The Girls soccer team is about halfway through its season and, despite a tough start, shows signs of picking up momentum. With three freshmen starters and only four seniors, the young team has learned to work together to get the job done.  Although their 3-5-3 record may not reflect the effort and teamwork the girls have put in, they always try to start positive.

One tough loss came to Notre Dame Academy, 7-3. NDA scored first early in the game, but Hanover’s senior captain Erin Petrocelli evened it up late in the first half. Any confidence the team had going into the second half was quickly deflated when NDA scored three goals in the first 10 minutes. Hanover continued to battle but NDA scored 3 more times, leaving the score 7-1 with 15 minutes left to play.  It was tough to look at that scoreboard, but Coach Mike Fraser talked with some key players, and juniors Alyssa Frates and Marissa Shoulla fired back to end the game at 7-3. 

“I think the NDA game was a serious wakeup call for the team,” said captain Kate Joy. “But we have some winnable games coming up so I look forward to working hard and seeing how things turn out.”

After the tough loss to NDA, the girls played Quincy on their home turf. It was a pretty even match but early in the second half Frates got tripped in the box and Petrocelli sored off the penalty kick. Frates later added a goal off a rebound from senior captain Julianna Stacy, and Hanover won 2-1 for their first win. Sophomore Amanda Armstrong had a very strong game at center-mid, winning 50/50 balls and getting the ball up the field. The team added another win that week against North Quincy.

“I love hanging out with them everyday between team dinner, bus rides and practices,” said freshman Dottie Tilden. “I don’t want this season to end.”

This year, things have changed a little for the 18 varsity players.  To make tournament in the past, all the team had to do was beat Middleboro once. Since Middleboro is no longer in the same division, the girls must win nine games or beat Norwell to qualify for tournament. Last year, Norwell’s Varsity team won its division. Coach Fraser keeps the team’s spirits high by telling them to keep their eyes on the prize and if we work together and work hard, it will come.

The girls head into this week with two home games: Monday against Rockland and a Thursday night game against NDA.

Google Photo Album from #HHSTribe

The Hanover boys and girls Cross Country teams have started their fall seasons in full stride. Both teams have worked under the training of Coach Brown and Coach McLean through rain, sun, and ninety-degree weather, but have kept their pace up long enough and fast enough to pose as serious competitors in the Patriot League.

As a captain of the Hanover girls Cross Country team, I can fully attest to the hard work of my teammates. So far, the girls have won two meets out of three, including a victory on their 2.5 mile home course Sept. 20. Hanover beat Plymouth South 26-31 (the lowest score wins in cross country). Their other win, a one-point victory, came against Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. In that 5K meet, senior Niamh Kenney led the way for Hanover with a 22:03 time, and sophomore Alyssa Nee followed close behind with 22:13. Their only loss came in a fierce race against Plymouth North High School on September 7, where they fell short by 12 points.

The boys team has  raced superbly against difficult competition, but is still looking for its first win. At the Whitman-Hanson meet, sophomore Nick Courtney led his team with a time of 18:06 and finished fourth in the race. All of the boys have demonstrated commendable effort and seen incredible results.

Last Saturday, the girls and boys raced 2.5 miles up steep hills and across big green fields at the Big Wave XC Invitational meet held at Apponequet Regional High School. All of the runners did exceptionally well, particularly considering how early it still is in the season.

For any Hanover High School students interested, there is still time to join the Cross Country team. Speed and running backgrounds are completely unnecessary; the goal is progress and joining the fight together as a team. Hanover Cross Country has potential this season for serious victory, and each and every runner on the team is an incredible asset for making that success a reality. I have no doubt that the hard work of Hanover’s Cross Country runners will be evident in all of their accomplishments this season.

The New England Patriots came out in their home opener rolling against the Miami Dolphins. The absence of quarterback Tom Brady seemed to be the least of the Patriots problems as, for the second straight week, the offense operated as a strong unit. Jimmy Garoppolo had played beyond my expectations in Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals, one of the best defenses in the National Football League. Week 2 against Miami shouldn’t have been any different, since the game was at home and against a lesser opponent. Garoppolo and the Patriots’ offense steamrolled the Dolphins, and the defense was the dominant force it should be all season. Even with a second-half Miami comeback, the Patriots were still able to beat the Dolphins 31-24.     

The win came at a huge expense, though, as Garoppolo was hit in the second quarter and injured on the play. He sustained an AC joint separation in this throwing shoulder and did not return to the game. The timetable for his return is still in question as the extent of the injury still hasn’t been announced. Some reports say Garoppolo could be out four weeks and other reports say he could playing in Week 4 in the final game before Brady returns from suspension. Moral of the story is that this isn’t good for the Patriots. They have it tough enough playing the Houston Texans on a short week Thursday night. Jacoby Brissett will start that game for the Patriots, and for a rookie quarterback who is not ready to play in the NFL at this stage in his career, it’s a tough situation to be thrown into.

Garoppolo has truly impressed me during the small sample of playing we’ve seen from him. He seems to operate well in New England’s offense and consistently made great decisions while having the ball in his hand. I don’t want Garoppolo traded after Brady’s suspension is over unless a bad team wants to make an overwhelming deal. Based on what we’ve seen, Garopollo has the makings of a future starting quarterback, and something very radical would have to be offered in the Patriots’ favor in order for me to accept his trade. 

The pressure for long term falls onto Brady’s shoulders now. I don’t think anyone is here to push Brady out the door, but people now know if he’s not getting the job done, there’s someone already on their team who can. For the short term, pressure falls on Bill Belichick. Can he manage to beat a true up-and-coming team in the Houston Texans with a third-string quarterback? Belichick is known widely as the best coach in the league and Thursday night will be a huge challenge for him and the Patriots.

While the Red Sox are in the midst of an awesome season, Boston’s other sports teams are all in their off-season and looking to improve their respective rosters. As the summer approaches, we draw closer to the NHL and NBA drafts, NFL training camp and the MLB trade deadline. So a good question is, which Boston team has the best chance of acquiring a superstar player this summer? Some teams need to make moves to be competitive and vie for championships again, while others just need to shore up a weak spot or two. Here’s who I believe has the best chance of doing that.

First off, I feel the New England Patriots have the least chance of landing a superstar this summer. Now, the Patriots did make a huge move in acquiring former Chicago Bears tight end Martellus Bennett. He and Rob Gronkowski should be an elite tight end duo for the Patriots offense this season. The NFL draft has come and gone, and most elite free agents have been signed, so it seems the
Patriots have made all of their moves and are set on their roster. If the Patriots were to trade for some sort of a superstar, it’d come as a major surprise to me.

The Boston Bruins have missed the playoffs the past two seasons, both times because of a late-season collapse. The Bruins’ weakest link is their coach Claude Julien, and at the end of last season, they already committed to keeping him around. Of all the Boston teams, the Bruins have the biggest need for a game-changing superstar. Their roster just isn’t very good. The lack of solid defense is what held the Bruins back from generating a successful season. But I don’t think they’re going to get the superstar they need. I don’t have any faith in the organization of the Bruins. They haven’t done anything under General Manager Don Sweeney that makes me feel confident in them making a move for a big time player. The Bruins absolutely need to make moves to strengthen their roster, I just have doubts they will do enough to give us a winning product.

The Boston Celtics were eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs this past season. As one of the most fun teams to watch in the NBA, the C’s season was successful despite losing in six games to the Atlanta Hawks. This off-season is huge for the Celtics as it seems their rebuilding process has come to an end and their young roster has major potential to continue to improve. But it’s almost impossible to contend for championships in the NBA without a superstar. The Celtics had the third best chance in getting the number one overall pick in this year’s draft. A trade from 2013 with Brooklyn sent Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry and D.J. White to Brooklyn for three first-round picks and players. Brooklyn had one of the worst records in basketball this season and the Celtics had full position of their first-round pick. With a 15.6 percent chance of landing the number one overall pick, the Celtics ended up receiving the 3rd overall selection in this year’s draft. The Celtics will have to make major moves in order to get a superstar, but under the control of Danny Ainge, I believe they will do it. This off-season, the Celtics will figure out a way to bring in a real talented player to help them go deep into the playoffs.

The Boston Red Sox are contenders to go to the World Series as of right now. In no way am I saying the Red Sox are going to win the World Series, but they are absolute contenders. The Sox are the only Boston sports team that plays during the summer, but most definitely are the most likely to bring in a superstar. President of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, will be looking to improve the Sox come July when the MLB trade deadline approaches. The Red Sox offense is dominant and their bullpen has been very strong too. The Sox starting pitching is their Achilles heel. With major struggles from $217 million pitcher David Price, Edwardo Rodriguez still on the DL and Clay Buchholz constantly unable to last more than four innings, starting pitching is a major need for the Sox. The reason I believe they have the best chance to land a superstar this summer is because of the position they will be in when the trade deadline arrives. The Sox should continue their winning ways and, with the American League being relatively open, the Sox should be one good starting pitcher away from being the team to beat in the AL. Dombrowski understands how things have been for the Sox as of late. He’ll make the necessary moves. Barring major injuries or collapse, the Sox this summer should acquire a big time superstar player that will help them play long into the post-season.

Although Tom Brady continues to fight it, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the National Football League and reinstated his four-game suspension for Deflategate. In the last 15 months there has been much discussion, debate and legal wrangling over the alleged deflation of footballs in the 2015 AFC Championship game when the New England Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts.  Brady, I believe, is the most well-liked athlete in all of Boston sports. Because of his reputation, I think, fans are blinded to the fact that Brady is guilty. Before and during the 2015 AFC Championship game, Brady most definitely directed team equipment managers John Jastremski and Jim McNally to tamper with the psi of the game balls. I have read the Ted Wells report, which is the investigative report concerning footballs used during the game and that report is what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell used to justify Brady’s suspension. Not many people have read the entire report, resulting in uneducated opinions on Deflategate. Based on my reading of the report, here’s why I believe Tom Brady should be suspended.

Pregame of the AFC championship game: Jim McNally has been employed by the Patriots for 32 years as a seasonal equipment manager. His responsibility is to deliver both teams’ game footballs to the officials’ locker room. Once brought into the locker room, the game referees use an air pump gauge to measure the psi of all 12 footballs that each team will use during the game. All game balls must be inflated between 12.5 psi and 13.5 psi. Once both teams’ balls were within the legal limit, they were ready to be taken to the field. McNally took the balls to the field without the consent of any of the officials, passing a bathroom on his way out of the officials’ locker room. This is something head official Walt Anderson said he had not seen in his 19-year career. Right before entering the field and out of sight of the officials, McNally took the balls into a bathroom which locks from the inside. He was in the bathroom for exactly one minute and 40 seconds. A study was done within the Wells Report to see if 11 footballs could be deflated in the time McNally was in the bathroom. Results showed that all people who participated in the study finished well under one minute and forty seconds, showing that McNally very well could have deflated the 11 balls while in the bathroom.

Half time of the AFC Championship game: During the second quarter, Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted a pass thrown by Brady. The football that was intercepted was brought to the Colts sideline and Colts officials felt that the ball was under-inflated. They requested at halftime that all footballs be tested for their psi level. Referees Clete Blakeman and Dyrol Prioleau tested the psi of the Patriots footballs and the results are in the chart below. Remember the legal amount of psi is between 12.5 and 13.5.   

Only four of the Colts footballs could be tested during halftime due to time constraints and all four of them measured between 12.5 and 13.5 psi on at least one of the two gauges used by Blakeman and Prioleau. A common argument is that because of the cold and rainy conditions, the balls were naturally deflated. The ideal gas law does not support that argument. Besides, if the weather was a factor, then why were only the Patriots’ balls under the limit? If the conditions were the reason for the loss of air pressure, both teams’ balls would have been deflated. The facts from the halftime tests show it was only the Patriots’ footballs which were deflated.

Communication between McNally and Jastremski: On October 17, 2014, following a game against the New York Jets, Brady expressed to Jastremski and McNally how he disliked the inflation of game balls. The following quotes are from text messages between Mcnally and Jastremski. Jastremski: “Talked to him last night. He actually brought you up and said you must have have a lot of stress trying to get them done…” Talking to McNally, Jastremski refers to Tom Brady as “him,” indicating Brady told Jastremski to tell McNally to take more air out of the balls for next game. On October 23, 2014, Jastremski texted McNally: “Can’t wait to give you your needle this week :)” This obviously refers to McNally’s instructions to tamper with the air pressure of the game balls. The next day, Jastremski wrote, “I have a big needle for u this week.” McNally replied: “Better be surround by cash and newnicks….or its a rugby sunday.” Jastremski then texted:“Maybe u will have some nice size 11s in ur locker.” When interviewed in the Wells Report, both said that giving rewards (like “cash,” “new kicks” and “size 11s”) were a joke and McNally never received any extra benefits. Lastly on January 10, 2015, McNally texted: “You working;” Jastremski replied: “Yup;” McNally answered:“Nice dude….jimmy needs some kicks….lets make a deal…..come on help the deflator.” Jim McNally refers to himself as the deflator. I don’t believe it can be any more clear that Tom Brady was definitely aware and instructed Jastremski to have McNally tamper with the psi of game footballs. Once the story about the footballs broke to the media and became a big headline, Brady and Jastremski contacted each other at least once over a three-day period. Prior to the story breaking, they rarely communicated but once the news broke, they began to talk much more. Some of the exact text messages contain explicit vocabulary but if you wish to read them, they can be found on pages 74-94 in the Wells Report.

Based on all these facts and many other specifics in the Wells Report, I think it’s clear that Tom Brady was aware of the illegal activity going on and instructed it to happen. However, I think Brady’s suspension of four games was much too significant of a penalty. Major offenses like domestic violence and illegal substance abuse are common illegal actions worthy of a four-game suspension. The league was absolutely correct in suspending Brady for his actions, but the length of the suspension is absolutely wrong.

The NHL playoffs began on April 13th with 16 teams fighting for the Stanley Cup. But our hometown team is not one of them. Finishing with a 42-31-9 record and losing seven of their final10 games, the Boston Bruins seemed to be completely disorganized in the tail end of the season. Going into their final game, playoff hopes were high as there were a few scenarios in which they could’ve snuck into the playoffs. They just needed to win their game and that is all they could control, everything else depended on whether other teams won or lost. But in that last game, on home ice, the Bruins embarrassingly lost 6-1 to the Ottawa Senators to end their season and any playoff hopes. As I wrote and many other Boston media sources had reported, it looked to be the end of Claude Julien’s coaching career in Boston. The Bruins held their season-ending press conference on April 14th and some interesting things were said.

“I emphatically believe Claude is the coach that will take us through the bumpy transition period ahead of us,” said general manager Don Sweeney that day. In fact, when asked if Claude would be returning, Sweeney said “Absolutely,” and continued to praise the coach. “Our core principles align very well on the defensive structure of the team and what we’ve seen in individual players.”

I could comment on just about every quote that Sweeney gave but that last one just jumps off the page. The Bruins had arguably one of the worst defenses in all of hockey last season, and for Sweeney to say that he and Claude share the same principles on defense makes me think they both should be fired. If it is acceptable to give up the fifth-most goals in the Eastern Conference and let opponents score an average three goals against them per game, then I question what their principles are. The moves they made at the trade deadline didn’t give them a lift to push them into the playoffs and now they are left in a worse spot than before.

The communication from important figures in the Bruins organization is so weak that it seems no one is on the same page. Team owner Jeremy Jacobs expressed to the media that missing the playoffs for two straight years is unacceptable, something he will not stand for any longer. Then general manager Sweeney talks about how the Bruins are entering a transition period and need to rebuild, inferring that winning might not be in Boston’s immediate future. Then coach Julien continuously comes up short and is on the outside looking in. It seems like the Bruins organization thinks that Claude can do not wrong and he is ‘the coach for life.’  The man writing the checks has different ideas from the man who is building the roster, and the coach should have been fired already but he’s coming back for another year. What a mess. As a fan, I feel like this whole losing thing the Bruins have been doing for the past two years is getting old. Unfortunately, they are doing nothing to fix it.