BY RYAN O’CONNORDivision III football has a different look in 2008. While perennial beast Souhegan of Amherst remains the favorite, and always-solid Milford and Portsmouth are still around as well, Plymouth, winner of seven of the last 10 D-III titles, moves down a division. “From year to year, the teams change so much it’s ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORCarrying a nine-game winning streak and a freshly minted New Hampshire state title, Bedford players packed their bats, gloves and cleats and traveled roughly 125 miles south to Rhode Island. There, in West Warwick, the first-year Steven-Buswell Post No. 54 American Legion junior baseball squad competed against the best teams ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORFor years, coaches of the Manchester Jutras senior American Legion baseball team have tossed Bedford, Goffstown and Manchester players into a diamond- shaped mixing bowl and consistently concocted a winning recipe. Perhaps Tim Conway, who never played Legion ball, stole a page from the Jutras cookbook. On Thursday, Aug. 7, ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORThe season began as most would have expected. It may end like few could have imagined. This year, Stevens-Buswell Post No. 54 established Bedford’s first American Legion baseball team in roughly 20 years. The junior squad, made up of local 15- to 18-year-old athletes, lost its first contest, 7-4, to Keene. The next ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Last year, Auburn’s Joey Dudek rode his arm and leg to Gillette Stadium – and very nearly the Super Bowl. Dudek, who won the 10- and 11-year-old division of the local Pepsi Punt, Pass and Kick competition last August, also triumphed at the sectional competition in Bristol, R.I., and then the regional ...

Without an array of gears, minus an open road or mountain, Bedford residents Mike and Matt Cambria, both 15, are discovering cycling – on a circular track, with an embankment that serves as the bicycle’s brakes. They are part of the youth cycling program at Londonderry’s New England Velodrome and Cycling Park, situated in the ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORPlaying in two separate tournaments at once is no easy task for any team, let alone doing it with a squad filled with 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds. Yet competing in the Matty Dobens tournament, hosted by Manchester South, as well as a similar competition in Nottingham, all the Bedford Little League minor league all-star team did ...

Two new softball teams attempt to elbow their way into the top tier of competitors as Crispin’s House Inc., a nonprofit program for at-risk youths, hosts its annual one-pitch softball tournament on Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Goffstown Junior Baseball Villa Augustina Fields. First pitch is 9 a.m. Al Baines, president of Crispin’s House ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORAs it turned out, the difference between these two teams was negligible. The Bedford 10- and 11- year-old Little League all-star team, undefeated prior to a 14- 2 setback against Goffstown on Saturday, July 19, met the same foe the next day for the state title. It was Bedford’s third straight contest against its ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORThe 2008 Fresno State baseball team is no secret to those who follow college athletics or who watch SportsCenter on a daily basis. The Bulldogs, who entered the NCAA tournament with a 33-27 regular-season record and had to win their conference tourney for an invite, took six straight elimination games to become perhaps the ...