Sports
Keeping Score with Chip Ainsworth: Jim Reid a deserving honoree
Good morning!Sunday at Wyckoff Country Club in Holyoke, Jim Reid will be honored by the Western Mass. Chapter of the National Football Foundation, together with seven others who will be feted for their contributions to the sport.Reid has come full...
Softball preview 2024: Greenfield seeks third-straight Div. 5 state championship
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
It would be hard to find a more dominant postseason run than the one the Greenfield softball team had a season ago. After winning the 2022 MIAA Division 5 state championship, the Green Wave came back last spring with a loaded squad and dominated their...
High schools: Frontier boys volleyball earns first win of season with 3-2 triumph over PV Christian
The Frontier boys volleyball team got in the win column. After dropping their opening three matches of the season, the Redhawks hosted Pioneer Valley Christian on Wednesday and raced out to a 2-0 lead with 25-23, 25-22 set victories.The Eagles fought...
2024 high school baseball preview: Pioneer looks to get over Final Four hump
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
Is it possible to finish the year with a 21-2 record and not be satisfied with the results? The Pioneer baseball team sure wasn’t. The Panthers won the first 18 games of their season in 2023 and did so in convincing fashion, cruising into the Western...
High schools: Fast start lifts Franklin Tech baseball past Turners (PHOTOS)
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
TURNERS FALLS — A pair of big early innings offensively got the job done for the Franklin Tech baseball team against Turners Falls on Tuesday at the Bourdeau Fields Complex.The Eagles put three runs on the board in the top of the first inning and...
UMass notebook: Josh Cohen (Arkansas), Robert Davis Jr. (Old Dominion) have new homes as transfer portal remains busy
By GARRETT COTE
AMHERST — Two former UMass men’s basketball players have already found new homes after announcing they would be entering the transfer portal in mid-March.Josh Cohen told On3Sports last week that he would be joining Arkansas for the upcoming men’s...
Caitlin Clark leads Iowa back to Final Four, scoring 41 points in 94-87 win over defending champ LSU
By DOUG FEINBERG
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Caitlin Clark put up another sensational performance to carry Iowa to its second straight Final Four.The Hawkeyes’ superstar guard, whose record-breaking exploits have brought unprecedented attention to women’s basketball, made...
High schools: Greenfield sweeps season-opening track meet with Franklin Tech, Turners Falls
The outdoor track and field season got underway on Monday in Franklin County. The Greenfield boys track team made the trip to Turners Falls to take on Franklin Tech, and behind victories by Jackson Caron in the 1 mile (4 minutes, 44 seconds) and the...
Boys volleyball preview: Frontier looks to earn third straight Western Mass. title
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
It’d be hard to imagine a program getting off to a better start than the Frontier boys volleyball team.Legendary Redhawk girls volleyball coach Sean MacDonald and Courtney Parent started the boys program at Frontier two years ago and in their first...
Fit to Play with Jim Johnson: Exercise Prescriptions Are Just The Beginning
Exercise prescriptions first started in 1968 when Ken Cooper recommended that everyone amass 40 points a week to achieve aerobic fitness. For example, this could be achieved by running one eight-minute mile a day, five days a week. Cooper’s...
High schools: Agawam slugs past Frontier softball in season opener (PHOTOS)
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
SOUTH DEERFIELD — Runs came early and often in the Frontier softball team’s season opener against Agawam on Friday. The visiting Brownies opened the game with four runs in the top of the first but the Redhawks responded by putting three runs on the...
Clark and Reese bring star power to Albany 2 Regional that features Iowa, LSU, Colorado and UCLA
By DOUG FEINBERG
ALBANY, N.Y. — Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese bring a lot of star power to the Albany 2 Regional as two of the biggest names in college basketball.Clark’s Iowa squad and Reese’s LSU team would both have to win their Sweet 16 games for the two to meet...
High schools: Digging deeper into how the MIAA ranking formula fared this winter
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
It’s always an interesting exercise to review the MIAA winter tournament brackets and see how the rating system fared in regard to ranking teams. The MIAA says the rating system is simple and transparent, noting on its website “the benchmark is...
Keeping Score: Play ball, indeed
Good morning!The New York Mets broke training camp this week but left their newest free agent J.D. Martinez behind at Clover Park in St. Lucie West to get ready for the Braves series a week from Monday.Clover Park is the stadium’s fifth name change....
UMass hockey limits high-powered Denver attack in NCAA Tournament opening round
By GARRETT COTE
SPRINGFIELD — Entering Thursday afternoon’s NCAA tournament regional game, the UMass hockey team was well aware of the task at hand battling the No. 3 team in the country, Denver, and its No. 1 ranked scoring offense in the nation.The Minutemen held...
Denver’s Tristan Broz scores in double-overtime to knock off UMass, 2-1, in NCAA Tournament opening round (PHOTOS)
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
SPRINGFIELD — When the Massachusetts and Denver hockey teams meet in the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Championship, 60 minutes doesn’t seem to be enough to decide a winner. After playing to overtime in the 2019 NCAA tournament semifinals, the fourth-seeded...
H.S. Roundup: Frontier boys volleyball falls in season opener
The Frontier boys volleyball team opened its season on Thursday against Chicopee Comp, with the Colts getting out to a fast start to earn a 3-0 sweep over the Redhawks at Goodnow Gymnasium. Chicopee Comp won the opening set by a score of 25-22, walked...
UMass hockey: 9-time national champion Denver awaits Minutemen in NCAA Springfield Regional opener
By GARRETT COTE
SPRINGFIELD — Greg Carvel had his house to himself last Saturday, the date of the University of Denver’s NCHC title game with Omaha. If Denver won, the UMass ice hockey head coach and his team would be back in the NCAA tournament. A loss would mark...
High schools: Spring sports season gets underway Thursday
By THOMAS JOHNSTON
While the brisk, chilly weather this week doesn’t make it seem like the spring sports season is here, local high school baseball, softball, tennis and volleyball teams will get their campaigns underway Thursday and Friday.With it being a light winter...
Greenfield’s Lucas Allenby, Landon Allenby qualify for USASA Nationals
A pair of local athletes are heading to Colorado next month to compete against the best skiers in the country. Landon Allenby and Lucas Allenby, 12-year-old twins from Greenfield, began skiing at Berkshire East but have mostly taught themselves how to...
