Francoeur striping it
Whatever happens today, it’s already been a successful debut on the Korn Ferry Tour for Chris Francoeur.
The Newburyport native is making his first start on the “Triple-A affiliate” of the PGA Tour down in the Bahamas this week, and is fighting for a top-10 finish heading into Wednesday’s final round (tournament is taking place Sun-Wed). He currently sits at T34 through three rounds at 9-under for the tournament, and is only four strokes back from potentially cracking into the top-10.
Francoeur fired a 6-under 66 on Monday to both make the cut, and vault himself into a T5 position. He then opened with two straight birdies to start Tuesday’s round, but made three bogeys on the day to ultimate post a 1-under 71 and fall down the leaderboard a bit.
But again, this is just one level below the PGA Tour, folks.
For Francoeur to make the cut in his first start on this stage is certainly a big accomplishment.
Latest local MIAA rankings
The latest power rankings came out on Tuesday morning, and here is where each of our local teams stand.
Boys Basketball: Newburyport (No. 4 in Div. 3); Triton (No. 55 in Div. 3); Pentucket (No. 63 in Div. 3); Georgetown (No. 9 in Div. 4), Amesbury (No. 29 in Div. 4).
Girls Basketball: Pentucket (No. 9 in Div. 3); Newburyport (No. 25 in Div. 3); Triton (No. 45 in Div. 3); Georgetown (No. 15 in Div. 4); Amesbury (No. 32 in Div. 4).
Boys Hockey: Newburyport (No. 15 in Div. 2); Amesbury (No. 28 in Div. 2); Triton (No. 8 in Div. 3); Pentucket (No. 22 in Div. 4).
Girls Hockey: HPNA (No. 4 in Div. 1); Newburyport (No. 3o in Div. 2).
Pentucket senior Paige Nottingham and HPNA did take their first loss of the season recently, but are still a title contender in Division 1 — as is the Newburyport boys basketball team in Division 3.
Josh is back, back again
On Tuesday evening, the Patriots hired back an old friend in Josh McDaniels to be the team’s offensive coordinator for the third time in his career. It was a move long reported in the making, as arguably the most important coaching step of the offseason is now finalized.
My thoughts: Uninspired. Lazy. Lame.
Look, I’m not smart like everyone else, can predict the future, and confidently tell you that this is a great hire like so many will. But my argument this entire time has been the Patriots’ lack of imagination, investigation and willingness to get uncomfortable with coaching searches is just so limiting.
Also, for a franchise that has made poor decision after poor decision in the “Post Brady Era” (from personnel, to coaching), it’s been so rich to see all the local media saying, “The followed their gut and got their guys!” .. when they’ve just been following their same process that has catapulted them into the basement.
Captains Corner
Captains Corner submissions are now being accepted for the 2024-25 winter season. A couple have already rolled in, but there are still plenty of local sports teams that haven’t been submitted. Coaches — or parents or the athletes themselves — who would like their captains featured are welcome to submit a photo to kgaudette@newburyportnews.com. Photos should have all captains featured and ideally be in their jerseys.