Friday night’s football game brought the worry of most athletes’ parents to my wife and I - watching our child get hurt.

Can you imagine a town in the United States with no baseball, soccer or football fields? No volleyball, basketball, hockey, or softball teams for students to play on. That seems sad to me, but it is reality for students in Germany.

Can you imagine coaching a high school football team to a 14-0 conference record and still not be illegible to make the playoffs? That’s exactly what happened to the Whitehall (Memorial) High School Norsemen football team in 1979, my junior year.

At Pinkerton Academy in Derry last weekend, the mercy rule was announced over the loud speaker at half time. I hadn’t every heard of it before, but it exists.

Here’s a few pictures from the Pinkerton Academy vs. Manchester Memorial football game last Saturday in Derry. Not the greatest field conditions in the rain, and the game didn’t go the Crusaders way. But, with several underclassmen in the starting lineups, they are a team building and hopefully improving as the season goes on.

Practices are usually uneventful to shoot for the paper. But when I pulled up the pictures on my laptop and saw the ball on a players’ nose, it stood out to me.

Baseball players learn the technique at a young age. When the ball is thrown at you, turn your other cheeks forward and take one for the team.

That’s no Gatorade or Powerade recipe for a sports drink. I’m sure my coaches weren’t thinking of e-coli bacteria, deadly viruses or poisoning when my teammates and I at Whitehall High School in Wisconsin, had to chug water during a break from football practice using an outdoor hose faucet and our football helmets. Looking back [...]

Is your son or daughter finishing up their Little League season? Are you wondering where to go from here? Do they have the potential to play high school sports or beyond?

I wasn’t there when team manager, A.J. Jackson injured his ankle walking up a set of stairs in flip flops. But, I can say it wasn’t his fault for not moving fast enough when my son, Brandon ripped a foul ball down the third base line, hitting A.J.’s ankle in the same spot. Double-Ouch!