BY RYAN O’CONNORSitting at a youth hockey conference, watching what was likely to be another boring prerecorded training video, Kermit Brunelle sighed. On the screen, Don Lucia, coach of the national champion University of Minnesota ice hockey team, was giving a speech. “A lot of people think I have the best job in hockey, and I tell ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORGoffstown-area athletic successes in 2007 came at many levels, for teams and individuals. This was never more evident than the summer, when nearly every Goffstown youth baseball team, from Little League through Babe Ruth, finished tops in their district, among the best in the state and, in some cases, the region. Those ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORIt was a year of near-misses and so-closes on the 2007 Bedford sports landscape, though there were a few spot-ons mixed in. While dozens of local teams and individuals competed for the top prize in their respective class and/or division, from the youth level through high school and sometimes beyond, many went home empty ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORFor Hooksett-area teams and individual athletes, 2007 was a year in which the surprising became the norm, particularly at the high school level. Though squads such as the Central girls tennis team finished tops in Class L and Cawley Middle School collected multiple titles, other perennial contenders bowed out of the ...

By Ryan O’connor Post-game emotion on the two sidelines was quite different, but the feeling was the same: this was no ordinary exhibition. The annual Queen City Turkey Bowl, featuring Manchester’s top two teams, saw West and Central pass the stuffing back and forth for three-plus quarters before Blue Knights running back Nick ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORPost-game emotion on the two sidelines was quite different, but the feeling was the same: this was no ordinary exhibition. The annual Queen City Turkey Bowl, featuring Manchester’s top two teams, saw West and Central pass the stuffing back and forth for three-plus quarters before Blue Knights running back Nick Clement ...

BY MATT SCHOOLEY Trailing by 16 points in a playoff football game makes a ready excuse for a group of 12- year-olds to become rattled. The Pelham/Windham Razorbacks decided to forego that option and came storming back to take a second-half lead in the New England semifinals of the Pee Wee division before falling to the eventual American Youth ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORFor the Bishop Guertin seniors, it was the first time they failed to celebrate following the season’s final whistle. For their opponents, the Blue Hawks of Exeter High School, it was sweet revenge against a foe that had beaten them in the same contest the two previous years. On Saturday, Nov. 17, the Cardinals fell, ...

BY MATT SCHOOLEYAs the final seconds ticked down on the Harris Field scoreboard in Pelham, two Python players snuck around the outskirts of a celebrating group in blue uniforms. They had one target in mind. With one swift tip of the Gatorade cooler, the players connected with head coach Tom Babaian, who received the drenching after leading the ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORIt was the sloppiest game he could remember, but coach Tony Johnson knew his Bishop Guertin battleship could win, even when taking on water from a Green Wave. In a rare Friday night playoff football game on Nov. 9, the No. 2 Cardinals opened with a 34-12 victory against third-seed Dover despite eight combined turnovers and ...