Tough break for Jake
The news is not good for Holy Cross senior outfielder Jake McElroy.
His season and career for the Crusaders comes to an end prematurely due to a fractured bone and a torn ligament in his ankle. North Andover’s McElroy, a Holy Cross captain, put together one of the great three-sport careers of his generation for the Knights, playing football, basketball and baseball at the top levels. He’ll graduate next month with his degree in finance.
Amazing athlete, even better young man.
Watch out for Lowell Catholic softball
Speaking of Crusaders, keep an eye on the Lowell Catholic softball program, which just knocked off Whittier Tech this past week and Lynnfield High the week before.
Former Merrimack College legend Kim (Page) Ducharme has taken over the program and has Lowell Catholic headed in the right direction.
Trojans coming for Christmas
News broke this week of a slight change to the girls field in Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic Tournament.
Haverhill will no longer be part of the event. Instead, it will be perennial Mass. power Bridgewater-Raynham, which will join Andover, Central, Methuen, Natick, North Andover, Pentucket and Westford.
B-R is a bit of a hoop monster, immediately fortifying the field.
The Trojans will return 10 letter-winners and four starters from a 16-7 team that advanced to the D-1 state quarters for the third time in four years.
Head coach Cheryl Seavey is 140-51 in nine seasons. She is a B-R alum, who both played at the Garden in the state semis, losing to Haverhill in 1989 and as a coach, falling to Andover in 2020.
“Having played them non-conference the last two years and in the Garden in 2020, B-R is well-coached, well-prepared and competes extremely hard,” said Andover coach Alan Hibino. “They are a great addition, further cementing the tournament as the premier holiday tournament in the state.”
Cheryl is also the wife of Jim Seavey, known best in these parts for the stellar job he did as Merrimack College’s sports information director.
I’m with Reggie
As a voter annually for the Heisman Trophy, I was ecstatic to see the powers that be choosing to reinstate Reggie Bush as the 2005 winner.
“We are thrilled to welcome Reggie Bush back to the Heisman family in recognition of his collegiate accomplishments,” said Michael Comerford, President of The Heisman Trophy Trust. “We considered the enormous changes in college athletics over the last several years in deciding that now is the right time to reinstate the Trophy for Reggie. We are so happy to welcome him back.”
I always felt stripping Bush of the award because of some alleged financial improprieties while at USC was a miscarriage of justice and even a bit of an attempt to hide what transpired in college football for decades across the nation, until the new NIL rules ultimately have made it all legal.
Great work by the Heisman folks to right this wrong.
Steelers sign Warrior
Merrimack defenseman back Darion McKenzie signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent following this past weekend’s NFL Draft.
McKenzie, who was a grad student this past season, had three interceptions for the Warriors in nine games.
This is the second year in a row the Steelers have signed a Merrimack player as a UDFA. Last season, they signed defensive lineman James Nyamwaya. Nyamwaya is currently playing for the Massachusetts Pirates, an IFL team that plays out of the Tsongas Center in Lowell.