BY RYAN O’CONNOR Athlete of the Month sponsored by Indian Head AthleticsHe didn’t have much choice in the matter. Michael Stys, whose mother played basketball at Boston College and whose brother rode a full hoops scholarship to the University of Hartford, was destined for success on the court. “It was laid out for me,” ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR In his 25-plus years as athletics trainer at Salem High School, Sean Cox has witnessed his share of hard hits to the head. And he’s seen the ramifications. Football player Matt Starr, for instance, experienced an early-season concussion – a jarring injury of the brain resulting in disturbance of cerebral ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOROne by one they took their turn: three skiers from one school, all representing one town at one exclusive event. Though their ages and ethnicities varied, Goffstown High School’s Julie Clark, a junior; Milos Bohonek, a junior foreign-exchange student from the Czech Republic; and Thomas Joy, a freshman, were the only ...

BY JERRY LIPTAKNear the end of a relatively easy 46-31 semifinal-round win over Spaulding on March 12, Trinity’s boisterous student cheering section called in unison, “We want Salem! We want Salem!” Three days later inside the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gymnasium, those fans learned to be more careful with ...

BY MATT SCHOOLEYThe puck from the Division I boys ice hockey championship ended up where it spent a great deal of the game – with Bishop Guertin goalkeeper Dave O’Brien. O’Brien notched his eighth shutout of the year to lead his team to a 3-0 victory over Bishop Brady, stopping 23 shots as the Cardinals won their second straight ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORTo gauge the outcome of Trinity’s Class L boys basketball quarterfinal contest with Alvirne, you needed only to close your eyes and listen to the Pioneer faithful. When Hooksett’s Cormac Fitzpatrick drained back-to-back three-pointers to open the fourth quarter, for example, chants of “Cor-Mac-Daddy” ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORIn this game of survivor, the Generals were just another favorite unceremoniously voted off the Class I island. On Wednesday, March 5, the third-seeded John Stark boys basketball team faced No. 10 Monadnock, a foe it had beaten by 24 points earlier in the season. Yet in the state semifinals, not even the senior alliance of ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORHanover coach Tim Winslow and his defending state champion Marauders thought they were seeing double most of the second half. With his team ahead, 37- 19, early in the third quarter of the March 5 Class I semifinal against upstart No. 9 Pembroke, Winslow said he assumed his fourth-seeded squad was well on its way to the ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORWith his fourth-seeded squad playing its best basketball of the season, Central boys basketball coach Doc Wheeler said a 16-point home loss to undefeated Salem two weeks earlier helped propel his young hoopsters into the Class L semifinals. The Little Green have won five in a row since the embarrassing setback Feb. 22, ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORThey finished with a winning record for the second consecutive season. They hosted a first-round playoff contest. They came back from a twogoal deficit in the third period against a formidable foe. The only thing the Goffstown ice hockey team failed to do was stuff the puck home when it counted most. Trailing Bow, 3-1, in ...