.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Tuesday October 19, 2010
Ripping items from the headlines, but ripping them very gently...
Today is Oct. 17, and believe it or not, college basketball season is upon us. Friday was the first day of practice for the vast majority of college teams -- not NESCAC teams, but that s another story.
For some Division I teams in our areas, there are more questions than answers. But that s what preseason practice is for. The biggest question concerns the team that is south of us. What exactly will the NCAA do to the University of Connecticut men?
UConn officials, including coach Jim Calhoun, spent 12 hours in front of the NCAA explaining why some self-punishment should be sufficient for recruiting violations involving former assistants and contacts with prospective student-athletes through an agent who used to be a student manager in Storrs.
The Huskies weren t great last year, and sanctions could really put UConn behind the proverbial 8-ball.
There are questions a-plenty as Derek Kellogg opens practice at Massachusetts.
Will his recruitments start paying off? Will fans start returning to the Mullins Center -- maybe not the crowds he played in front of during the Calipari years, but better crowds? Will the student body start supporting this team again?
And there s the most successful team around us, across the border at Siena. Can new head coach Mitch Buonaguro continue the success that Fran McCaffery began?
Siena fans are expecting the Saints to become a new, somewhat smaller Xavier. The Musketeers are the most successful of the so-called mid-major programs. Xavier loses coaches fairly regularly, but continues the successful run to NCAA tournament bids.
Xavier is what all mid-majors should aspire to be. Schools like Xavier and Siena are going to lose coaches now and again. It s important they pick the right replacements. Xavier has done a good job. Siena, well, that remains to be seen.
And believe it or not, they all start playing in a month.
n
The Pittsfield Colonials got an early gift this past week, in the form of a new rival.
We reported Saturday that the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League have made the move into the Can-Am League as the seventh team in the league. This can only be good news for the Colonials and the other five teams in the league.
A seventh team means a couple of things: The Colonials won t have to play teams quite as often, and bringing an eighth team into the league is only a matter of time.
The Can-Am circuit can use another solid franchise, and Newark brings some solid footing to the league. The Bears averaged 1,800 fans per game. That would have put the Bears fourth in the Can-Am League, but they were at the bottom of the Atlantic League.
n
For the second time this season, a high school football game involving Pittsfield teams was postponed Friday night because of rain. That leads me to think that it is beyond time that a facility for football is created in the city.
For years, some high school coaches have talked with me extensively about the possibility of a football-only field for Pittsfield and St. Joseph s -- teams that share Wahconah Park. Postponements only make the case for those in favor.
A facility with FieldTurf (artificial surface), some lights, bleachers and a press box is all we need.
This doesn t have to be a big stadium, and it doesn t even need to have locker room space. But for the cost of artificial turf -- which I know is high -- it would cost the city far less in maintenance once the turf is put down.
And if you don t think that MIAA-sanctioned high school lacrosse is coming sometime in the next five or six years, think again. This field would be a great place for all three of the city high schools to play night football games, and for future varsity lacrosse programs to share as a home field.
It s an idea whose time is overdue.
To reach Howard Herman:
hherman@berkshireeagle.com ,
(413) 496-6253.
