Custom Search

Friday, January 30, 2009

About East versus West

This is for all of you Mass. high school sports fanatics out there. Eastern Mass. vs. Western Mass., who is the bestern Mass.? When it comes to certain sports, it seems like certain parts of the state always have the upper hand. 

Like for example...Duxbury dominates in boys and recently girl's lacrosse...Longmeadow can say the same as well as in football...St. Mary's of Lynn boasts a ridiculous girl's hockey program...Catholic Memorial is known for its rivarly vs. B.C. High also on the ice...Westfield and Cathedral represent the rinks in the west.

Gardner is the swimming capital of the state...St. John's Prep never seems to die off in boy's volleyball...while Ludlow holds the most hardware in the sport of soccer...

These are only briefs of so much more. Yes they are the best in their neck of the woods, but who owns the state in sports overall? 

This is where the discussion will go down to the best of my ability and hopefully we can have some fun on here.

I had the opportunity to cover both sides of the state of Mass. from my first gig at a town newspaper, to my co-op/part-time coverage at the Boston Globe, and now back in my neck of the woods in Hampden County. 

Here topics and analysis of high school sports news, teams, coaches, players, and all other happening will be posted. 

This may get a little bit interesting...

Alyssa Orszulak eclipses 1,000 for Palmer

Last night, Alyssa Orszulak joined an elite class reaching the 1,000 point milestone for Palmer High School in a 56-37 win over South Hadley.

The junior hit a 3-pointer and four free throws to make her the seventh player in Palmer history.

Orszulak needed only seven, but poured in 22 points as Palmer stood perfect on the season.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Pat Donnelly commits to Brown University

From The Republican's Russ Held, former Longmeadow High School quarterback, Pat Donnelly has commited to attend and play football at Division 1 Ivy League champion Brown University.

Donnelly is currently studying as a post graduate at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H.

During football season the 6 foot 3 inch quarterback led Exeter to a 6-3 record coming off a tremendous senior year at Longmeadow where the Lancers won its third straight Division 1 Super Bowl title.

Top 10 Media Polls; Western Mass. hoops podcast

Here's the Top 10 Media Poll in Western Mass. released on Masslive.com yesterday in boy's and girl's hoops.

I didn't even realize that they did this, I only knew about the Fab Fives. 

If you love podcasts check out The Varsity Voice's with Kyle Belanger (Western Mass. Sports Journal WMSJ), Ben Swasey (Masslive), Ben Larsen (Masslive), Russ Held (The Republican), and Erik Gallant (Masslive) as they reminise about the happenings from this week in girl's and boy's hoops. 

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

3,000 next for Abdul-Qaadir?

I love Garry Brown.

In his "Hitting to All Fields" column today in The Springfield Republican he wrote...

And now, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir can relax and go for 3,000.


Priceless.

Another high school note...

Cathedral 4, Catholic Memorial 3. Purple Panthers, on the prowl.

That's right, lets go West!

Globe Top 20s

Check out The Boston Globe's Top 20s for this week.

Boy's basketball
Girl's basketball

Boy's hockey
Girl's hockey

Springfield Cathedral has earned the respect from the East being ranked No. 6 in the boy's hockey Top 20 after defeating B.C. High, Austin Prep, and recently Catholic Memorial.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Abdul-Qaadir breaks Lobo's 18-year record

It's finally official.

New Leadership's Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir's name can finally be printed in the record books as the 5 foot 3 inch senior broke Southwick native Rebecca Lobo's 18-year state scoring record with a 28 point showing, plenty to make her the number one scorer in the state of Massachusetts.

Lobo had a total of 2,710 points established in the 1990-91 season.

Abdul-Qaadir has racked up a total of 2,738 and counting.

Unfortunately New Leadership fell to Commerce 51-35 before 1,000 fans who witnessed history.

Check out the full story by The Republican's Russ Held.

Click here
to see video coverage.

From East versus West we want to hereby congratulate Bilquis on such an incredible accomplishment and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

When it comes to top scorers in high school basketball, the West beats the East.

And with that said, Abdul-Qaadir has earned "legendary status."

Western Mass. hoops forum haters

Tonight is the night folks that Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir breaks Rebecca Lobo's high school state scoring record.

We've been digging up some dirt courtesy of the Masslive.com forums and here's what we dug up...

"[New Leadership] is looking at becoming a JV program next year.

So basically she did this playing on a JV level team. Seeing how they win half their games, it appears they are playing JV level competition.

Imagine how many D1 players could score like this if they were playing JV level?" - h00ps

East versus West's response:

Ouch. So now New Leadership is classified as a JV team?

..................................................................................................................................................................

"It'll take her 8 more games than Lobo. She also is 13 inches shorter, which makes it all the more unbelievable." - AAUcoach50

East versus West's response:

Abdul-Qaadir only stands at 5 foot 3 inches, that is crazy.
..................................................................................................................................................................

"It took her 5 years to beat a record that was done in 4!! There should be an asterisk next to this record." - msslive124


East versus West's response:


What is this? The Barry Bonds factor?


If you want to join in on this discussion go here.

Trevor Leahy knows nets

This kid is brilliant and I hope he gets the patent.

Trevor Leahy, a senior at the Pingree School designed his own unique designed hockey pads.

The pads look like an open net in order to try and fake out his opponents from scoring.

So far the Highlanders off to an 8-8-1 start.

Check out this photo gallery
on boston.com.

Top high school contributor 2nd month in a row

For the second month in a row I'm the number one high school contributor on Yardbarker. But this time it's not even close.

The next person has seven points to my 83.

Lets see how long I can keep the streak going.

Lusitano Alumni and Fans Association recognizes top high school soccer players in Western Mass.




















The All-Star High School Soccer Awards recognize the Western Massachusetts soccer players of the year chosen from the Sunday Republican's All-Scholastic Teams.

Player of the Year award in boys Division I went to Connor DeVito, of Chicopee, with Tara Caney, of West Springfield, receiving the girls award. Division II awards went to Dillon Zaengle, of Hampshire Regional, and Melanie Stier, of Frontier Regional. Division III winners were William Lund, of Monson, Brooke Murphy, of Monson, and Madison Pellegrino, of Sabis.

To read the rest of the article click here.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Angela Roellke from Cape Cod reaches 1,000 mark

Angela Roellke from Upper Cape Regional sunk in her 1,000 career point last night as her team beat Bristol Aggie, 55-23 in a Mayflower league showdown.

Roellke threw in 16 points to finish with 1,004.

In Western Mass. on Monday...

Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir
is three points shy of surpassing Rebecca Lobo's state high school scoring record as New Leadership suits up against Commerce.

The senior has already been recruited by the University of Memphis and will be playing basketball for them next year.

East vs. West who is the best: Cathedral downs CM on the ice

It's looking like Cathedral really wants to be a Super 8 contender this year.

The Panthers first beat out B.C. High last week, 1-0, and their latest victim is none other than Catholic Memorial, who was ranked at No. 5 in The Boston Globe's Top 20 last week.

Cathedral beat the Knights, 4-3 at the Olympia this afternoon and will take on Acton-Boxboro later this week.

For today the West has proven to be the best.

Andre King strikes for his 1,000th career point

It's been quite a week of 1,000 point breakers.

Sabis' Andre King is our next Massachusetts player to join the club as he scored 39 points in an 85-42 win over Ware to hit over 1,000 points.

King needed 33.

To watch video highlights check out The Varsity Voice.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Mary Nwachukwu = legendary status in EMASS and country

Mary Nwachukwu.

No that isn't no typo trust me. I actually recall one night when I was working on the "hawk desk" (what we call the schools desk at the Boston Globe) and "Duffy" one of our copy editors asked if we spelled her name correctly in the roundup and started to spell it out, "M-W-A-C-H-U-K-W-U..."

"Wait...'M'? No it's 'N' not 'M'. Swear to God, hang on a sec, let me triple check that," I said.

I jumped out of my seat and fished in the monthly archives drawer and grabbed a newspaper with the then junior's last name starring in a headline about a week prior and spelled it out.

"N-W-A-C-H-U-K-W-U."

The copy editors and hawk desk were both shocked.

"How do you even remember that?" said "Beans" another one of the copy editors who was in the slot that night.

"I have a good memory I guess. I remember because I always seemed to get her coach calling in her stats to me every time."

Sorry to bore you with an inside story, but this girl is indeed legendary. The now senior has already committed to Boston College and was chased by Wake Forest and Maryland before making her final decision.

Nwachukwu has amassed over 1,100 career points while missing half of her freshman season due to a broken ankle 10 games in.

She is also rated the state's top player and No. 24 forward in the nation in the ESPNU HoopGurlz 100.

She has a fan basis at Dighton-Rehoboth, as she averages 23.7 points per game and averaged 29.9 last season.

Nwachukwu has been featured not only in her local newspaper such as the Tauton Gazette, The Sun Chronicle, Boston Globe, and Boston Herald, but also on a more national level in ESPN RISE Magazine and MaxPreps.com.

That is why she has earned "legendary status" here on East versus West.

Flynn and Masaschi reach over 1,000 mark

This is a little late, but I don't believe I even launched this blog yet.

Courtney Flynn of St. Mark's surpassed the 1,100 point mark in girl's basketball, which makes her the leading female scorer in her school's history.

An interesting tidbit, of her 1,100 points, none of them are a three-pointer and she has never attempted to make one in her career.

Taylor Masaschi of Chatham netted 22 points in a 49-22 win over Provincetown to soar above 1,000 points as well.

Both girl's are featured in The Boston Globe's Player of the Week.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Mike Moverman named Gatorade...Runner of the Year; Mansfield football update

The Boston Globe's high school sports editor Bob Holmes reported today that Oliver Ames boy's cross country runner, Mike Moverman was named the 2008-09 Gatorade Massachusetts Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year by Gatorade and ESPN RISE Magazine.

Mansfield football update:

You can also see in the same post about the latest news of Mansfield High School and football coach Mike Redding.

If you haven't been following that story, well, where have you been? In a nutshell, Mansfield used an ineligible player its last two games and was forced to forfeit, which cost them its runner-up trophy in the Division 2 Super Bowl and also Hockomock league title.

The MIAA punished the Mansfield's football program, by canceling the 2009 season.

Here are some articles about this ongoing and blown out of proportion story.

Darren Doucette joins the 1,000 pt club; Tremblay gets 500 wins

Darren Doucette, a senior on the Norton High School boy's basketball team, netted a career high 19 points last night in a 58-53 win over Nantucket to make him the sixth player in school history to reach the 1,000 mark.

Doucette rightfully got the lead in today's Boston Globe's high school roundup.

Mark Farinella of The Sun Chronicle has a more in depth look at where Doucette ranks locally.

Other worthy notes in the same roundup:

Winchester wrestling coach Larry Tremblay picked up his 500th career win, one of only three coaches to do so in Massachusetts history. Wrestler Connor Gregory got his 100th career victory also in the 53-6 win over Carver.

Western Mass boy's hoop playoff picture gets trickier

Check out today's high school hoops roundup by The Republican's Jeff Thomas where Commerce beat host Sci-Tech to make things tricky in the Division 1 playoff picture.

Every Division 1 team has at least two losses while Sci-Tech (8-3, 0-1 Valley League) has the fewest of any of them.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Republican Fab Fives

The Republican came out with its Fab Fives today.







Do you agree or disagree?

Winchester goalie admits strategy

I found this to be interesting in Monday's Globe's high school hockey notebook.

Winchester boy's hockey goalie Mike Messuri spoke about his strategy with his size to being successful in the net. Messuri is only 5 feet 4 inches tall, but boasts a 1.10 goals against average allowing 10 all season to put Winchester (8-0-1) on top in the Middlesex league.

But here's what I don't understand. Why would you tell everyone your strength, especially this early in the season?

"A lot of people go upstairs, which I actually like because it's easier for me to control stuff with my hands," Messuri said.

We only hope that none of your competition read that notebook and adjust their game.

Krista Wertman nets 1,000 career points for PVCS

This actually happened on Friday night so sorry about the delay.

Krista Wertman of the Pioneer Christian Valley School (PVCS) is the first girl in school history to reach the 1,000 career point mark in a 39-30 win over Springfield's Science and Technology (Sci-Tech) last Friday.


Congrats to Wertman for a job well done!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Westfield blanks King Philip

In a battle between the East and the West in boy's ice hockey tonight, the West persevered. Visiting Westfield blanked King Philip 9-0

KP isn't having the best year record wise as the Warriors are 2-3 in the Hockomock League and 2-5-1 overall while the Bombers (6-1-1 Berry, 7-2-1 overall) trail East Longmeadow (6-0-3, 8-1-3) in its league standings.

Upcoming East vs. West hockey games:

Saturday, January 24
Cathedral vs. No. 5 Catholic Memorial 1 p.m.

Thursday, January 29
Cathedral vs. Acton-Boxboro 6:30 p.m.

Do I smell controversy?

According to a post on the masslive.com WMASS girl's hoop forum there's some controversy looming about New Leadership's Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir who is three points shy of surpassing Rebecca Lobo's all-time state scoring record.

Lobo was able to score 2,710 in four seasons. Apparently, Abdul-Qaadir has been tallying points since eighth-grade.

So now the question is, once Adbul-Qaadir breaks the record, will it be legit? Should she be the rightful state's all-time scoring leading with an extra year under her belt?

No opinions yet for me. Lets see what happens once it does happen.

Girls' hockey video: St. Mary's (Lynn) vs. Arlington (2008 semifinal tournament)


I shot this last year when I was still at the Globe while I was in charge of the girl's hockey beat. I thought it would be fun to shoot some video of the tournament, but I never had the time to really edit all of my clips and produce one video reel. I don't believe I ever used or uploaded it anywhere except for my computer. 

This is obviously old stuff, but still worthy enough to share on here for the meantime until the blog gets rolling. I may be uploading some old video on a weekly basis, we shall see. 

Update: Ok so I figured out the exact game and location. This was shot at Salem State during the semifinal round of the girl's hockey tournament between St. Mary's (Lynn) and Arlington. 

Monday's schedules

Here's tonight's Western Mass. schedules from Masslive.com
For Eastern Mass. click here.
Date Sport Away Home Time/Status
1/19 Boys Basketball St. Anthony Putnam City (OK) 10 a.m.
1/19 Boys Basketball St. Benedict's Wheeler (GA) noon
1/19 Boys Basketball Abraham Lincoln LeFlore (AL) 2 p.m.
1/19 Boys Ice Hockey St. Mary Chicopee Comp 2 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Sabis Holyoke Catholic 3 p.m.
1/19 Boys Basketball Whitney Young (IL) Mater Dei (Calif.) 4 p.m.
1/19 Boys Basketball Granby St. Mary 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Minnechaug Cathedral 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Ludlow Chicopee Comp 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Tantasqua David Prouty 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Chicopee Holyoke 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Belchertown McCann Tech 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Westfield Northampton 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Shepherd Hill Quaboag 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Ware Southwick 7 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Monson St. Mary 7 p.m.
1/19 Boys Basketball Hampshire New Leadership Postponed
01/19 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Athol Frontier 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball East Longmeadow Hampshire 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Greenfield Mahar 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Easthampton Pioneer 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Hopkins Smith Academy 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Girls Basketball Mohawk Turners Falls 7:30 p.m.
1/19 Boys Basketball Commerce Central 8 p.m.









Friday, January 16, 2009

New Leadership's Abdul-Qaadir just three points shy of state scoring record

This has been the talk from the West since the beginning of basketball season.

Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a senior at New Leadership Charter School in Springfield is three points shy of becoming the new state record holder in career points, which would surpass Southwick native, Rebecca Lobo's mark of 2,710.

Abdul-Qaadir scored 38 points in a 69-51 loss against Millbury and missed her chance at making history as she couldn't sink in a 3-point attempt with 31.2 seconds remaining then fouled out after the rebound.

The Republican's Russ Held has the full recap of the game, which includes quotes from Abdul-Qaadir, New Leadership coach John Williams, and Rebecca Lobo who was in attendance.

New Leadership's next game isn't until Monday Jan. 26 against Commerce.

Other game notes:

Cailin Bullet had 13 points for Millbury, the two-time defending Central Mass. Div. 2 champions, and needs eight more to become the first player in school history to score 1,000 career points.

Ah yes, the good ole Masslive.com forums strike again.

You voted and I responded

On Batter-up with Bruno I put up a poll asking what sports topics of interest would you prefer to keep coming back to visit the blog.

Well an overwhelming response (four out of seven votes) of "high school and college sports" was received and I also did my research and discovered that the majority of people that found out about my original blog, found it by Googling something high school sports related and something finally clicked. 

So I give you East versus West, a blog that will follow high school sports in the state of Massachusetts. Maybe some college happenings will pop up on here from time to time we shall see, but for now this will be the predominant site of all high school sports news.

I will still be blogging on Batter-up with Bruno where it'll mostly be baseball, college, media, and other random happenings. So I hope you will join me for my new blog beat, which I should started years ago and just discovered, awesome.

As always, keeping you posted folks.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This site is currently under construction.

An announcement will be made on Batter-up with Bruno when the site will be officially launced. 

Thank you.