february 2005
SPORTS
by A. S.
The Boys’ “A” squad hosted the Oak Hill Panthers on February the 2nd. The Dragons avenged an early season loss to the Panthers. The Panthers were missing one of their top players, C. K., which contributed to their lack luster offense. The final score had Day winning by more than 20 points. E. A. led the team in scoring, while M. B. helped the Dragons hold Oak Hill to limited points in the game.
Day traveled to Brown on February the 3rd and lost their 3rd game of the season. The final score had Day losing by 7, with the game being dominated by Brown almost the whole game.
The 5th game of the season ended up a victory for the Boys’ “A” squad when they played Weston on Friday, January the 21st. During the first half the Dragons were only up by 8. After the second half Day pulled away to ensure their lead. While one of Day’s strongest players, E. A., did not play, M. F. and others stepped up to help keep Day in the lead.
After a close competition on Wednesday, January the 19th, between rivals Day and the Bigelow Bulldogs, Bigelow came up the victor by 10 points. In the first half, the Dragons had difficulty stopping the interior Bigelow players such as J. K. and J. W.
Day could not keep up with the dominating Oak Hill Panthers and lost 65-56 on Wednesday, January the 12th. Although the Dragons got off to a quick start leading 10-2 they couldn’t keep it up and fell apart. None of the boys were at the top of their game. M. F. led the team in scoring, and J. A. contributed very good defense. Both J. S. and C. K. were on their game with their continuous driving for Oak Hill. “We played sloppy,” says J. A. Day also could not make their lay-ups and couldn’t pull in loose balls.
by J. B. and M. V.
Game by game, win by win, the Day boys’ “B” basketball team is working its way to the top with a record of 5-1. The Dragons have excelled extensively at basketball this season, and are extremely impressive this year.
One of the largest blowouts that occurred this year, courtesy of the Dragons, was when they clobbered the Weston team 40-20. They have only lost one game, but it was very close and could have been anyone’s game until the end. They played that game at the earliest part of the season when they had a record of 1-0.
Since then, Day has beaten many teams on the opposing team’s turf as well as our own turf. The teams they have beaten are Oak Hill, Weston, Brown, and Acton. Some of the teams were beaten in close games, but others were totally humiliated by Day in blowouts.
Playing very well this season and providing many key points, rebounds, blocks, passes and steals, are the players A. D., M. F., and M. G. They have helped this team achieve many of its wins and have provided the spark that the rest of the players need to win. All of the players on the team are key players though, in the sense that they have contributed many vital plays at the right time.
by A. H.
“We did an excellent job in the first half. But lost our concentration at the end of the game. We need to keep up the good work throughout the game, from beginning to end,” says T. M. about the game against Brown on Thursday, February the 3rd.
Their game, which was scheduled to be played against Brown on Wednesday, the 26th of January was canceled due to snow, so the girls had a make-up game on Thursday, February the 3rd. The girls lost with a final score of 48-40. M. L., contributing 12 points and D. D., with 10 points, both played fabulous games. S. M., A. M., and S. L. each contributed 4 points, while V. P., A. B., and J. W. each contributed 2 points. The team did an amazing job with defense and hustling and they had a lot of good passing, but they need to improve on rebounding and staying in front of their player.
When the team traveled to Oak Hill on Wednesday February the 2nd, they lost with a final score of 55-33. S. M., K. P. and C. all played a fabulous game. Doherty and Lowe, each contributing points also played well, as well as J. W., who scored 6 points. T. M., contributing 4 points played fabulously and A. M. and S. L. each contributed 2 points. The team needs to improve on being aggressive, jumping up to rebound, spreading out, and staying in front of their mark. They had nice passes and good shots. The team played well overall, but they need to look out for each other.
“Overall, I think that we had fun, but we just didn’t work as a team,” says T. M.
The girls played a fabulous game when they traveled to Weston on Friday, the 21st of January. The girls won with a score of 28-16. Everyone made a great effort and did a good job, but the team needs to work on their shooting and dribbling. Lowe had a fabulous breakaway, with a pass to Doherty, leading up to 2 of Doherty’s 10 points. M. L. also had 10 points, and A. B. and S. M. each contributed 4 points. J. W. scored a fabulous 8 points and T. M. scored 2 points.
Day had a spectacular away game when they went up against the Oak Hill Panthers on Wednesday the 12th of January. After a good effort, they lost with a final score of 48-28. S. L., with 2 points, and M. L., with 10 points, had many fabulous lay-ups. D. D., with 8 points, and S. L. had many accurate passes throughout the game. A. M. also had an excellent game and J. W., who scored 6 points, did a terrific job of getting open under the basket. D. B. scored 2 points for the team.
The girls need to work on boxing out, staying in front of their player, and passing and shooting. The team played very well overall and it was “...a tough game, but as a team, we tried out best,” says T. M., who also played an amazing game [Assisting in the preparation of this article was T. M.].
by Z. P.-C. and A. T.
The girls’ “B” basketball team remains undefeated. “[We are doing] good, real good. We are doing really well; we are undefeated. [Our weakness is] to focus when its game time,” says coach Z. C.
In February the 3rd’s game away, the girls won 40-20 against Oak Hill.
That game was a rescheduling of the January 26th game, which was postponed due to bad weather.
Friday, January the 21st, the girls beat Weston by 32 points. The final score was 38-6. L. A. was the leading scorer for Day with 12 points.
On Wednesday, January the 19th, Day won against Bigelow. The girls have been maintaining their winning streak. “They have been really improving and hopefully will continue to win,” says Z. C.
“We are doing awesome, but I do think we could improve a little more at practice,” says “B” team player, K. M.
by J. L.
If you want to talk the talk out on the links, first you need to master the lingo unique to the sport of golf. With a little help from THE LITTLE BOOK OF GOLF SLANG, by Randy Voorhees, I created the following golf slang challenge. Good luck!
- What does “cabbage” mean?
- the fairway
- deep, thick rough
- the green
- What does “peg” mean?
- the flag stick
- the shaft of a club
- a tee
- What is a “beach?”
- a water hazard
- a curved fairway
- a bunker
- Which of the following is not a word for a caddie?
- club puller
- bag rat
- looper
- Which of the following is not a word for a lousy golfer?
- duffer
- greenie
- hacker
- A “fried egg” is:
- a ball deep in the bunker
- a long drive
- a missed easy putt
- What is a “worm burner?”
- a hole in one
- a pitching wedge
- a low shot
- What is “ throw up range?”
- a shot that lands a short distance from the green
- a short putt
- a shot landing at the edge of the water
- Which is not a term for a badly kept golf course?
- dog track
- goat farm
- cattle grazing grounds
- What is meant by the term “ froghairs?”
- the fringe
- the fairway
- golfer’s luck
Answers: 1:b, 2:c, 3:c, 4:a, 5:b, 6:a, 7:c, 8:b, 9:c, 10:a
Key: 1-3 questions right: keep working on it!
4-7 questions right: not bad!
8-10 questions right: you know your slang!
by B. C.
Can it get much better than this for Boston sports? Probably not, considering the Red Sox finally won their first world series in 86 years, the Patriots winning their 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years, and B. C.’s men’s basketball is currently undefeated.
The city has become accustomed to winning, which may not be such a good thing. It is very possible the city could go through another long drought of not having a champion, just like in the 90’s.
The most impressive team is the Patriots, winning the Super Bowl 3 out of
4 years. When the salary cap was introduced to the NFL, nobody thought there would be another dynasty. The Patriots are a team that has to be considered a dynasty and it all starts with their head coach, Bill Belichick. Belichick is the best coach of his generation and sets the tone for the team: professional and hard-working. The Patriots take away the opposing team’s strength, but still attack their weaknesses.
The Red Sox won the World Series in a totally different way than the Patriots won their Super Bowl. They did it with players who referred to themselves as “idiots” and a manager, Terry Francona, who didn’t stop them. The real mastermind of the Red Sox is general manager Theo Epstein.
He has made numerous moves that have been criticized, such as trading Nomar Garciaparra , that have turned out to be tremendous moves.
In his first months on the job in 2003, Epstein signed lesser-known players Bill Mueller and David Ortiz and traded for Kevin Millar. Mueller, Ortiz, and Millar went on to have amazing seasons, leading arguably the most prolific offense in baseball history. The reason the Sox didn’t make it to the World Series in 2003 was lack of depth in the pitching staff. So Epstein went out and had Thanksgiving dinner with Curt Schilling, and, well, the rest is history. Schilling was traded to the Sox, leading them to their first World Series in 86 years. Epstein also added walk-machine Mark Bellhorn and closer Keith Foulke last offseason.
Epstein comes from the MONEYBALL brand of general managers (the book by Michael Lewis about Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics) that values on-base percentage and is very statistics oriented. When hired, Epstein became the youngest general manager in baseball history. He has already shown that he will not overpay to retain the team that won the championship. Pedro Martinez signed with the Mets, Derek Lowe with the Dodgers, and Orlando Cabrera with the Angels. Epstein went out and got a trio of pitchers (Matt Clement, Wade Miller, and David Wells) to fill the holes left by Martinez and Lowe. He also signed former Cardinals all-star shortstop Edgar Renteria to replace Cabrera.
The Boston College men’s basketball team has the least fanfare but maybe the best story. Led by coach Al Skinner, the Eagles are off to their best start in school history and are currently undefeated. Skinner has a very laid back approach to coaching, not calling many timeouts or yelling at players. B. C. has never been a national power, and it hasn’t been this high in the polls since point guard Troy Bell left a few years ago. The team is led by junior forward Craig Smith, who is arguably the best player in the Big East Conference. The team only plays 8 players regularly and only 2 of those are seniors.
The Boston franchises that aren’t holding up their end of the bargain are the Celtics and Bruins. The Celtics continue to linger below .500 and the Bruins are involved in the NHL lockout.
The thing is, right now it doesn’t matter! The Red Sox occupy the spring, summer, and fall. The Patriots and B. C. take up the winter. These years of winning may never be repeated in Boston sports.
My advice to you: sit back, and let the wins keep on coming.
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