Busy weekend on tap

I'm planning to do a double-dip this evening starting in Swanton where the MVU girls basketball team hosts North Country. Then I'm sliding down I-89 (hopefully not literally) to catch the Essex girls at BFA-St. Albans.

These photos will appear on my other site coldhollowphoto.com later this weekend.

Tomorrow, I'm back in Swanton to shoot the first quarter of the Enosburg-MVU boys basketball game and then over to the Collins-Perley rink to cover the final game of the BFA-St. Albans girls hockey tournament.

These photos, some of which will be in Monday's Messenger, might not be uploaded until early next week. Check the winter sports list on my website to find out when they are uploaded.

Speaking of the Collins-Perley rink, the recent renovations there are impressive to be sure.

Still, I can't help but wonder why they couldn't have included a little more money for a better sound system. Granted, I'm listening to the PA system from the wrong side of the rink - near the benches. Maybe the sound is better on the spectator's side.

But from where I sit, the player introductions and goal and penalty announcements sound like they are being done by Charlie Brown's teacher. 'Mwwwhrrhaa, mwwwhrrhaa, rraahhra, rraahhra."

And the national anthem sounds like it's being played by F-16s ... poorly.

But those are minor annoyances, to be sure.

Overall, the place has never looked better.

Now we just need to give the gussied-up old girl a new name.

Might I suggest Henry 'Doc' Tulip rink at the Collins-Perley Sports and Fitness Center.

What better nickname could a rink have than 'The Doc'?

Just my two cents.

Geddes, Jette take over at EFHS

Enosburg athletic director Chris Brigham confirmed today that Gary Geddes will supplant Jay Nichols as Enosburg varsity girls basketball coach and Steve Jette will take the reigns of the varsity boys basketball team from Robert Gervais.

Geddes has been a long-time coach in the successful Enosburg youth basketball program and is a former JV boys coach.

Nichols stepped down after leading the Hornets to one state title and a Final Four berth in two seasons. He's going to be a superintendent next school year and therefore unable to coach.

Jette, who was a star athlete at EFHS in the late 90s (I think - I know I covered his games back then, but the precise dates elude me). At any rate, he was one of Nichols' assistants the last two seasons and also helps coach other sports in the school. He takes over for Gervais, who ended his second stint as boys coach to concentrate on his new duties rebuilding the Johnson State College softball team, where his daughter Julie is a pitcher.

Both Jette and Geddes have large shoes to fill, but my personal experience with their successors leave me optimistic the future of the Hornet basketball program is in good hands.

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SHAWN CORROW, when he's not perhaps a little too pleased with himself for breaking his first bit of 'news' on his blog, is a freelance photojournalist based in Franklin, Vermont and the owner of Cold Hollow Photography.