affiliate of the Florida Marlins, their popularity absolutely exploded last year when the relationship with the Sox became official. The relationship is a good study in the concept of effective branding, for one cannot avoid the prominence of the Red Sox logo (not to mention the replica of Fenway Park's famous Gren Monster in left field) at Hadlock Field, the Dogs' home.

On the other hand, New Hampshire is my home, and I have long dreamed of the day that Gill Stadium would welcome back minor league baseball. My parents no longer live in Portland. Dover is about fifteen minutes closer to Manchester than Portland. I have been on board with the organization ever since the announcement was made last summer that the team was coming. I quickly snatched up season tickets and even auditioned to be the team's PA announcer, and finished in the top ten out of ninety-two.

So, whom to root for? Perhaps I should take the lead of a good friend of mine from New Mexico, an avid San Francisco Giants fan. Both living in Albuquerque, we were avid followers and season-ticket holders for the Dukes, the "Triple-A" affiliate of the hated (by him) Los Angeles Dodgers. His policy was simple: root for the Dukes, except when the Phoenix Firebirds, "Triple-A" affiliate of his beloved Giants, came to town. He had come to terms with rooting for the Dodgers' affiliate by virtue of being loyal to his hometown of Albuquerque, but he drew the line when the Giants' boys were in the visitor's dugout. I could not have cared less: beer was only two bucks a cup at the Albuquerque Sports Stadium.

For me, I just can't do it. I really do not care who wins and who loses a minor-league baseball game. Because if there's one thing I love more than the Red Sox, it is the sport of baseball itself. To me, minor league baseball is a true American Experience, one that can be shared by people of all sizes, ages and colors. The fun is in the game itself: the crack of the bat, the smack of a ball in glove, and the look on a young fan's face when he catches a foul ball, or gets a hug from a zany, lovable minor-league mascot. As long as the beer is cold and the lines to the restrooms are short, I will gladly divide my time between Portland and Manchester this baseball season, and, as the song says, "Root, root, root for the home team."

Especially if they're playing Trenton*. I hate Trenton.

*--Yankees affiliate

John Doyle is a minor league baseball fan who lives in New Hampshire.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for the University of New Mexico's men's basketball team, it has. A thirty-point drubbing at the hands of Utah on Monday night was the second-worst loss in the history of the program. Ans what's worse, most of the fans, whicle calling for coach Richie McKay's head, have labeled the Lobos men's team as quitters.

There isn't much worse you can say about a team. And it illustrates the point I have been making about this team ever since Fran Fraschilla started mucking it all up five years ago: the University of New Mexico gets no joy out of basketball. How much joy can there be if not only a team gets blown out by 30, but they play like they don't even care? That is the biggest danger facing this Lobo basketball program right now. Lobo fans right now would be happy just to have a team that played hard day in a day out, which is the least one can expect from a program. Of course, most fans (at least the ones who post to message boards and call the talk shows) still seem to think that the Lobos are just one or two moves away from getting right back into the top 25.

During the last college football season, I would regularly check the rankings of various teams with regards to the Lobos football team. I noticed that the Lobos were consistently ranked higher, throughout the season, than many teams that had far more prestigious football programs. Granted, most of the programs were ones who had fallen on hard times, (Penn State, Notre Dame and Colorado) but a number of teams were ones with recent success (Illinois, Texas A&M, South Carolina). I don't know exactly what the research proved other than the fact that UNM is a bona fide Division 1-A program and the Lobos should be proud of what their team has accomplished.

I did some similar research last night with regards to the basketball team. I looked at the teams that have been in the last 25 Final Fours. There are 45 total. Then I looked at the Sagarin rankings as of this morning. My hypothesis was that Lobo fans would find that among those 45 teams, a good number of them find themselves ranked below the Lobos this morning, so Lobo fans should therefore not despair, and realize that just as these teams can and should be expected to regain past glory, so can and should the Lobos.

Not so fast. If the 45 teams that have been in the Final Four some time or another over the last 25 years, a whopping 39 of them are ranked higher than the Lobos. Of the six that the Lobos are ranked higher than, two (Minnesota and UMass) have had their Final Four statuses revoked due to later disqualification, so they're technically not even counted as Final Four teams in the NCAA record books. One, St. John's, is so mired in scandal right now it will be a miracle if that team ever competes for a long, long time. Another, Houston, has not seen significant success on the basketball court since Olajuwon and Drexler over 20 years ago. The other two are Ohio State and UCLA, both in huge conferences with huge alumni bases and student bodies, huge budgets, and have a much, much better chance at retaining past glory and status than the Lobos can ever dream of.

Look at Penn. It will be a great day in sports if and when Penn makes it back to the Final Four, but that day is a long way off. As of right now, the Ivy Leaguers are ranked 97, a full seventeen slots ahead of our Lobos. I should also mention that of the 45 teams on my list, only ten of them are from outside the "BCS Six" conferences, and only three (Louisville twice and UNLV once) have ever won it all.

All bad news for the Lobos who are both a) in a minor conference and b) do not have nearly the history, tradition, and most of all, resources of the 45 teams who have made the Final Four in the last quarter century.

I'd like to know what you think. Email me at UNMdoyle98@hotmail.com

Coming soon: Valdez on why West Mesa and Del Norte are so terrible at every sport they play. My take, although Valdez's will be more in-depth, I am sure, is simple: Del Norte: size. West Mesa: attitude. And even though West Mesa produced the woman who is now my wife, I have to admit she is kind of lazy. KIDDING, KIDDING.

*****

Don't look now, but Manchester Memorial (boys basketball) is on a five game winning streak, and they are now battling for eighth place! They have a lot of ground to cover in just four more games if they're going to secure a home game for Super Thursday (in just over two weeks), but they have a decent shot of getting to Durham to play in the quarterfinals. Losses to Concord and Exeter have reallyhurt, and their thrashing at the hands of Keene back in January was just downright inexcusable, but winners of five straight, the shortest team in Class L should be proud of their comeback in getting back to five-hundred.

Salem, BG, Pinkerton and Dover await the Crusaders, and they could very easily lose all four. If they can avoid that, however, they should still be in the playoffs. Realistically, they should look to beat Pinkerton and possibly steal one or two from the other three. BG is on a slide, and Dover is beatable.

Easing back into the work week after what turned out to be a pretty good sports weekend (capped off by three-straight strings of bowling where I broke 100--a first for me).

Friday night Manchester Central took good care of Bishop Guertin of Nashua, in what I would deem an ugly game. First of all, it had to be close to ninety degrees inside that gym. I know that all gyms get a little hot on Friday nights, but this was ridiculously hot. I don't know if it had any effect on the players, but the coaches sure were feeling the heat. And I hate to get onto the referees, having been one myself at one point, but the officiating in this game was suspect at best. Again, the temperatures didn't help. The other regret I had about htis game was that this one kid for Central, a sophomore stud named Tyler Roche, had fifteen points in the fourth quarter. I knew he was hot but I didn't realize he had fifteen until I checked the scorebook after the game. I wrote it down, but when I gave my post game report, I focused more on the sloppiness and tension of the final quarter and failed to mention that this kid had fifteen in the fourth. What a stupid blunder. And of course, both reports in the Union Leader and Nashua Telegraph mentioned Roche's fourth quarter prominently in their stories. But that's live radio, I guess, I just got caught up and forgot what was important. Plus, I had to hand the phone off to coach "Doc" Wheeler, an important part of any Friday Night Lights broadcast. It was funny because caoch Wheeler and I, who have a pretty good media-coach relationship, I would deem, hadn't spoken a word to each other after the game before I handed the phone off to him.

Saturday afternoon I went to the Vermont-UNH game at the Lundholm gymnasium, and I saw the rarest of the rare: not just a UNH win, but a blowout! They absolutely manhandled the Catamounts, an NCAA team last year! Of course it didn't hurt that the 'Mounts were without their top scorer, Taylor Coppenrath, who is ranked fourth in the nation, but a win is a win and a rout is a rout and UNH hoops fans (of which there are few) got to see a good show for once. The Wildcats played pretty well, and while they won't be cutting down the nets in San Antonio come April 4, for one afternoon UNH felt like a basketball school.

Saturday night I went with my dad to see Boston College at UMass-Lowell in Hockey East action. Not a great game, but I needed my college hockey fix, for I hadn't had one in a while. Lowell has a nice (relatively) new arena down there. The place was far from a sellout, but it's a pretty huge place, and UMass-Lowell, one of the smaller Division I hockey schools (they're D-II in every other sport), doesn't sell out much anyway. But BC is #1 nationally and they played some pretty good hockey, beating the River Hawks 5-0, after beating them 4-1 on Friday night. I have now seen six of the nine teams in the Hockey East (UNH, Maine, Providence, Merrimack, BC and Lowell), and have yet to see Boston U, Northeastern or UMass Amherst. I have now seen six college hockey games overall, far short of last year's total of 13. But I have seen a lot more high school hoops, and I believe I have seen 17 or so teams in NH's Class L.

As for high school sports in New Hampshire, here are your rankings. Boys Class L: Trinity (undefeated), Central, West, Merrimack and Nashua. Girls: Portsmouth (undefeated), Nashua, Londonderry, (tie) Salem, Trinity and Winnacunnet of Hampton. Hockey Division I: Hanover and Manchester Memorial tied, Salem, Concord and Exeter.

Courtesy of Valdez, here's how they stand in the New Mexico media polls:

BOYS CLASS 5A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Rio Grande (5) 49 3
2. Eldorado (5) 43 2
3. Cibola (3) 43 1
4. Hobbs 31 -
5. La Cueva 27 -
Others receiving votes - Sandia (1) 9, Alamogordo 4, Clovis 3, Valley 1.
BOYS CLASS 4A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Capital (6) 30 1
2. Kirtland Central 22 2
3. Roswell 18 3
4. Deming 8 4
5. Taos 5 -
Others receiving votes - Albuquerque Academy 3, Silver 2.
BOYS CLASS 3A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. West Las Vegas (2) 21 2
2. Lovington (1) 18 1
3. Bernalillo (1) 16 2
4. NM Military Institute 10 4
5. Ruidoso 4 -
Others receiving votes - Cobre 3, St. Michael's 3, Hot Springs 1.
BOYS CLASS 2A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Hope Christian (4) 20 1
2. Sandia Prep 15 2
3. Questa 9 3
4. Dexter 6 4
5. McCurdy 5 5
Others receiving votes - Tularosa 4, Navajo Pine 2.
BOYS CLASS 1A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Temple Baptist (8) 40 1
2. Springer 30 2
3. Cliff 20 3
4. Tatum 9 5
5. Gateway Christian 7 -
Others receiving votes - Animas 5, Magdalena 1, Quemado 1.
GIRLS CLASS 5A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Mayfield (8) 40 1
2. Sandia 32 2
3. Hobbs 17 4
4. Clovis 14 5
5. Rio Rancho 13 3
Others receiving votes - Los Lunas 2, Gallup 2.
GIRLS CLASS 4A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. St. Pius (4) 30 2
2. Kirtland Central (2) 26 1
3. Silver (1) 23 3
4. Farmington 14 -
5. Española Valley 6 4
Others receiving votes - Los Alamos 3, Moriarty 2, Deming 1.
GIRLS CLASS 3A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Portales (4) 20 1
2. Lovington 15 2
3. Robertson 10 3
4. Grants 5 4
tie Bloomfield 5 5
Others receiving votes - Socorro 4, Pojoaque 1, Tohatchi 1.
GIRLS CLASS 2A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Cimarron (3) 20 1
2. Santa Rosa (1) 15 2
3. Navajo Prep (1) 13 3
4. Santa Fe Indian School 7 -
5. Dulce 6 4
Others receiving votes - Questa 5, Navajo Pine 4, Rehoboth 3, Texico 2, Hatch Valley 1.
GIRLS CLASS 1A
School (first-place votes) Pts Pvs
1. Des Moines (4) 20 1
2. Fort Sumner 12 2
3. Grady 10 3
4. Cliff 6 4
5. Magdalena 5 5
Others receiving votes - Ramah 3, Elida 3, Tatum 1.