After months of fundraising the Keene State dance team competes over winter break in Orlando, Florida

The Keene State College Dance Team was one of over a hundred teams that traveled to Orlando, Florida, over break to compete in nationals.

“I think this was our best year because we just put all of our fears aside and tried new tricks that we’ve never even thought of trying,” team secretary Moriah Ferguson said.  “We put so much more effort into it, we all just wanted it more.”

The dance team has now made the trip to nationals three of the last four years, but their attendance this year was far from a sure thing.

Forced to find the funds for the trip themselves, the team raised money by writing to family and friends, calling alumni, holding car washes and hosting Yankee Candle fund raisers.

Finally after countless hours—and a lot of help from Vice President of Student Affairs Andy Robinson—the team had the funds for the trip.

“It’s hard because we’re the ones who have to figure out all the financial stuff, whether it’s uniforms or transportation, so it does make an impact,” Ferguson said.  “But it makes us a stronger team because we did it all ourselves.”

The team was at a disadvantage in more ways than one.  They also were one of the only teams competing without a coach.  “Basically, we just hired a choreographer and she was really helpful, she gave us music and great choreography for it,” Team Manager Bethany Gordon said. “With no coach, we just all kind of help each other out, which is pretty cool.”

The team performed it’s hardest routine yet, which they admit came with a few extra bumps and bruises during training.

Contributed Photo / Lisa Garamella: With the help of a choreographer, the KSC dance team pumped through some new moves while competing at nationals in Orlando, Florida over break.

“The whole last week we had three-a-day practices, just drilling and making last minute decisions and changing up the choreography,” Gordon explained.  “So it was definitely a long few months of doing choreography, but it all paid off on the stage because the girls worked hard for it.”

Team Captain Lisa Garamella agreed that the team’s hard work was worth it.  “It’s a lot of fun just to be there, and it’s a surreal experience,” Garamella said. “The stage we dance on is a very prestigious stage, if you dance or cheerlead you know what it is and you look forward to it your whole life.”

The trip also brought the team closer.

“So many girls came out of their shell after nationals, they’re going to have a place in my heart for the rest of my life,” Ferguson said.  “We’ve had such a great time this year, it’s amazing.”

So now, the team has regional competitions to look forward to. They still plan on dancing at basketball games and staying visible around the campus.

“We’ll be at lacrosse games in the spring and in the community as much as we can be,” Garamella said.  “We’ll do Relay For Life and any events we can go to around campus.”

But on the surface it appears the team’s future is uncertain.  Six dancers, including captains Garamella and Gabby Pacheco, will be graduating in the spring.

Ten more dancers will be graduating the year after that. It’s the kind of turnover that could derail the progress the program’s made over the last few years.

But, the girls don’t seem worried.

“I think the team is going to get better every year,” Gordon said.  “I’m leaving the team feeling like we’re making a difference for the nationals in years to come, it feels good.”  Ferguson said there are pros to having underclassmen take over.

“A young team is good, I think it’s better because they work together more and everyone is closer as a team,” Ferguson said.

After overcoming adversity and working so hard this year, it’s hard to believe the team could get any closer.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Commentary: Part Five of Five

If you missed the first four parts of the commentary you can find them, along with a more elaborate explanation of these rankings, online (keene-equinox.com). I’m attempting to rank Boston’s championship teams of the 21st century by measuring three criteria: each team’s playoff run, team likability and the historical implications of each title.  It’s also just plain fun to relive some of the greatest seasons in Boston sports history.  We’ve finally reached number one: the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

The Recap

It was the season that changed everything.  Sensationalistic headlines read, “Best team ever” and, “Hell freezes over”, while more conventional papers printed something equally improbable about the hometown team: “Champions of the world!”

In 2004 it was not trendy to be a Red Sox fan. People joke about the Curse Of The Bambino now, but it hung over everything the team did back then, serving as an ugly reminder of nearly a century’s worth of mishaps.

The Red Sox had a way of prodding the faith of their fans, stirring up false hope only to stab them with heart-wrenching letdowns.  Throughout the years, they found countless ways to twist the proverbial knife.

So as the 2004 season commenced, you couldn’t blame people for waiting for things to go wrong—that’s simply the way fans had been conditioned.

Even as an ace was established (Curt Schilling) and a deadly lineup emerged, no one was thinking that it could be the year.

The truth is, the 2004 team ripped through the American League, winning 98 games to secure the two seed in the playoffs.

AP Photo / Steven Senne: Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino and COO Sam Kennedy hold the World Series Championship trophy on the Red Carpet of the Wang Theatre before a screening of a DVD on the team.

The problem was not the Red Sox. The problem was the only team in front of them.

The New York Yankees, winners of 101 games, had knocked the Red Sox out of the playoffs the year before with a game seven walk-off home run that was still burned in most people’s minds.  If Boston was going to “break the curse” in 2004, it would have to upset the Bronx Bombers and their 183 million dollar payroll.

The team didn’t exactly exude confidence.  Manny Ramirez spent the season belting home runs but looking lost in the outfield.  Kevin Millar drove his motorcycle to the park everyday and looked more like a country singer than he did a first basemen.

Mark Bellhorn, Pokey Reese and Bill Mueller filled the infield with specialty players that weren’t known for winning, and centerfielder Johnny Damon’s wild beard spawned bumper stickers asking “WWJDD”, or “What Would Johnny Damon Do?”

They didn’t look like the stars fans thought they needed to drag the franchise out of a historically long title-drought. Then again, they didn’t look nervous about another year of failure, either.

They looked and acted—truthfully— normal.

And it was that carefree mindset that they entered the playoffs with.

Boston would sweep Anaheim in the first round, but the late game heroics of Orlando Cabrera and Ortiz made the series seem more one-sided than it actually was.  The Red Sox would need stellar pitching performances from Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe to win.

And then came the series fans had been waiting for all season.

The Red Sox arrived at Yankee Stadium on October 12 confident in Schilling to take game one.  You can imagine their disappointment, then, when Schilling was shelled until manager Terry Francona mercifully pulled him from the game in the fourth inning.  Boston would drop game one.

There were reasons to be confident, however.  The Red Sox had scored seven runs in game one—proof that they could hit with anybody, fans reasoned.  That idea was shot down the next day, however, when Boston mustered only five hits en route to a lifeless 3-1 loss.

Despite the disarray of the first two games, hope still flickered in the hearts of the Fenway Faithful.

The team would be coming back to Boston with three days to rest before game three.

Surely they could still find a way to turn things around, right?

Wrong.  In fact, the Red Sox had one of the season’s worst performances: a 19-8 loss that got out of hand when New York scored it’s eleventh run in the fourth inning.

The team had been badly embarrassed at home.

In the long history of the league no one had ever come back from the 0-3 series deficit that the Red Sox now found themselves in.

Boston fans just wanted to avoid a sweep to the dreaded Yankees.  No one believed the lovable losers that affectionately called themselves ‘The Idiots’ had a chance…Well, almost no one.

“Don’t let the Sox win this game,” Millar told Boston Globe reporter Dan Shaughnessy three hours before the first pitch of game four, slamming his fist into his glove with every word.

Millar reiterated the thought to teammate Alan Embree as they stretched in the outfield moments later, then told the same thing to anyone who would listen in the clubhouse after that.

It was the kind of senseless self-confidence every underdog needs.

Still, as Millar walked to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, his team trailed 3-4.  Even after the first basemen forced a five-pitch walk, things looked bleak.

But pinch hitter David Roberts stole a base, and Bill Mueller poked a single into centerfield to force extra innings.  Now Fenway Park was alive again.

The game was played through 12 frigid innings and lasted over five hours before David Ortiz launched a fastball into the right field bullpen to give the Red Sox their first win of the series.

The Red Sox were not going down without a fight.

But they certainly didn’t make things easy on themselves, either.

They would trail game five the entire night until an Ortiz home run tied the game in the bottom of the eighth.  Six innings later, Ortiz came through again with a walk-off single. This time the game took five hours and 49 minutes, but the season miraculously continued.

Game six was a 4-2 win and game seven a blowout as legend started blending with reality for this Red Sox team.

Roberts’ game-four stolen base was forever immortalized, reports that the team was taking shots of Jack Daniels before every game surfaced and people who had treated Millar like he was crazy now regarded him as a prophet.

Some might see the World Series sweep against the St. Louis Cardinals one week later as anti-climactic, but after the greatest comeback in playoff history there was simply no way the team was losing again.

The Ranking

The win went beyond baseball.

Fans whose loved ones never got to see the Red Sox win (it had been 86 years, after all) put newspaper clippings and memorabilia on graves.

“My mom didn’t get to see it. There isn’t anything else I can do for her,” New Hampshire resident Neil Van Zile told “Sports Illustrated.”

When a parade date was announced over three million people showed up to stand in the freezing rain and watch The Idiots roll by in duckboats.

The players would go their separate ways; Ramirez wore out his welcome and was traded, Millar signed with the Orioles and Damon even played for the Yankees.

But the team seemed frozen in time.

The players were constantly being stopped on the streets by Red Sox fans that just wanted to say “thank you.”  Even Roberts, who didn’t play in the World Series at all, received a standing ovation every time he came to the plate in Fenway for the rest of his career.

Looking back on it, there is a sort of transcendent quality about the team.

People have tried to capture it in books, documentaries and movies.  It couldn’t have simply been a lucky baseball team.  There had to have been some divine intervention to explain it all.

That’s the great thing about sports: you can remember it how you want to.

The Lasting Image

The whole team, jumping and rolling around the pitcher’s mound after the final out of the World Series.  They were screaming and laughing and looking utterly dysfunctional.

They looked like idiots.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

For most Keene State College runners, the end of the cross country season only signals the beginning of another season— indoor track.  The men’s and women’s teams had their first meet Saturday, December 7.

At a point when most athletes could probably use a break, KSC runners embrace the opportunity to maintain their conditioning.

“It gets you in shape, it helps with endurance,” freshman runner Lindsey Terry said.  “I know past runners who just did track, and then they try cross country and end up doing really well, and it goes the same way the other way, you never know if you have a hidden talent in track.”

Track and cross country coach Peter Thomas agreed with Terry’s assessment.

“It’s just continuous, you get better by running, by the consistency of training,” Thomas said. “The more you train, the better you are.”

Thomas does not explicitly require his runners to participate in indoor track, but he makes it clear that it’s a smart move if they want to improve.

Contributed Photo / Risley Sports Photography:
Junior Kaitlin Wheeler placed first in the 800 meter and mile to help the women’s indoor track team in their first meet at Smith College on Saturday, December 7.

“If they’re going to get better they continue with indoor track,” Thomas said. “The season is mostly mandatory.”  That doesn’t mean he has to put much pressure on his runners—most seem to want to run year-round anyway.  When three freshmen were asked about indoor track, all three said they came to KSC expecting to participate in the indoor season and indicated they will be running indoor all four years at the school.

“I like track, I did it in high school so I always just assumed I’d do it here as well,” freshman Katelyn Terry said.

Aside from keeping everyone in shape, indoor track can also strengthen team chemistry.

“I think as the year progresses, we just bond more,” freshman Carli Davis said. “In the beginning of the season there were ten freshmen for the girls team and all the freshmen were always together and were shy, but as the season goes on we’re all coming out of our shells and now that indoor is starting we’re all really close.”

Lindsey Terry said team chemistry makes it easier to run year-round.

“The team’s so close and we’re all really supportive of one another,” Lindsey said.  “It keeps you encouraged and motivated to come everyday.”

Sometimes athletes get used to the routine of practice and it helps them with their schedule.  Katelyn Terry said running actually motivates her to do school work.

“When I’m running I make sure I get my homework done,” Terry said. “It’s weird, it helps me with my time management.”

Aside from the weather, there are many differences between indoor track and outdoor track, which takes place in the spring.

“Some of the races are shorter, overall there are more connecting distances,” Thomas explained.  “[Indoor] is a little more fun, at least in my perspective. There’s also extra relays.”

Thomas rearranges how each athlete trains in the winter to better prepare them for the indoor distances.  The team is hoping to build off of a successful cross country season that saw both the KSC men and women win the Little Eastern Conference meet.

Thomas acknowledged that winning the LEC indoor meet, which takes place February 15, is a big goal for both teams this season, despite the fact that the KSC indoor women have fallen short of that goal in recent years.  So far, the coach has been encouraged with what he has seen.

“Everything looks really promising, both teams had strong cross country seasons and hopefully it will continue with better indoor seasons,” coach Thomas said.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Commentary: Part Four of Five

If you missed the first three parts of this commentary, you can find them, along with a more elaborate explanation of these rankings online (keene-equinox.com).  I’m attempting to rank Boston’s championship teams of the 21st century by measuring three criteria: each team’s playoff run, team likability and the historical implications of each title.  It’s also just plain fun to relive some of the greatest seasons in Boston sports history. You could say this week’s team started the winning tradition, giving the city its first title from any major sport since 1986.  Here’s number two, the 2001 New England Patriots.

The Recap

It’s not hard to find the beginning of this story.

With nobody open downfield and the pocket closing fast, Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe decided to roll out and run the ball up the sidelines. Quarterbacks almost always run out-of- bounds before they can get hit, avoiding contact and the risk of injury.

But it had been a frustrating day.  With five minutes to play, the Patriots had yet to find the end zone, trailing the New York Jets 10-3.  So on this particular third and ten play, Bledsoe decided to push for the first down.  He was less than two yards from his destination when Jets linebacker, Mo Lewis, delivered a crushing hit that would send Bledsoe to the injured reserve for eight weeks and change the course of the franchise forever.

An untested, shaggy-haired quarterback from northern California would take control of the team, ultimately failing to lead the Patriots back and dropping them to 0-2 on the year. But comebacks later proved to be Tom Brady’s strong suit.

AP Photo / Patric Schneider:
Tom Brady understood the team concept as well as anyone, saying after winning Superbowl MVP, “That whole team, as far as I’m concerned, is MVP.”

Brady would go on to win 11 of the 14 games he started during the regular season, including overtime wins against the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills.  But the 2001 Patriots were much more than just Tom Brady’s team.

Throughout the year, players would provide reminders that they bought into the altruistic, team-first concept that Head Coach Bill Belichick preached.

The running game centered around Antowain Smith, who had 12 touchdowns on the year behind a surprisingly solid offensive line that featured Damien Woody, Joe Andruzzi and rookie Matt Light.  Do-it-all offensive player, Kevin Faulk, also established himself as a threat to run and catch out of the backfield in addition to his primary duties returning kicks.

The receiving core was headed by David Patten and Troy Brown, who had the best season of his career.

But the part of the team that truly encapsulated its selfless nature was the defense.  Individually, there was nothing special about them.  Veteran Brian Cox had made as many pro bowls (three) as the rest of the defensive unit combined.  Cox, Tedy Bruschi and Roman Phifer comprised the linebacker core that seemed to get better as the year went on, allowing just seven rushing touchdowns all season.

Cornerbacks Otis Smith and Ty Law combined for eight interceptions, returning four of them for touchdowns.

Yet despite a six game winning streak to end the season, the Patriots were not expected to make much of a splash in the AFC playoffs.

The postseason started with a bang—or rather a blizzard.

When the Oakland Raiders arrived at Foxboro Stadium for the divisional round game, there were roughly four inches of snow coating the field.  But the weather didn’t slow Oakland down; they would dominate for most of the game and lead 13-3 entering the fourth quarter.

The Patriots would cut the lead to three with a furious 67-yard drive capped by a Tom Brady rushing touchdown, but that only set the stage for one of the most controversial plays in NFL history.

With just under two minutes to play and the Patriots driving, Brady was hit and ruled to have fumbled the ball—the Raiders recovered and the game appeared to be over.  The ruling was overturned upon review, however, when head referee Walt Coleman ruled that Brady was “tucking” the ball prior to losing control, making it an incomplete pass.

The play set up an Adam Vinatieri kick that seemed to miraculously ascend through 45 yards of snowflakes, between the uprights and into the history books. Ty Law would later call the field goal the most amazing play he’d ever seen.

And Vinatieri wasn’t done. A 23-yard kick in overtime had the Patriots making celebratory snow angels in the end zone as the Raiders tried to figure out how they let the game get away.

New England would go to the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh, where they were 10-point underdogs.

After Tom Brady was knocked out of the game with an injury in the second quarter, their chances seemed to be dwindling.

Bledsoe, who had not seen game action since the sideline hit that sent him to the hospital in week two, ran a two-minute drill in his first drive that ended in a touchdown pass to Patten.

You couldn’t have scripted it any better. But the real hero of the game was Troy Brown, who returned a punt for a touchdown and made a spectacular lateral after a blocked field goal to secure another seven points.  It was enough to send the Patriots to the Superbowl.

The St. Louis Rams entered the game as the biggest Superbowl favorite in NFL history; they were projected to win by two touchdowns. With unquestionably the best offense in the league, the Rams had lost just two games all season.  But, the Patriots felt they were the better team.

To show that they considered themselves one unit, they rejected the traditional player introductions and all ran onto the field together, in stark contrast to the individual announcements of St. Louis moments earlier.

After falling behind early, Ty Law intercepted a pass from star quarterback Kurt Warner and returned it for a touchdown to give New England a 7-3 lead.  When Brady threw a touchdown on the Patriots next possession, they appeared to be in control of the game.

But it was still early.

Warner would run for a touchdown and throw for another in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 17.

New England got the ball back with 1:21 to play when offensive coordinator Charlie Weis cautioned a wide-eyed Brady to protect the football above all else in the final drive.

But Bledsoe had other ideas for his protégé. He cut Weis off and famously bellowed, “[Expletive] that. Go out there and sling it!”

Brady would do just that, driving his team 53 yards and setting up another Adam Vinatieri game-winner.  Four months removed from being a virtually unknown backup, Brady was named Superbowl MVP.  The Patriots had pulled off the biggest upset in NFL history.

As confetti continued to stream down Vinatieri exclaimed what everyone else was thinking, “We shocked the world!”

The Ranking

The team likability of this Patriots squad is hard to quantify.

It went beyond the underdog storylines; these guys just seemed to get it.  Since that fateful season, most of the players have stayed relevant.

Law, Bruschi, Brown and Woody have become successful media personalities.  Mike Vrabel, who was a valuable hybrid player in defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel’s 4-3 system, is coaching at Ohio State.

Joe Andruzzi heads a successful charitable foundation and was spotted carrying victims of the Boston Marathon bombing to safety last spring. Boston has never seen such a strong team identity.

The playoff run was spectacular. Round after round, the Patriots defied the odds with ice in their veins.

It was later discovered that Brady had taken a nap hours before the Superbowl kickoff. One common thread you see in all over-achieving underdogs is an unwavering self-confidence—New England had that in spades.

The fact that Bledsoe got to be the hero of the AFC Championship Game just added to the fairy tale feel of the entire season.

Historically, it broke a streak of five consecutive Superbowl losses for New England. It was the franchise’s first ever Lombardi Trophy. Fans witnessed the birth of a quarterback-coach combo that continues to dominate the league over a decade later.

The Lasting Image

Brady, hands on his head and confetti in the air, shaking his head in disbelief.

Stay tuned next week for number five!

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

The Keene State College Field Hockey team won the Little Eastern Conference championship for the second time in three years.

“Everything comes down to LEC’s,” senior midfielder, Leddy Gallagher, said.  “There’s so much pressure on us and it’s nice we finally got what we worked for.”

The Lady Owls cruised against LEC opponents all season, going a perfect 11-0 in conference games.  Their last conference win, however, was probably their hardest.

Brian Cantore / Photo Editor: Senior Katlyn Simula attempts to advance the ball during the LEC championship game on Nov. 9.

Although KSC had beaten Plymouth State earlier in the year, their rivals were in no mood to roll over.  The game was scoreless at halftime and the Lady Owls would muster just ten shots on goal the entire match.  But, that would prove to be enough— they would hold on to win the championship 2-1 on November 9.

“It was a battle, we had a tough game to win the regular season and then we had three difficult games after that to win the whole thing,” head coach, Amy Watson, said.

Watson pointed to the 3-2 semifinals win over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where they trailed at halftime, as a particularly tough game.

But, the team seemed to have an answer for everyone, relentlessly dominating their schedule to finish with a final record of 21-4.

“We’re a team that, we can’t take any games lightly, we have to treat every game like it’s going to be our last,” senior Julia Forgione said.  “And our coach has always said not to get ahead of ourselves.”

The team went on to lose in the second round of the NCAA regional tournament to Skidmore College, but that doesn’t diminish their accomplishments.  After winning the LEC two years ago, last year KSC lost in the championship game to U-Mass Dartmouth.  It was a game Gallagher described as “a slap in the face,” and something no one on the team wanted to see repeated.

As one of the six seniors of the Lady Owls, Gallagher said it meant a lot to go out on a positive note for her last year.

“We won my sophomore year and it was cool and all, but I didn’t realize what it meant to the seniors that year,” Gallagher said. “To be able to say in your last year playing field hockey that you’re champions, is awesome.”

Still, Watson noted that the title was never a guarantee.

“I don’t know if we expected to win, we knew it was going to be a tough tournament,” Watson said.  “The most important thing for us was being able to get the number one seed, that definitely helped.”

Brian Cantore / Photo Editor: Freshman Brittney Cardente outruns a Plymouth State defender in the LEC championship game.

Forgione agreed that things were very much in doubt heading into the season. She said last year was a “rebuilding year” and that there were questions about how successful they would be this season.

“I think we developed chemistry and we really clicked, it was awesome,” Forgione said.

Watson, who said she gave the team a day to celebrate before getting them back to work, said she was proud of her team.

“[Winning the championship] was awesome, that was one of our goals coming into the year,” Watson said.

“We wanted to win the one seed then be conference champions.”

Mission accomplished.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

If you missed the first two parts of the commentary, you can find them, along with a more elaborate explanation of these rankings, online at keene-equinox.com.  Basically, I am attempting to rank Boston’s championship teams of the twenty-first century by measuring three criteria: each team’s playoff run, team likability and the historical implications of each title.  Last week covered number four, the 2011 Boston Bruins.  We keep rolling this week with the third team on the list: the 2013 Boston Red Sox.

The Recap

With “Dirty Water” still stuck in our heads and those beautiful beards still burned in our minds, looking at the most recent championship objectively can be a challenge.  Perhaps time will give a clearer perspective, but for now this is what we know: with last year’s .426 winning percentage, the 2013 Red Sox had the biggest turnaround of any World Series champion in league history.

The story of the team’s rejuvenation could start in a lot of places: 2011’s fried chicken-filled locker rooms, 2012’s busy trainer’s rooms or 2013’s Boston Marathon finish line.

As the Boston community tried to recover from the horrific events of April 15, it rallied around the victims and heroes that were created that day.  The terrorist attack had brought grief, confusion and anger to the city, but it also brought unity.

Symbols of the city took on new meanings and the Boston Red Sox, as much a symbol of the city as anything, were an easy target to rally around.

The Red Sox flew out of the gate to start the season, winning 18 of their 26 games in April and never looked back.  On their way to a league best 97-win season it became clear this was a different team than the one that had suited up for Bobby Valentine the season before. Boston got strong seasons from franchise guys, resurgent veterans and newcomers.  In other words, coming off a year of relentless injuries, everything went right.

Despite the success of the Sox, the postseason offered no easy rounds.

First they faced the division-rival Tampa Bay Rays, a powerhouse in it’s own right.  Handing losses to the stars of the Ray’s rotation, Matt Moore and David Price, would prove to be too much for Tampa Bay to overcome.  Boston took the five-game series in four. The American League Championship Series (ALCS) against the Detroit Tigers would bring more drama.

The Red Sox’ dangerous offense was completely silenced in game one as they were a Daniel Nava single away from being no-hit.  David Ortiz’s game two grand slam set up catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s walk-off that would even the series.

Boston would win games three and five by one run, setting up Shane Victorino’s game six grand slam that sent the  Sox to the World Series.  Closer Koji Uehara, who had been untouchable all year, would rightly be named ALCS MVP.

The World Series proved that even in a league 144 years old, there is a first for everything.

The St. Louis Cardinals would take one of the first two games in Boston (despite homers by the increasingly deadly Ortiz in both contests.)

AP Photo / Matt Slocum: David Ortiz, later named World Series MVP, put himself in the conversation with the most clutch players in Boston sports history with his postseason play.

Game three was tied going into the bottom of the ninth when history was made. After an impressive play by Dustin Pedroia to get Cardinal’s catcher Yadier Molina out at home, Jarrod Saltalamacchia attempted to throw out St. Louis pinch hitter Allen Craig sliding at third.

The ball passed Boston third baseman, Will Middlebrooks, and as Craig stepped over the third basemen to run home, Middlebrooks was called for obstruction, automatically advancing Craig and ending the game.  It was the first time a World Series game was won on such a call.

Outstanding pitching performances by Felix Doubront and Jon Lester (again) in games four and five would set up the Red Sox with a 3-2 series advantage and a chance to clinch the title in Fenway for the first time since 1918.

John Lackey would pitch 6.2 passionate innings before manager John Farrell all but dragged him off the field.

Lackey walked off the mound to a standing ovation, and for the first time in a long and strenuous relationship with the city, he would tip his cap to the crowd of 38,447.

It was a party in Fenway from there.  Victorino had once again delivered a timely hit to put the Red Sox up 6-1, and the home crowd knew how close they were to witnessing Boston win its third World Series in ten years.  Ortiz, who had been so great he prompted journeyman teammate David Ross to wonder of him, “What planet is that guy from?” would win the World Series MVP— it was his first.

The Ranking

Anytime you prompt the mass production of bumper stickers that read “Pull My Beard” you’re going to be high on the team likability rankings.

The Red Sox ran with the “Boston Strong” movement and showed resiliency and toughness at a time when Boston needed to be both.

The playoff run, though there were no game sevens, featured memorable game sixes and cemented Ortiz’s legacy as the most clutch player to come through Boston sports since Larry Joe Bird (sorry, Tom Brady).  It also made heroes out of Uehara and Lackey. Historically speaking, the win added to the Red Sox’ growing twenty-first century resume.  After being the lovable losers for the better half of a decade, three titles in ten years isn’t too shabby.

The Lasting Image

It might be too soon for this one, but I’ll go with the Boston cop with his hand in the air as Torii Hunter’s feet flip over the wall in game two of the ALCS.

Stay tuned for the top two teams in coming weeks!

Zach Winn can be contacted atzwinn@keene-equinox.com

After this season, KSC has been eliminated by U-Mass Boston in three consecutive years, including twice in the finals

The Keene State College Volleyball team is picking up the pieces after another heartbreaking loss in the Little Eastern Conference championship game.

“It’s funny, we lost thirteen matches this year and the other twelve we were like ‘yeah, okay,’ but this one [the LEC championship] you lose and you start to question everything,” head coach Bob Weiner said.  “It’s because it’s the last one.”

The two-seeded Lady Owls lost the game to the top seed, University of Massachusetts Boston, in four hard-fought sets on Sunday, November 10,  making the loss especially hard to recover from is the history between these two teams.

Brian Cantore / Photo Editor: Madeleine Nossiff spikes the ball in a game against Southern Maine on October 29th in the Spaulding Gymnasium. The win gave KSC a first-round bye in the LEC tournament.

U-Mass Boston has now eliminated KSC from the LEC tournament three years in a row.  Two of those losses came in the championship game, the other (2011) was in the semifinals. “It’s hard, we worked really hard all year and U-Mass Boston is one of our rivals,” sophomore Olivia Broderick said,  “But, they are a good team.”

When asked what his team took away from another frustrating knockout, Weiner said it was too soon to tell.  “I don’t know yet, this is still early. It’s funny I didn’t expect this, this is really raw,” Weiner said of his team’s emotions.

“They’re hurt that we didn’t get over the hump this time because they thought they would.”

Sophomore middle blocker, Madeleine Nossiff, admitted the loss stung, but also saw some positives to take away from the season.  “It sucked to get that far and lose; but it’s exciting to get there,” Nossiff said,  “It was exciting to go [to the championship] and we knew U-Mass Boston was a fantastic team.“

Now, Weiner said the program has hit a fork in the road.

“There are two completely different schools of thought to follow, and I’m not ready to give you a definitive answer as to which we’ll go down,” Weiner said.

The coach explained that the first path focuses on the team’s youth.  With no seniors and only two juniors this year, everyone on the team is expected to return for 2014.  If the underclassmen continue to improve, the team may be able to take the next step and finally win a league title next year.

Weiner is second-guessing himself in the second school of thought.

“The definition of idiocy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Weiner said.

Weiner added that making playing time more competitive might give the team the jolt it needs to improve.  That would include bringing in recruits who are ready to contribute immediately, but the coach is also concerned with upsetting team morale, something likely to occur if established players start getting benched. “If we bring the same group in and we lose in the championship, we can go back and go ‘God you’re an idiot, what were you thinking,’” Weiner said.  “Or, if I blow it up and we finish sixth in the league then we go ‘God you’re an idiot’, and there’s only one good answer to this.”

Weiner said he will be decisive in whichever road he takes. Nossiff said she expects the team to improve even more next year after observing the team grow so much in 2013.

“I think over the entire season we learned a lot,” Nossiff said.  “We developed as a team and definitely towards the end of the season, you could tell that we were starting to come together and really come into form.”

Broderick agreed with that assessment and said she is optimistic for the upcoming year.

“Since we have everyone coming back next year, hopefully we’ll have a strong start to the season and keep just growing like we did this season.”

Weiner agreed the team developed as the year went on, but still said he wasn’t sure how they would respond to another crushing defeat to end the season.  Only time will tell if the loss will break the team or make them stronger.

“What have they gotten out of it?” Weiner asked.  “They don’t know yet, we’ll find out.”

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

If you missed part one last week, you can find it, along with a more elaborate explanation of these rankings online at keene-equinox.com.  Basically, I’m attempting to rank Boston’s championship teams of the twenty-first century by measuring three criteria: each team’s playoff run, team likability and the historical implications of each title.  Last week the commentary started with the 2008 Celtics, and here’s number four: the 2011 Boston Bruins.

The Recap

In stark contrast to last year’s finals-bound team, as the 2011 Boston Bruins entered the playoffs there was little talk of championship aspirations.  Although the team was coming off of a respectable 46-25 season that gave them the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, it was difficult to erase the memory of an ugly playoff collapse to the Philadelphia Flyers the year before.

With a middling offense and a downright dysfunctional power play, it seemed the only thing the Bruins had going for them was their quirky goalie in net.  Tim Thomas had led the league in save percentage and verbal shots at the president during the season. The eccentric, ultra-conservative Thomas appeared to be the only hope for a young roster that held 15 players at or under the age of 25.

As it turned out, that wasn’t such a bad situation to be in.

The playoffs started with the rival Montreal Canadiens quickly winning the first two matches in Boston, pushing the Bruins playoff losing streak to six consecutive games (get those duck boats ready!).  But in the following five games of the series fans learned something about the team that would ring true throughout the postseason: the Bruins were better with their backs against the wall.

Three of the next five games would go into overtime, and the Bruins would win all of them, including a memorable game seven at home.

Next up was Philadelphia, the culprits of last year’s disastrous meltdown.  From the start of the series, however, the Bruins made it clear they would leave nothing to chance, taking game one 7-3.

The blowout set the tone for the series, and the Bruins would go on to sweep the Flyers, out-scoring them 20-7.

The Eastern Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning would not be so easy.  The Bruin’s 6-5 game two win was indicative of the way the series would play out, with each team trading blows and neither winning consecutive games. Game seven was scoreless through the first 52:27 of play before center David Krejci’s pass found forward Nathan Horton crashing the net for the only goal of the game.  Thomas saved all 24 shots he saw to secure his second shutout of the series.  The Bruins would be going to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1990.

It would have been difficult to script a better villain than the team Boston met in the finals, the Vancouver Canucks.

The Canucks had cruised through the Western Conference Finals and were a heavy favorite to dispatch the over-achieving Bruins.  The notoriously soft Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, were the antithesis of a physical Bruins team that seemed to score as much with brute force as with finesse.

A heartbreaking game one in which the only goal of the game slipped by the outstretched arms of Thomas with 19 seconds left in the third period didn’t help the Bruins chances.

When Boston dropped game two in overtime, hope was understandably dwindling for the upstart Bruins.

Then the series changed, as only it can in hockey, where momentum shatters like a tooth in the way of a slap shot.

Just over five minutes into game three, Canucks defender Aaron Rome delivered a disturbing hit to Horton, which play by play commentator Mike Emrick described as “absolutely way too late.”

Rome was ejected as an unresponsive Horton was taken off the ice in front of a horrified Boston Garden crowd.  Rome would be ejected for the remainder of the series.

Whether you want to call it a turning point or not, a previously silent Boston offense went on to score four goals in the second period, and tacked on another four in the third to blow the Canucks out.

Things didn’t stop with the horn of game three; Boston would out-score Vancouver 21-4 after the dirty hit and rally to take the series in seven (sound familiar?).

The Ranking

The players’ diverse personalities seemed to make the team easier to rally around.

There were the young unknowns trying to make names for themselves (Tyler Seguin, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand), the more established veterans (Michael Ryder and Zdeno Chara) and the old guys who were playing as if they were young again (Mark Recchi and Thomas).  Unlike the big names that carried the Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox to crowns, this team won as a unit.

The playoff run was one for the ages, featuring three game sevens, two of which were decided by just one goal (both off the stick of Horton).  There were many times when it appeared the Bruins’ run was over, only for them to rally back with the flip of a switch.  It seemed each round brought a foe more hated and imposing than the last.

AP Photo / Charles Krupa:
Zdeno Chara (left) and David Krejci (right) were integral parts of the Bruins 2011 title run.

Historically speaking, the title returned the Bruins, one of the original six teams in the NHL, back to prominence.  It was their first championship since 1972 after they had come up short in their previous five Stanley cup appearances.  But perhaps most importantly, it brought hockey back to the eyes of Boston, where titles in the other three major sports had overshadowed the city’s rich tradition on ice.

The Lasting Image

Forty-three-year-old Mark Recchi hoisting the cup.  After previously stating he would “sail off into the sunset” if the Bruins won, Recchi announced his retirement moments later.

Stay tuned for numbers 3-1 in coming weeks!

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

This week’s Athlete of the Week is cross country standout, Samantha Goldsmith.  Goldsmith led a pack of Keene State College runners that dominated the Little Eastern Conference championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. The sophomore has been strong all year, finishing the 5K course in a time of 18:36. She was part of a pack of Lady Owls that finished the race with four runners in the top five.  Needless to say, KSC beat the second-place University of Southern Maine handily, 17-44.  The win marked the teams unprecedented 14th consecutive LEC win and provided momentum going into next week’s ECAC’s.

Our runner-up this week is women’s soccer forward, Hayley Kenyon.  The senior started the week with a game winning assist in the 86th minute of a tight match against Westfield State.  The team’s lights-out defense was able to hold the lead and secure a 2-1 win. Kenyon added an assist in the ninth minute of the Lady Owls last game of the season just three days later.  But Kenyon wasn’t finished ending the regular season with a bang, scoring an unassisted goal in the second half to add to a 4-0 drubbing of Southern Maine on Nov. 2.  Now the team starts the Little Eastern Conference tournament on Thursday, November 7, as the second seed hoping to make a deep run.

Our second runner-up is sophomore cross country star Ryan Brady.  Like Goldsmith, Brady finished first overall for the men at the LEC championships, with a time of 25:40.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

You may have heard the statistic by now: the Boston area has witnessed eight championships since 2001.  This kind of unprecedented success puts Boston sports fans in a unique position to reflect on each title, but it also gives us the opportunity to compare them.

Boston media personalities have been understandably hesitant to rank each championship team lest they diminish any other team’s accomplishments. In this five-part commentary, I’m going to attempt to objectively order the top five Boston champions of the twenty-first century.

We will start with number five and count down to the “best” champions.  Each week I will break down a different championship team using some basic criteria that I’ve developed.

AP Photo: Rajon Rondo was in his second year when he became a world champion as the starting point guard for the 2008 Boston Celtics, averaging 10.6 points and 5.1 assists.

The first is team likability.  Each championship roster features players who are easier to root for than others.  Sometimes, that is because they’re humble (Zdeno Chara), sometimes it is because they’re cocky (Dustin Pedroia), but this category is looking at how much a fan would’ve enjoyed these teams if they weren’t from Boston.

The second component I will be ranking is the historical impact of the title.  The Patriots second title in three years might not mean as much historically as the Red Sox first in 86.  There are some champions that were in a better position to change the overall view of the franchise than others.

The third factor is the championship run that each team went on. Sweeping every playoff round is less dramatic than gutting out game sevens on the way to a title, and these rankings will account for that as well.

Now that I’ve established ground rules, let’s get started with number five: the 2008 Boston Celtics.

The Recap

It’s easy to forget how hopeless things were for the Celtics on draft night in 2007.  Coming off a 24-win season, Boston was projected to take Yi Jianlian with the fifth overall pick.  When general manager Danny Ainge traded that pick for Seattle sharpshooter Ray Allen, there was more confusion than optimism.  The team that was supposed to be building a core of promising young players just traded their high draft pick for a guy who turned 32 later in the month.

But things changed when a mega-deal was announced that would land the Celtics superstar forward Kevin Garnett; now there was a clear picture of where the franchise was going, a genuine championship roster, a Big Three.

From the first game of the season the Celtics showed they would be a defensive force behind assistant coach Tom Thibodeau’s revolutionary schemes and Garnett’s nightly intensity.

The team routinely made opponents miserable, holding them to a league-low 41.9 field goal percentage.

Paul Pierce showed maturity by transforming his game, taking nearly five less shots a night and having one of the most efficient seasons of his career, per basketball-reference.com.

Journeymen James Posey and Eddie House endeared themselves to fans by giving the team productive minutes off the bench and partaking in goofy pregame rituals during player introductions.

There was also the emergence of Rajon Rondo, Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Leon Powe, who together entered the season with a combined two years of NBA experience.

By the time the playoffs came along, the team was 66-16, easily the best record in the league.  But that didn’t mean things would be easy for the Celtics in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

They didn’t win a road game until the conference finals, dropping their first six contests away from the TD Garden.

That led to do-or-die game sevens against the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers, the latter of which proved to be a legendary shoot-out between Paul Pierce (41 points) and LeBron James (45 points) while they guarded each other for the majority of the game.

The Celtics came from behind to put away the Detroit Pistons in game six and vault into the NBA Finals to face their old rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers.

The series was hard-fought but never quite in doubt, as the Celtics held at least a game advantage throughout.  They added an exclamation point to the title-clinching game six with a 39-point blowout in front of 18,624 celebrating fans.

The Ranking

The team was certainly fun to cheer for.  The three stars complemented each other off the court almost as well as they did on it.

Allen, the consummate professional, was the least vocal­­—but then again sometimes it seemed Garnett did enough talking for the entire team.

Pierce had long ago won himself over to fans, and Powe (who exploded for 21 points in game two of the finals) encapsulated the rags-to-riches story-line.

It was the franchise’s first title since 1986, but those were a long 22 years for Celtics fans.

The championship gap included the tragic deaths of Reggie Lewis and Len Bias, the failed tanking experiment for Tim Duncan, eight different head coaches and far too many Antoine Walker shimmy-shakes. The 2008 season was the biggest turnaround (in terms of win totals) ever for an NBA team.

The playoff run was spectacular, including career-defining games for Pierce, Powe and even House.  That they finished with a victory over the 1980s-nemesis Lakers only helped their case.

The Lasting Image

“Anything is possible!” –Kevin Garnett

Stay tuned for parts 1-4 in coming weeks!

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com