The fall season has been under way for about two weeks now, long enough to see lots of games and interact with lots of coaches and athletes, and therefore long enough to find a thing or 10 to follow through the rest of the season.
10. New coaches - Montpelier field hockey and cross country, Cabot girls soccer, Northfield boys soccer, Randolph boys soccer all have them, and it's always interesting to see how the first season goes. Things seem good so far - Montpelier cross country had a great showing in the Essex Invitational, and Northfield boys soccer has also done well, thanks to some key goal-scoring by senior Kevin Darling.
9. Hair. I have only seen one mohawk so far this fall, and frankly that astonishes me. It was on a soccer player, and it was today. I love the playoff haircuts the Northfield boys soccer team comes out with (really, you'll hear about it again), and usually football players do an interesting thing or two with their hair (to their credit, I did see some cornrows last Saturday, but that's not all that out of the ordinary anymore).
8. Hollering about the paper not covering JV games. This is something I'd love to see stop, but at the same time, I'm pumped parents care that much to take the time to go to bat for their kids. Even if it does ultimately go nowhere. The reality is we here at the Times Argus, and most papers, for that matter, don't have the staff or the finances to cover even all of the varsity games in our coverage areas. Trust me, I'd rather be out watching a game - any game - than sit in the office. That's the beauty of our job - the getting-out-and-doing-things sure beats sitting at a desk. With our new weekly - yes, new free weekly published by the Times Argus - perhaps there will be space for more non-varsity athletics. Those kids do deserve recognition, too, and it's too bad we can't do more. So I'd like to see this complaining stop because a solution is found that leaves everyone happy.
7. U-32 field hockey. These girls started the season off with three wins in a row over quality teams - and they only won three games TOTAL last fall. Midfielder Brynn Cayia is on top of her game - as are all of her teammates, apparently, which is awesome. I hope this continues - it's fun to see a program turn around, especially behind players and coaches who have put so much into the respective programs.
6. No fights. Please, please, please, keep this going. I know things tend to get progressively more heated toward the end of the regular season, but really, there's nothing worse - aside from catastrophic injury - than having a youth sporting event marred by a fight. Thanks for a great, peaceful start.
5. The early fall weather. You know, the kind where it's still warm out and you can feel your fingers, toes and nose throughout the entire game? The kind of warm afternoons where you aren't distracted by the warm colors of fall foliage? The kind where overtime is really not a bad thing because you actually still want to be outside after the game? Yep, right now.
4. Defending champions. I am always interested in how defending champions come out to start the next season. Do they freak out if they don't dominate right away? Do the really, truly, buy into the "oh that was last year, we just focus on this year" thing? Or do they not skip a beat? We'll see how Spaulding football, Harwood field hockey, PA girls soccer, U-32 boys soccer (MY we have a few champions in central Vermont!) do as the weeks roll on.
3. Local football. The change to Division I for Spaulding football is an obvious thing to watch, but I'm also interested in how U-32 reacts to Spaulding not being in the neighborhood anymore, so to speak. The two teams do still play each other, but both will head to separate brackets. Spaulding had a great second game in Division I after a goose egg first week, and U-32 has a big test with power Otter Valley coming in this week. Should be something...
2. Youth. Or inexperience, I should say. The Montpelier girls soccer team has a lot of youth, and a few players who just plain weren't there last fall - Mollie Gribbin, a nationally ranked sprinter who went to the Champlain Waldorf School last year, and Caitlin Paterson, who started her high school playing days at Montpelier before moving to California and who has since returned to MHS. Both have done great things so far. Over at Chelsea, there's a few first-year senior players joining an already tremendously athletic group of athletes, and one, Carolann Hook, scored not one by two goals to help Chelsea win 4-0 in the first game of the season. Nothing gets rid of first-game, first-season jitters than a great start.
1. Sleepers. This is what I love about all sports that aren't professional. It's why I love college basketball and college football immensely more than the pros. In high school anything can happen. Grades, injuries, just kids being kids - kids who are not only trying to figure out how to win, they're trying to figure out school and what they want to do with their lives, rather than pros who pretty much think they have it all figured out - it all can deeply impact the high school game. I enjoy a good story, and the potential for good stories in high school athletics is astounding. Impress away, kids!
-Anna Grearson
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