Flannery ejection

If you read this blog, you probably also read Crossports, and saw the poll regarding the greatest moment in Hart Center history. Naturally, this comes after a previous thread, maybe this summer, on the "most memorable" moments in Hart Center history. Crossports is nothing if not for recycled topics.

In case you're wondering, I voted for the March 14, 2003 PL Championship game vs. American. Without a doubt, the most electric I've ever seen the Hart. I loved the Navy game in 2001, and the mid-year win against AU in 2003 (Cresnik missed three at buzzer), but walking into the gym for the 2003 PL Final was simply amazing.

Nice of Holty to include in the poll Bucknell coach Pat Flannery's ejection on January 18, 2008. I wish I was there, but could only watch from afar on ESPU. Here are a few TV pics to remind you of that day. BTW, that's a bloodied and bruised Andrew Keister asking, "What's going on?" as the crowd roared watching Flannery's meltdown.

Job hunting!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to you! I know a few of you still check in here every so often. It's been a disappointing start to the men's and women's basketball campaigns. The ladies are 1-9? What the heck is up with that?

While those teams are hot topics on Crossports, I've been busy preparing for a job hunt. After relocating here in September of 2007, I was impacted by my company's November reduction-in-force. It was shocking, and unfortunately, opportunities here seem to be few and far between. However, I have no plans to move, so the job search is on here in the Triangle. If you happen to learn of mainframe application development opportunities here (COBOL, JCL, DB2, MVS, CICS), or have IT contacts here, please drop me a line at jstrack59 at yahoo. Thanks to those of you who've already contacted me. I greatly appreciate it!

MS Ride!

Hi everyone! In June, I signed up to participate in the National MS Society's Bike MS event, which occurred this past weekend near the coast in New Bern, NC. I'm new to cycling (just started in late spring), so I was very excited to contribute to a great cause and to participate in such a challenging event.

I pledged to ride at 75 miles on Day One and another 30 miles on Day Two. I ended up riding a "century" on Day One, one hundred miles in low 90's temperatures and high humidity, and 30 more miles the next day. It was grueling at times, but completely worth it. A great experience, and I'm already looking forward to next year and more miles!

We had a wonderful team of 70 riders from my company's NC office. A truly great group of people.

The goal of this year's tour was to raise $1.6 million for MS research, programs, services, and advocacy for the 4,300 people living with MS in Eastern North Carolina. Thanks to all of you who joined me in supporting this great cause by making a contribution toward my fundraising efforts.

Jon

Lucky Strike Convention

From Ralph Willard's blog comes this priceless line:

As soon as I open the door I feel like I am at a Lucky Strike convention. Everything smells of tobacco including the pillows. The perfect end to another travel debacle.

I couldn't help but think of my new town, with its Lucky Strike tower and smokestack...





Photos taken in May 2007 at the magnificently redeveloped American Tobacco complex here in Durham. I love walking or bicycling through there. (Actually the pics were taken the same evening I met Coach Vaas).

And since Coach Willard mentioned the smell of tobacco, the locals here say that up until about 10 years ago, the air in the evening in downtown Durham would smell like tobacco (not cigarettes). I find that oddly charming. I would've liked to experience that, in a way.

Blog Update - Finally!

Is anyone still reading this? Here's the brief update: I was able to sell my Worcester townhome in ten days (in a down market!), and moved to Durham in September of 2007. I've been here for over nine months, and I love it! I bought an old house in an established neighborhood here in Durham. Things are going very well. Durham's a wonderful, interesting place to live.

I've taken up cycling in recent months. In March, I owned zero bicycles. I now have two. I use my hybrid bike for some of my around-town transportation, leisure riding down the American Tobacco Trail greenway on weekends, as well as the occasional bike commute to work. I've ridden it the two miles from my house down to the DBAP for Durham Bulls games. I also bought a used road bike, and plan to ramp up my longer-distance riding in preparation for a charity ride this September.

I must say I'm becoming a fan of the Bulls. Games at DBAP are entertaining, although from many observations, not as organic an experience as at the the old ballpark featured in the movie "Bull Durham." You can read more about Durham's baseball history and the old DAP here (a wonderful blog - about as prolific and visually stunning as blogs come).

Also, the Bulls are the farm team for the red-hot Rays, who just happen to have two of my Scoresheet league starters in their rotation. So although my roots are with the Red Sox, I'm really enjoying what the Rays are bringing to the table this season!

What's the future of this blog? I can't answer that. I really hate to make the final announcement that I'm finished with it, because I may post things here on occasion. Right now, it's back-burner for me. Check in every couple of months and see if there's any new content. Obviously, being away from Worcester, I've lost the closeness with the HC teams and access to all the little things I might hear or see that helped inspire my blog posts.

So after a year's break, let's just see what happens, okay? Hope everyone's doing well and enjoying their summer!

Heading South

It's official, I'm moving to North Carolina this year! I have to be there by mid-December or so, but I'd like to see the relocation happen sooner than that. I'll be putting my property on the market in the next couple of weeks, and the rollercoaster ride will begin (if it hasn't already)!

Durham, NC

Okay, so I haven't posted anything here since March. No season recap or review of my preseason predictions, no pics from my trip to Columbus, and no comments on hockey or baseball. As stated before, the blog has taken a back seat as I've been focusing on some other things.

As some of you know, one of those other things is a possible relocation to North Carolina. In November, my employer informed us that they are planning an expansion in the Raleigh-Durham area, specifically in the Research Triangle Park. They are not moving jobs, but they were looking for volunteers to relocate. I would keep my same job through this move, but would be working in NC instead of MA.

My situation with them is complicated because I'm not considered a "full-time" employee. I'll spare you the details, but since November I've been working with my employer to determine the parameters and implications of a possible relocation by me. Finally, in recent weeks, I've received some answers (some good, some not so good, but at least things are moving in a positive direction). At this point, I'm not certain to relocate, but I will probably know for sure within a month.

When told I'm thinking of moving to NC, one of the first questions people ask me is, "Have you visited the area?" Well, actually I hadn't. Even with months and months of research, there was no way I could commit to a relocation with my employer without having seen the area in person and spent some time there. Over Memorial Day weekend, I visited the Raleigh-Durham area for four days and four nights. It was a productive, enlightening visit for me, very interesting in many ways. After some initial disappointment with the area, I was fairly excited by the end of my trip.

Over the same weekend, a co-worker of mine was on a house-hunting trip there with her kids. I had my own agenda during each day, and she had hers, but each night we'd all get together for dinner and a recap of the day's events. She flew back a day earlier than me, so I had my fourth evening to myself. I'm a baseball nut, so I decided to check out the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

As I was approaching the the Bulls ticket window, I recognized a face. It was a man, probably in his fifties, with his family. I looked once, twice, and then a third time. Who was this guy? It finally hit me, but I wasn't 100% sure. I walked closer to him and said, "Excuse me" to try and get his attention. No answer. He probably didn't hear me amongst the general pre-game din outside the park. I'll try once more, I told myself. "Excuse me..." I got his attention this time. "Are you Peter Vaas?" He had this incredulous look on his face, probably shocked that some stranger recognized him, but yes, it was him. "Hi Coach, I'm Jon (last name here), Holy Cross Class of '94. You were coaching at Holy Cross when I was a student there."

It was evident to me that Holy Cross is still something of a pain point for him, but he was very pleasant nonetheless. He introduced me to his wife and two college-aged daughters (one attends St. Mary's College in South Bend, the other will be a senior at Notre Dame this fall). After several minutes of smalltalk, including me explaining why I was in Durham, and him explaining the same (I'd forgotten that he is now coaching at Duke), we finally got in line for tickets to the game. He bought my ticket! We all sat together at the game and had a nice time. I sort of made up for the ticket by buying his wife a lemonade, which cost almost as much as the very reasonable tickets.

Coach seemed to be doing well. His wife said the family enjoyed their time in Europe, especially Barcelona. They've bought a house in a nice new subdivision just north of the most-populated downtown neighborhoods in Durham. It's just minutes from Duke. Mrs. Vaas said she hopes I'll relocate so she'll have someone to sit with at Duke football games! She might be getting a little ahead of herself, but it's good to know that if I do end up there, I'll have some new friends in the area.




By the way, the Bulls have a beautiful new park in downtown Durham, surrounded by a redeveloped American Tobacco District, full of brick walkways, waterways, patches of greenery, a block of bars and restaurants, and additional space for mixed-use commercial, retail and residential. A nearby warehouse district is also clearly on the upswing. Worcester talks about this kind of downtown redevelopment, and perhaps they'll attain it via CitySquare, but in my opinion they can only dream about enacting the changes that Durham, a city only 30,000 people larger than Worcester, has already achieved.

Oh yeah, the Bulls lost, 2-0, to the Ottawa Lynx, the Phillies' AAA affiliate. Lefty prospect J.P. Howell pitched for the Bulls. He has good stuff but was wild on this night, hitting three batters. Outfield prospect Joel Guzman has an athletic frame, but lacks polish at the plate. I think he has a long way to go. Justin Ruggiano could have a future as a spare outfielder. No one on the Lynx particularly stood out to me.

CHAMPIONS!

It doesn't get much sweeter than this week at the Hart!

The camaraderie, the respect, the excitement, the passion, the caring, the drama.

The downs and the ups. The big things and the little things.

Three days, two teams, two league championships!

Bucknell coming from 19 points down to tie the game, and Holy Cross going 16-16 from the free throw line late to withstand the challenge.

The Holy Cross women storming back from a halftime deficit, controlling play in the second half, making big shots, and rebounding, in multiple senses of the word.

Big Tim talking with his pal Chris McNaughton after Chris's last collegiate game.

Shaking Torey Thomas's hand. Torey, you are the man.

Women's team manager A.J. Noto getting pulled into the "Team Captain" trophy photo, with Ashley Brennan-McBride, Brittany Keil, Kaitlin Foley, and Coach Gibbons.

John Griffin hitting two ridiculous late threes.

Pat Flannery melting down and yelling at Bill Gibbons, Sr. at the scorers table on his way to the locker room at the end of the first half.

Pat Doherty knocking down a sweet, smooth trey in the first half.



The men's team painting their chests and faces, spelling out "CRUSADERS!", starting the wave, and doing the Tone Dance during the women's game.

The buzzer sounding on the women's game, signaling victory, a league championship from the depths, overcoming injuries to Laura Aloisi, Jessica Pearson and Brittany Keil, and and a 1-4 start to the league season. The definition of resilience.



Talking with Kyle Cruze's parents again, after meeting them at Bucknell last season.

Bethany O'Dell. Fearless, tough as nails, and those deadly threes.

Brianna McFadden. Patient execution, quiet confidence and leadership.

Christy Cushnie. Aggressive, confident, energetic team player.

Dot Willard, ninety minutes after the men's game, enjoying time with her grandchildren.

Chatting with HoopTime.

Meeting Eric Meister's sister, who said Eric is greatly enjoying his Holy Cross experience.

Coach Bill Gibbons dressing as the Crusader, and during an early TV timeout of the men's game, climbing a stepladder situated near the HC band, taking off the Crusader helmet revealing himself wearing his team's cut basketball net around his neck, and leading the crowd in a chant of "Beat Bucknell!"

Ralph Willard, his turn arriving to cut down the net, not doing so until Keith and Torey joined him on the ladder.

This is Holy Cross. This is Holy Cross Basketball. I love these teams. The coaches, players and their families, and of course, my fellow fans, make it a special experience. We are blessed to have Bill Gibbons and Ralph Willard leading the hoops players on campus, establishing the atmospheres and winning traditions they have, and attracting quality players and people. No, things aren't always perfect. But for three days, they have been. And for that, I'm exceedingly grateful and proud to be an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross.

(First two photos courtesy the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.)

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

In other news, I'm going to be cutting back on my blogging. This is a tough decision, as I enjoy posting here and had a recent resurgence, but I have to focus some of my spare time on other things. Not sure when I'll be back to regular posting (it may be a while) but I hope to get back to it, eventually.

Thanks for reading.

Predictions - Men's Basketball

Already posted these on Crossports, but we'll post 'em again here. It'll be easier to dust them off and dig them out of the archives here when the season is over!

Game-by-Game predictions:
Sun 11/12/06 H Fairfield WIN
Wed 11/15/06 H Hampton WIN
Sat 11/18/06 H Siena LOSS
Tue 11/21/06 A Harvard WIN
Sat 11/25/06 H Wm & Mary WIN
Mon 11/27/06 A Syracuse LOSS
Wed 11/29/06 A Yale WIN
Sat 12/02/06 A Dayton LOSS
Wed 12/06/06 A Duke LOSS
Tue 12/19/06 A Providence WIN
Thu 12/21/06 H G Mason LOSS
Thu 12/28/06 A La Salle LOSS
Fri 12/29/06 N Niagara WIN
Sat 12/30/06 N Delaware WIN
Wed 01/03/07 A B U WIN
Sat 01/06/07 A Lafayette * WIN
Tue 01/09/07 H Army * WIN
Fri 01/12/07 H Bucknell * LOSS
Wed 01/17/07 H Navy * WIN
Sat 01/20/07 A American * LOSS
Tue 01/23/07 A Colgate * LOSS
Fri 01/26/07 H Lehigh * WIN
Wed 01/31/07 H American * WIN
Sat 02/03/07 H Lafayette * WIN
Tue 02/06/07 A Army * WIN
Fri 02/09/07 A Bucknell * WIN
Wed 02/14/07 A Navy * WIN
Sat 02/17/07 A ESPN BBuster WIN
Wed 02/21/07 H Colgate * WIN
Sun 02/25/07 A Lehigh * WIN
Wed 02/28/07 Patriot League Quarterfinals WIN
Sun 03/04/07 Patriot League Semifinals WIN
Fri 03/09/07 Patriot League Championship Game WIN

That's 21-9, 3-0 PLT, and I'll say 1-1 NCAA. They bring a 9-game winning streak into the PL Tourney and 12-game streak into the NCAA's. I'd like to think I'm being conservative here, especially with a couple of the OOC games and one of the league games.


Patriot League First-Team:
Keith Simmons, G, HC
Tim Clifford, C, HC
Brayden Billbe, C, AU
Jose Olivero, G, Lehigh
Chris McNaughton, C, BU

And we'll predict the POY here: Keith Simmons, HC


A few other players we think are worth keeping an eye on:
Jordan Nichols, F, AU
Rob Thomas, G, BU
Andrew Brown, G, LAF
Kaleo Kina, G, Navy
Pat Doherty, G, HC (duh!)

Also looking forward to seeing what guys like Matt Bell, Greg Sprink, and Derrick Mercer will do this year.

Men's Hoops Opener!

Beat Fairfield on Sunday! Have a great year, guys.

Football vs. Colgate

The final regular season game has arrived. T&G reporter Jennifer Toland has predicted a victory for Holy Cross today. I'm a little worried about that, as her record in picking the close-call PL games hasn't been good this season. She did correctly predict that Bucknell would lose to Holy Cross last week, but I don't think that was a tough call.

Anyway, best of luck to the Crusaders today. As many have said, these seniors have endured a lot, with the loss of Coach Allen and the subsequent transition, but they should be incredibly proud of their gains. 1-11 in 2003, 3-8 in 2004, 6-5 in 2005, and at least seven wins in 2006. We're hoping for 8 wins and maybe more!

Beat 'gate!

Women's Hoops Opener!

Continuing our tradition, we're posting the opening game starters. Good luck to the women's basketball team this season!

Posters I've met

I sorted the Crossports memberlist by posts, and here are the top 90 (as of a couple of days ago).

The posters I've met are in bold. I'm not trying by any means to say I know everyone (I counted 26 of the 90 in bold), but it's a credit to Crossports and its moderator that we have a forum to discuss HC athletics, which enables us to meet and hang out with other Crusader fans. Seriously, can you imagine if we didn't have the Crossports message board? Thank you Crossports!

hchoops
sader1970
KY Crusader 75
CHC8485
NTKHC64
HC1843
Sons of Spitler
Rick
newtimholycross
pitt65
Root
nhteamer
Ray
lou
Jon
purplehaze
JRGNYR
TheYouk
Non Alum Dave
bison137
Chu Chu
hcnj
Sader81
hcbballfan
Wheeler
dadominate
Sader03
Sader Fan
Gate Raider
Class of 83
colgate13
HCCT
breezy
bikeman
jmw
GOPURPLE97
BeatBC
PatriotFan
Another65er
HC93
HC62
Purple71
crusader1970
Matunuck
Ignatius Loyola
TS1970
JoeHC
eric...
HC13
boxman37
Jet - 99% sure
Cross19
CL Metsfan
germ75
cf rivals
MHMD05
Tom
Zipp
HC92 - I can put 2 and 2 together
HC89
BBFAN
Hoop Time
1saderfan353
WCHC Sports
Fred
HC_01
HCFAN
PROTON
MHMD
purple1
saderman
laxfan
pittman
sader08
hc69
CROSSPORTS
HChockeyalum
purplepower
RGS318
HCAlum2000
baseball fan
JDAllston
Hcbball99
HC03
JS
unwired
mattb
td128
LindenLane
Class1996

There are a handful of others on this list I've figured out (by face) but haven't officially met, or haven't met in the context of Crossports and their posting name. And there are others I've met who are not in the top 90 posters, like Jim (appreciate you reading!) and TheRevHC. Look forward to meeting many more.

And this "top 90 posters" list does raise some questions. For instance, if you add up the posts for all the iterations of MHMD, how high would he rank? And how the heck has bison137 surged into the top20? Dave, fend him off!

New Hockey Column

Telegram & Gazette correspondent Steve Kendall has a new hockey column that will appear on Mondays, bi-weekly. I have to believe HC's win over Minnesota provided some of the impetus for this column. Look for Holy Cross to be covered extensively in his column.

This week's column contains an update on former Crusader hero Tyler McGregor, whose whereabouts were last unknown by the hockey fans on Crossports. Kendall reports that McGregor is playing in the Central Hockey League, as a Memphis RiverKings teammate to former HC goalie Ben Conway. Marc Bianchi is also in the CHL, with the Lubbock Cotton Kings. Does every team have "Kings" in its name?

Must-Read HC Articles

Last weekend's Sunday Telegram contained a ton of Holy Cross content. Paul Jarvey wrote an excellent front-page feature. Also, there were the football and hockey game recaps, along with season previews for the men's and women's basketball teams.

Here are a couple of the articles, which I don't remember seeing linked by anyone over on Crossports. Read 'em before they get archived by the T&G!

First up is a heartwarming story by Sports columnist Paul Jarvey, on senior lineman Matt Lemire and his family. Matt's mom is battling lupus.















Next is the women's hoops preview, featuring an ecstatic Brittany Keil, taking a break from her basket-weaving classes.
Coach Gibbons is always good for some quotes, and this article is no exception. A nice story on Brittany.

I couldn't find the link to Jennifer Toland's men's hoops preview, but it was a very good article. Torey and Keith spoke about their bond, and how Keith does the cooking and cleaning in their student apartment. Keith also recently made his "famous beef enchiladas" for the team. Simmons also discussed the frustrations and limitations of his cramping last season. "I'd cramp up when I tried to be explosive," he said.

Torey Thomas closed the story with this gem regarding being a captain: "I relish the responsibility because not everyone's a leader, not everyone's called on to be a leader. It's prestigious, but it's not just because of a title. It's because you have more to give to other people. When you have more to give to other people, you can be successful. If you lead right, with a keen eye and good discretion, you can make something ordinary become something special."

Pearl of Wisdom #23

"He's an excellent defensive player, but he also adds a lot to our offense. He made the big play last night and had another great game today. He not only scored those goals, but he also broke the puck out well and did the things we expect from him on the ice."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in the November 5, 2006 edition of the Sunday Telegram, talking about senior defenseman Jon Landry's outstanding play (including a hat trick) as Holy Cross completed the weekend sweep of Canisius with a 6-3 victory at the Hart.


Does Steve Kendall know we're "24" fans? He led his story by comparing Landry to Jack Bauer. We know you were throwing us a bone, Steve. You've seen THIS, right?

Pearl of Wisdom #22

"You have to be able to kill penalties consistently to have success. It's not a glamorous job - getting hit in the gut with a 90 mile-an-hour slapshot isn't fun - but it's incredibly important."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in last Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, discussing his team's three big penalty kills in the third period of the 5-4 HC win over Canisius at the Hart Center.

Asleep in the street

Here's something you don't see every day. This woman was intoxicated and fell asleep during the Wednesday morning rush hour in the middle of Worcester's most notorious intersection, Kelley Square.

She was taken away by police and brought to the PIP shelter (People in Peril).

Family Weekend Losing Streak

The HC football team hasn't won on Family Weekend since 2001. Consequently, the Dr. Edward N. Anderson Award has been presented to an opposing player each year since.

This year, the Holy Cross Club of Greater Worcester presented the Anderson Award, given annually to the outstanding player in the Family Weekend football game, to running back Marques Thompson of Lehigh. According to HCCGW president Dave Mahaney, Thompson "received 15 of the 16 sportswriters first place votes, was very humble and thanked the Club for the handsome trophy."

Thompson ran up 141 yards on 30 carries against the Crusaders, and was a pretty obvious choice in this fan's opinion.

The previous four winners of the award were Jermaine Pugh of Lehigh, Charlie Rittgers of Dartmouth, Daris Wilson of Bucknell, and last year, Jordan Scott of Colgate.

So we can add Thompson to the list of humble winners. Not all (*cough* Bison *cough*) of the award winners have been gracious in their acceptance of the trophy!