Wallace recovering
Methuen’s Jacob Wallace has kicked off his 2026 season — his seventh in professional baseball — as a member of the Atlanta Braves’ high single-A affiliate, the Rome Emperors, as part of a rehab assignment.
Wallace made his first appearance for Rome this week, allowing a hit in an inning of work. It was his first game action since spring training, when he made one appearance for the big club in an exhibition game.
The former Methuen High star and Red Sox farmhand has appeared in 229 professional games, reaching triple-A.
Ranger uniform debut
Methuen High football debut its newly-designed uniforms for the 2026 season this week in a slickly-produced and impressive video feature, appearing on coach Ryan Dugan‘s Methuen High School Football page (@DuganMethuen) on “X,” formally known as Twitter.
Featuring the motto “New look, same standard” and touting its back-to-back-MVC championships, the video is cool, and so are the uniforms, which are back with blue trim. Overall great outing by the Rangers.
Central wrestling captains
Congratulations go out to Caden Smith, Brian Waller-Reitano and Rhys Dewar, who have been named captains for the Central Catholic wrestling team for the 2026-27 season.
Waller-Reitano was recently named our Eagle-Tribune Wrestling of the Year for this past winter, while Smith and Dewar were All-Star picks. All three are also football standouts, with Smith (quarterback) and Waller-Reitano (offensive lineman) both two-time Eagle-Tribune All-Stars and Dewar a running back/linebacker.
Red Ranger All-Scholastics
The Boston Herald released its Girls Hockey All-Scholastic team, and Division 1 state champion Methuen-Tewsbury was heavily featured.
From the Red Rangers, UMass Lowell-bound Lyla Chapman (17 assists) and Lydia Barnes (29 shutouts) were named to the Dream Team, while Sammy Ryan (17 goals, 14 assist) was also named to the team. The other local pick was HPNA’s Mia Kmiec (17 goals, 17 assists).
Captains Corner
The high school spring season is in full swing, and we at The Eagle-Tribune want to honor the area’s high school captains as part of our Captains Corner series. Coaches — or parents or the athletes themselves — who would like their captains featured are welcome to submit a photo to dwillis@eagletribune.com. Photos should have all captains featured and ideally in uniform.
One Final Thought
As Michael Muldoon used to say, “If you can bring a smile to someone’s face today, just do it!
TWITTER: DWillisET