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’CONNORIt’s uncomfortable, but it’s a conversation both parties know must take place. As practice begins, Bill Walton, the John Stark wrestling coach, pulls Morgan Belanger aside. “You know if anything inappropriate happens, you have to tell me,” he says. Belanger nods. She’s had this talk before. ...

I figured it out. That is, the reason why I never cared for football. You see, I'm a baseball fan.  In baseball, the best teams compete in a series of games to determine a winner.  Now, I understand that you can't play seven football games in a row or you'd be ripped apart from limb to limb.  But, I also ...

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 ...