Shake-shake-shake ... shake-shake-shake ... shake your ziti!

The Enosburg boys basketball team hosted Lake Region on Thursday night and although the game didn't go well for the Hornets, there was one local group that was a winner - the foodshelf in Enosburg.

The game was billed as Shake Your Ziti Night and people who brought a box of pasta to the game were allowed use it as a noise-maker at the game (usually noise makers are prohibited due to VPA rules) and then they were given the option of getting back a portion of their admission price.

Enosburg athletic director - and all-around good guy - Chris Brigham said 75 boxes or pasta were donated, along with $50 in cash. The idea was the brainchild of Enosburg boys basketball coach Steve Jette, who said the event was held at his college.

What's a St. John's Prep?

The BFA-St. Albans boys hockey team hosted St. John's Prep on Saturday in the final game of the annual Doc Tulip Holiday Classic. The Bobwhites lost, 4-2, but played well against a very quick and indivdually talented team. (My story from the weekend will appear in Monday's Messenger.)

 

St. John's Prep has played in the tournament for most of the 15-or-so years the Doc Tulip has been played.

That said, until I decided to do a little research on the school, I knew very little about it.

Here's five things you probably didn't know about St. John's Prep.

1. The school - which has almost 1.250 students - is located in Danvers, Mass. (near Boston) and is 102 years old. The team's mascot in the Eagles.

2. Brian Kelly, the new head coach of the Notre Dame football team, graduated from the school in 1979.

3. Bobby Carpenter, the first American-born player to enter the NHL directly out of high school, played for St. John's Prep. He was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1981 draft and went on to score 320 goals in an 18-year career.

4. Steve Langston, who graduated in 1997, is a member of Team USA's top two-man bobsled team that will compete in Vancouver this winter.

5. Former major league baseball player Paul Sorrento graduated from SJP in 1982. Sorrento had an 11-year career in which he posted a .257 batting average with 166 homers and 565 RBI. He also had the first-ever hit at Camden Yards, the first grand slam at Jacobs Field and he was the first DH in Tampa Bay Rays' history.



MVU-Milton boys hockey recap

A couple of unrelated thoughts on the MVU boys hockey game with Milton on Wednesday night.

(To read the game story I wrote, you'll need to buy the St. Albans Messenger.)

First of all, how about Milton goalie Nikki-Lyn Lauziere (below)?

The junior - who I think its the only girl playing on a boys hockey team this winter - was nothing short of  incredible, stopping 46 shots against a high-flying T-Bird offense.

Sure, MVU lit the lamp five times, but it could have been 15 with as many quality scoring bids as they put forth.

Milton only has 14 players on its roster, but they all contribute and their conditioning is impressive as they seemed to keep pace with the deep and talented T-Birds for all 45 minutes.

The game was the second for the T-Birds without their charasmatic coach Jason Brace, a former BFA-St. Albans stud who took over last winter for long-time coach Kevin Spears (who was at the game in a Yankee hat - booo! - last night).

Brace will not coach the T-Birds the rest of the season and for good reason: he's being deployed to Afghanistan along with his mates in the Army National Guard.

Brace is a communications specialist and will be gone - but not forgotten - for about a year.

In his abscence, assistants Luc Choquette (himself a fine player for Spears back in the day) and John McDonald.

Choquette said he'll be in contact with his head coach - and good friend - throughout his deployment and that Brace is very proud to serve.

Choquette said the MVU players are also very proud of their coach and hope to see him off when he deploys in early January.

He's wishing Jason and the rest of those deploying in the weeks to come the best of luck in Afghanistan. I'm extremely proud of your service and sacrifice and I appreciate you doing more than your fair share to protect the liberties we all so often take for granted.

My thoughts go out, too, to the families they are leaving behind. You are unsung heroes in your own right. Stay strong and know that there are tons of people who are ready to help and support you in any way we can.

The best laid plans ...

For those looking for a fresh post tonight, I'm going to have to defer.

I occassionally work shifts designing sports pages at the Free Press and forgot that tonight was one of those shifts.

I might post after I get home around 1:30 a.m., but I may wait until later in the day.

For those who care about such things, I did upload the BFA girls hockey and MVU-Enosburg boys basketball photos, including a few JV shots.

My next assignment is Wednesday night when I cover MVU-Milton boys hockey for the Messenger.

Thanks for checking in!

BFA wins, MVU falls

Took in a little of the MVU and BFA girls basketball games Friday night.

If you want some details, here's a link to the Free Press capsules on the games.

A couple of thoughts on the games ...

First, at MVU it was nice to see former Enosburg star Christiane Brown, who coaches North Country, which defeated the T-Birds.

Brown said her best returning player is lost for the season with an ACL tear, suffered when she was inadvertently undercut in a preseason game. Another expected contributor is also sidelined, recovering from an ACL tear that occurred in soccer season.

These losses may hamstring the Falcons in the long run this season, but against the T-Birds the ladies from Newport performed well.

It was also nice to meet Jim Fuller, the hard-working sports editor for the Newport Daily Express. Travelling to MVU on a Friday nights shows some real dedication to his craft.

At BFA there was a surprising large crowd given there was hockey at "The Doc" (my new name for the Collins-Perley rink in honor of Henry 'Doc' Tulip).

It's clear from what little I saw - I bailed after the first quarter - I didn't bring a flash and it's near impossible to shoot in the BFA gym without one - that these teams are both struggling to find new identities after lots of recent success.

I spoke to BFA coach Glenn Johnson away from the gym a few days back and he told me it's a different job completely without the likes of Tiffany Johnson, Nicole Lawton and the Garica twins on the court. Still, he said he's enjoying the challenge this season brings and he thinks there's potential for incredible growth as the season progresses.

Speaking of Tiffany, she's getting some playing time - sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much - as a freshman for the national-ranked Franklin Pierce women's basketball team.

At some point, I'll try track down some links to websites to the college teams where I know some Franklin County kids are playing in college. If you know of someone playing in college you'd like me to add to the list, please add a comment to this post - it's gets emailed to me automatically.

That's all I got for now - have another poll to post before I head out to shoot at the start of the Enosburg-MVU boys basketball game and the BFA-Hanover girls hockey game.