A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Sports

With the season over, looking forward with softball

Softball season ended in late July.

It’s rather interesting that we actually ended when the season was supposed to end, considering all of the rain we got. A one-day-per-week league turned into several weeks with two games. That was something we had tried to avoid when switching leagues to the Over-35 league.

The old man league, that is.

It’s a crazy thought to look back in time and think about my first few years of playing softball. We were mainly filled with high school kids, rarely ever won, and just had fun. Take the time machine forward 26 or 27 years and here we are.

Another year, another championship.

Now, we expect to win. Sure, we don’t win every single game, but for the past four seasons – spanning two leagues – we have ended the season with championships. It is always fun to win on the field, and when we overcome as many things as we have done the past few years, it makes it even more fun.

The league was a little different this year. A couple of teams dropped, but one dropped late and messed up the scheduling. So our division was three teams and it got a tad old at times. I think the other teams would agree. Yet, the combination of the two divisions wouldn’t have made it that much better – if better at all.

Still, things worked out OK.

But the one thing about softball is there is usually a pretty wide range of ages on a team. When you go into the Over-35 league, you have to bid farewell to the “youngsters,” and that doesn’t make it easy. So this year, we played several games with fewer than 10 players. In fact, we played one game with seven (though we found a way to win that game – maybe because we are uber awesome! Ha!) and that just isn’t fun. When you are worrying about having to play that short or forfeit, then you have to start looking things over.

In 25-plus years of running a team, I’ve never had a forfeit on the field. I don’t even think I’ve ever been in a situation where we forfeited ahead of time because of a lack of players. I always said that if I ever had to forfeit a game, I’d be done playing.

We came close this year.

In the end, we won the championship. We swept the 2-out-of-3 series, winning by two runs and one run. The second game, we scored one in the top of the seventh and then held on in the bottom half of the inning – as the other team stranded the tying run at third base.

The games were fun, intense, and some pretty good softball.

With the season over, though, I’m not sure where that leaves me. The past few seasons, I’ve felt pretty good. I’ve hit really well and this year, despite my knees barking at me every other morning, I went back to catching. Though, to be fair, it’s a no-bunt, no-steal league, which means I don’t have to attempt to throw somebody out at second – especially with my rag arm.

The end of the season also makes you look back, reflect, and think about what one wants to do in the future. Do I want to keep playing? I’m not sure. I truly enjoy the aspect of playing the game. But the other facets – running a team, worrying about players, dedicating time to other aspects – it’s hard.

I still remember a few summers when I was younger and playing in three leagues as well as tournaments almost every weekend. There were some summers I came close to 100 games played.

That’s not true anymore.

Instead, I like going to baseball games more. Or I like just coming home from work and not having anything to worry about.

This decision isn’t easy.

I’d like to know the direction the league is going. Is it expanding? Will there be some rule changes to make it easier to have a complete team (ie: allow 2 or 3 players aged, say, 32 and up, to play) or garner interest from a few new teams. Or will we just be merging with the other division, thus making it so we might win a few games by forfeit or by lopsided scores? I’m not sure I want to do that, to be honest.

For a large part of my life, softball has been a mainstay in the summer. I’ve had a good run and have enjoyed every step. And though the game is great, it’s changed over the years. Between the lines, it’s the same. Outside of them? Much different. People do many other things now and it’s not as popular as it once was – at least near me.

So over this winter, I will look at the big picture. I’ll talk to guys on the team. I’ll get a feel for how things look with the league. And then I’ll make my decision.

In the end, I’ve had the fortune of playing softball with a lot of great players and teams. We’ve won championships and had fun along the way. It’s been a great sport for me and there will come a time when it’s time to say goodbye.

I’m just not sure if it’s sooner or later.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

A final NJCAA hockey champion is crowned

Hockey is quite a unique sport – it is fast, has a lot of technical skill, and there is a lot of physicality. Depending on the level of hockey, it can be really good, really bad, or somewhere in between.

When I was a kid, we’d play on the local rink around here as much as we could. Our boards were snowbanks and our skills were nothing special. I’m shocked to this day that none of us lost any teeth or broke any bones.

OK, so I did get a concussion once, but that wasn’t during “game action,” though it came on the ice.

Shooting hockey for a weekend was a lot of fun, especially when getting creative.

When in graduate school, I went to a Division I school – Quinnipiac. At that time, they played at a local rink (I still need to make my way to the school to see a game at the new rink) and I loved it. Since then, I’ve kept tabs on QU, attending games yearly in the Albany area when they make their trip to play Union and RPI.

Because my niece was a member of the SUNY Broome CC women’s soccer team (a team, mind you, that won a national championship this past fall), I see updates from the school and such on occasion. Something caught my eye early in the winter season – that the school would host the final NJCAA hockey championship in late February.

I marked it on my calendar, hoping I’d get a chance to watch. As it worked out, I had taken the Friday of the tournament as a vacation day and had the weekend pretty free. So, I went.

One thing I rarely get to do is shoot hockey. For the majority of the weekend, I was pretty close to the action, taking photos in different ways and seeing what I could capture. There was some good hockey. There was some sloppy hockey. And, again, there was some in the middle.

But it was hockey.

Action on the ice!

On the line was the final NJCAA championship. It’s the last championship because the NJCAA is eliminating the sport from its competition. That makes sense, though, as there are just five schools remaining that have hockey in the NJCAA – four in New York and one in northern North Dakota.

The tournament was played as a round-robin, so for three days Broome’s rink played host to two games each day. The final game proved the seeds were correct as Dakota College at Bottineau faced off against Erie CC for the second straight yet. Dakota, the reigning national champs, were the top seed.

But for three days – hockey lived in Binghamton. Hudson Valley and Mohawk Valley were the other two teams involved. There was physical play, some pretty play, and some … “did that just happen?” sort of things.

I’ve long been a supporter of community college/JUCO athletics. For 20 years, my hometown school – SUNY Delhi – hosted the NJCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament. I worked at that tournament for many of those years and always loved it. I’ve seen other national championships at this level and there’s something pure about it.

I had never watched the NJCAA hockey championship before, so this was the perfect time. Broome has a tremendous rink, with bright lighting and a crisp surface. It’s perfect for photography, which I found out.

Quick stop.

I can’t lie, though – I’m not a fan of a certain Division I North Dakota college hockey team. Can you blame me, though? They whitewashed Quinnipiac in the national championship in 2016, so I have hard feelings.

That being said, there was something to like about this North Dakota team playing in Binghamton. They knew how to really play the game. Not to take anything away from the other three teams – but it was easy to cheer for Bottineau. They had skill, and speed, and could get physical. The goalie play was excellent. They also seemed to have a joy to be on the ice.

That says something about a program, too.

When you can be out there and seem like it’s not work – that it’s still fun, yet still be that successful – you’ve found your payday.

I don’t know any of the player’s names. I only know the coaches name by sight, because I saw it in the program and in a few other things I saw. I looked up the history of the school and this championship was their 10th overall – pretty cool to have the final NJCAA title be your 10th.

Not having a vested interest in the tournament wasn’t a bad thing – it actually allowed me to watch, take photos and enjoy what unfolded.

The championship game ended about 35 seconds short when an Erie player dashed out of the box and shoved an official to the ice with a lot of force, the one black eye to a really good weekend of hockey. The two other officials, once everything was settled (you can Google this incident to see video and followup), had the remaining time run off the clock, allowing the Dakota players to have their well-deserved celebration in a 7-4 victory.

Champions!

Nothing will take away what this team achieved this past weekend. Three straight days of hockey isn’t easy, especially when you consider most of these teams don’t have the plethora of lines major teams might have. This Dakota team did something truly special by winning the back-to-back crowns and giving their school the 10th title. And no matter what happens with junior college hockey in the future, it’s something they can carry with them for a lifetime.

And being able to be there and watch was pretty cool, too. It allowed me to do some hockey photography close to the action, as well as challenge myself not just in the action sports sense, but in the creativity side as well. Oh, and I got the newspaper feel again, too, as I was contacted by a newspaper in North Dakota to

Eventually I’ll have all the photos processed and up on Flickr and will link back to this post, as well as mention it on other social media. Mind you a lot of times when shooting sports, I am on rapid fire and get a lot of sequences and hope to get just one shot out of it — but for the weekend, I shot just under 10,000 images (remember, one sequence can be anywhere from 4-5 photos to 25 or more), so that’s a lot to sift through!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Summer of Baseball: Portland a good place to catch a game

Hadlock Field is one I’ve wanted to get to for a few years now. It’s also one of those fields kind of all by itself (Maine has one affiliated professional team), so going just for a game isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do, despite Maine being an amazing state.

So, let’s break it down.

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Hadlock Field, built in 1993, is a solid minor league park. Though I’m not a fan of aluminum bleacher flooring, it’s a pretty comfortable all-around park. The ambiance is solid, which seems to be a pretty good trend when it comes to Boston Red Sox affiliates. The site lines in the park are good and the seats are decently comfortable.

The night we were there was cool, too, as it was a Seinfeld-themed night. Though not the biggest Seinfeld fan, John O’Hurley (who played J. Peterman) threw out the first pitch. It’s always neat to see things like that.

Anyway…

The park has an older flavor to it as the concourse is under the seating bowl. The concourse is decently wide but was definitely crowded. The team store is small, which shocked me, if not just because it’s a Boston affiliate. I think I hold the idea that Double-A and above would have better team stores, and despite seeing many smaller ones, it still shocks me.

The food selection was solid and the hot dogs were really good. I will say I didn’t have the food selection on the minor league food fight as it was this amazingly huge ice cream sundae sort of thing … and well, my blood sugar went up just looking at what it included, let along eating it. So I just went with a regular old ice cream and it was solid. Beer selection was pretty strong, too.

The stadium itself is pretty nice. A “monster” in left field is a nice tough, and I like the scoreboard. The elevated bullpen in right field was a  very cool setup, too. I think overall, it’s hard to not go here and have a good time. That being said, I have to pull off some points for the aluminum flooring because it’s really tough, at times, to pay attention to the game when there’s so much stomping on that flooring.

Parking is decent and not far from the stadium. The area felt safe and after, it was easy enough to get out, which is always a positive.

I’d definitely visit again, as long as it was encompassed with other aspects. For me, it’s a hard trip to pull off just for a game, but it’s definitely not a bad place to take in a game.

Park Notes:  

Hadlock Field
Portland, Maine
Home of the Portland Seadogs (Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox)
Visited on: July 15, 2016
Opponent: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7.5/10
  • Concessions: 7/10
  • Parking: 7.5/10
  • Ambiance: 8/10
  • Friendliness: 8/10

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

National champions!

There are 76 colleges that play women’s soccer in Division III for the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Of those 76 teams, only one will stand at the end of the season crowned National Champion. Just one.

Over the course of three or so months, teams will battle in leagues and divisions and regions just to have the chance to get to the national tournament. For some teams, they’ll get there several times and never win a title. And, as with many other sports, the best team doesn’t always win.

Celebration time!

Celebration time!

But other times, the best teams do win.

I’ve been lucky the last couple of years to have the chance to see quite a few of my niece’s soccer games. As a freshman last year, she earned All-Tournament honors when her team – SUNY Broome – took third place at nationals.

Mind you, this is a gal who has experienced a lot of success in soccer. She went to two state championship games in high school, winning one. Her first year of college soccer ended up in a regional “B” title (the region her school plays in gets two bids to nationals) and that third-place finish.

This year, the team was quite impressive. They were ranked second in the nation for the first five polling periods, and took over the No. 1 spot for the final five ranking periods. The only loss Broome suffered was against Division I Asa.

That’s solid.

Not everything came easy. In a regional semifinal against a .500 team, Broome faced a scary position. No goals were scored in regulation as the opponent packed the box and it sure seemed like they wanted to take their chances with a penalty kick shootout. Broome scored in the second sudden-victory period to advance. In the final, the Hornets faced a big rival and trailed, 1-0, midway through the second.

As they say, though, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Number 1!

Number 1!

A shot came in from the right of the goalie – it was soft and on the ground. The goalie went to one knee to scoop the roller and … it somehow got through her legs and trickled into the goal.

All I could think about was Vin Scully in 1986 … “The ball gets behind Buckner!”

A little bit later, a direct shot went to the goalie… she seemed to have it, but it bounced out of her arms and my niece was there to pop the ball into the goal for the winner.

Then nationals came around. Broome earned the top seed and faced No. 8 Anoka Ramsey. It was 3-0 in the blink of an eye and the Hornets rolled to a 6-0 win. Then they faced No. 4 Brookhaven and, again, scored early. That goal held up for a 1-0 victory.

The championship game started a little late, but the quick start theme continued as Broome went up 1-0 within the first five minutes and won, 3-0.

It was the third national championship in school history all under coach Bill Rich, who notched his 299th career victory with the title.

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In the beginning of the year, my niece was one of hundreds of young ladies around the country who had a goal of winning a national championship. Many will dream about it. Few will ever achieve that level. This team was filled with a bunch of talented young women who had skills to play at levels above a junior college – and hopefully many will go on to do that. A strong defense, a crazy good offense (including the leading scorer in the country), and a solid bench gave this team an extremely well-rounded group.

Over the years, I’ve covered a lot of soccer when I was in newspapers. I was part of a group that had the chance to cover one other national championship (Oneonta State) for a local newspaper, and I also watched many NJCAA Division III men’s basketball championships over the years.

This one, I wasn’t reporting or anything like that. Over the past two years, I’ve had the chance to watch this team blossom and fulfill a dream that many won’t. The excitement on their faces as that final horn went off is something to always remember. Teams like this don’t come along every day, so it’s cool to know that my niece was part of something special.

Memories like this are ones you can never lose.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Regional finals!

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My niece, Nicole, plays in the NJCAA Region III championship on Saturday.

Her team,  Broome Community College is No. 1 in the country.

Here’s hoping for a great game so they can make nationals for the second straight year!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!