Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

When I get assigned a game, I start cranking out the notes in a hurry.

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while wondering if I might set a power strip on fire if I plugged in both a professional audio mixing board and a heating pad for inside my coat at tomorrow night's Vocational Bowl championship game in Canton:

** The above reference alludes to a short-notice assignment I got early yesterday. North TV, responding to viewers' requests, will televise the high school football Vocational Bowl, Small School Division, between Tri-County and Blue Hills up in Canton tomorrow night beginning at 6. Game-time temperature is predicted to be 31 degrees, and there is no press box or other enclosure into which Del Malloy and I can retreat.

OK, I'll stop whining. It will be cold, yes, but not the coldest game I ever covered as a journalist or broadcaster.

I don't have exact temperature reading for the two games, but there are two in my long history as a journalist that stand out in memory.

The first was pretty recent -- Thanksgiving Day 2018, to be exact. It was my first year as a member of the electronic media, and my assignment was to be one of three announcers going up in a lift over the visiting stands at Attleboro's Tozier-Cassidy Field to announce the Attleboro vs. North Attleboro game. Jared Ware, Del Malloy and I boarded one of those elevated lifts you see at Patriots' training camp for the coaches and their cameras at 9 a.m., and we couldn't budge from there until the game was over, sometime around 12:30 p.m.

The temperature as we ascended into the heavens was 12 degrees Fahrenheit, as I recall. We were all dressed to the hilt, layer after layer of thermal clothing atop each other, in the hope that we would not freeze to death during the game. I'm also not afraid to admit that I was also wearing two pair of Depends above my Jockey shorts because that was going to be a long time on the lift, with no hope of relieving myself in the more accepted fashion if nature came calling.

Fortunately, that never happened. Ever since my mild stroke in 2014, I've taken a lot of steps to become healthier. And my body parts have responded. My kidneys are now Kryptonian in nature. I have gone up to six hours in a broadcast booth without the need to take the pause that refreshes. Those Depends served only to provide better insulation from the cold on that particular day.

We did get the broadcast done. North Attleboro won a good game, marked by an impressive debut performance by freshman quarterback Tyler DeMattio, and the only problem was that Del's headset ceased working early in the second half. Fortunately, my gift of gab kept the commentary flowing.

It probably won't be this cold.

The second game was in the 2003 MIAA playoffs, a semifinal game at Quincy's Veterans Memorial Stadium between Mansfield and Quincy High. That venerable venue has undergone a major makeover recently, but in 2003 it was dilapidated and just plain worn out, its natural surface bulldozed down to bare dirt from goal-line to goal-line. Temperatures at gametime were in the low-20s and falling, and a gusting and constant wind from the north not only dropped the wind chill to intolerable levels, it also kicked up the loose dirt in the center of the field and sent it flying into the faces of players, coaches, and anyone else that had the misfortune to be at field-level.

I, of course, fit into that category. I tried to bundle as best I could -- multiple layers packed into a full-length ski suit I had purchased on a whim a few years earlier (which made me look like a blue version of the Michelin Man), and enough wrappings around my face that only a small slit at glasses-level was exposed to the elements. But even that was enough to keep me miserable the whole night, because the wind-whipped dust was sneaking under my glasses and getting into my eyes, and I was too bundled to do anything to relieve them.

The ski suit was so stuffed and rigid, too, that I could barely walk, let along run as I often had to do when covering a game from the sidelines. And I had to keep one hand exposed to the elements so I could write and keep charting the game -- and I feared at game's end that I had suffered frostbite because of that.

I didn't, fortunately, but some players did. Youthful bravado led a few to shun warming garments for exposed arms and legs, and some suffered skin damage from exposure.

Mansfield did win the game, 45-12, and were to play Swampscott the next weekend, but a snowfall on gameday forced postponement to the following week. Mansfield won that game, too, and the 50-degree weather in which it was played at Brockton's Marciano Stadium felt like a balmy summer day in comparison to that brutal Tuesday night in Quincy.

Del and I will tough it out tomorrow night, I'm sure. But we will both be thankful that our last football game of the year will be announced in one of the climate-controlled radio booths at Gillette Stadium the following night.

** That will, of course, be the MIAA Division 2 Super Bowl between Marshfield and King Philip, a 5:30 start Thursday at Gillette. Del and I will handle the call, but it will be shown on a delayed basis because the Kraft Group has given its own production folks the rights to five of the eight Super Bowls.

It will be shown live on Patriots.com and their YouTube page, and there may be a few more bells and whistles involved in the video work, but if you want to hear announcers that know what they are covering, watch our telecast 48 hours later.

I'm not in the business in making predictions anymore, but I will say this much -- this could be KP's toughest game of the season. Marshfield is fast and multi-dimensional on offense and they run the no-huddle every second they have the ball. Their quarterback is big, strong and releases the ball quickly, the receivers are smart and talented, and they have a very good 1,000-yard running back, too. Defensively they take a few chances and maybe go too much for the big hit instead of wrapping up a ball-carrier, but they certainly knocked an undisciplined Catholic Memorial team off its stride in the semifinal.

Yeah, I like KP in this one.

All that being said, I think this may be the best KP team of all the ones Brian Lee has brought to all their Super Bowls. They are smart, athletic, strong and confident. They play complementary football in all three phases of the game and they learn from their very few mistakes. They saw Marshfield's gimmicks last year and emerged victorious, but both teams have come back better this year. I think if KP just stays the course and executes with the precision and poise that has sustained them to this point, they will finish the job.

One thing other than the non-stop no-huddle concerns me, though. KP has been so dominant this year, they have not had to play a conventionally-timed game since Oct. 27. Every game since then has gone to running time in the fourth quarter. Hopefully that will mean they've been able to store some of that energy that wasn't expended on Diman Voke, Winchester, Barnstable or Franklin and they'll have it in the tank for anything Marshfield throws at them.

** One frustration I've had over the years is getting an accurate roster from teams I haven't seen before. Accurate rosters are extremely important to announcers of all sorts, whether TV, radio or public address, because nobody likes to hear someone else's name attached to an athlete that just made a play.

One of the rosters I got recently -- and I won't reveal the school's name because the athletic director worked very hard to correct it when I spoke to him -- had 10 sets of duplicate numbers on it, and in two instances, four athletes were said to be assigned the same number. That's just madness. 

I try to watch local cable TV broadcasts of future opponents' games, and that sometimes helps me to eliminate my own mistakes. But in this case, even the local announcer had no idea who was playing for his own team. 

If I ruled the world, I would send each coach a template of the perfect roster, either to give to media or to make available to fans. It would have, in this order, player's number, player's name, player's positions on offense and defense, height, weight and graduation year. And the Catholics or regional schools might be convinced, as a nice touch, to add the player's hometown as the last column.

But since I don't rule the world, I'll have to get the Herald's Danny Ventura on board with this. Most folks involved in school sports listen to what he says, and deservedly so. I'll surrender any credit in exchange for better information in my sunset years.

** Basketball is starting soon, and I will be a busy person. My schedule begins Dec. 12 with a doubleheader at Mansfield between the Hornet boys and girls and Attleboro (live on Mansfield Cable Access) and then I go to Foxboro on Dec. 15 to do the Mansfield-Foxboro girls' game for Foxboro Cable Access. My first North TV game won't be until mid-January, but I'll do my share of King Philip games for them, and even four KP boys' and girls' hockey games.

In all, I think I have about 26 basketball games on the schedule before the playoffs begin, and I'll get some help from Kathy Hill to cover some of the Mansfield games I'll have to miss because of North TV assignments.

And yes, I'll probably go to a lot of games just to watch when I don't have an assignment to announce. I just can't get enough hoops.

Can't wait!

More awards for Coach Downs.

** Heartiest congratulations to my pal Lisa Downs, head coach of the Foxboro girls' basketball team, for her recent honors from the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association at their annual awards banquet at Holy Cross.

Lisa, who coached the Warriors to a 24-1 record and the state Division 2 championship last year, was welcomed to the 200-win club as well as named one of three Division 2 coaches of the year.

Of course, for my money, there should be only one of those. Lisa has proved her mettle, having coached the Warriors to three state titles during her 12 years at the helm, and having been an assistant on their 1995 Division 3 championship team. And as she enters Season 13, she has her top eight players from last year's team returning to the hardcourt -- although because of a questionable realignment on the part of the MIAA, her team won't be able to defend their Division 2 crown. They've been dropped to Division 3, but I suspect they will succeed no matter where they go.

Lisa is also my favorite guest on my podcast, "The Owner's Box," with six appearances on the tally. At some point, I'm just going to have to name her the co-host, I guess. But I don't know if I can afford the salary demands. And I still owe her a five-timers jacket!

** If you are wondering why you see college basketball players wearing numbers like "8" or "77" or other such varieties of formerly banned numbers this year, it's because the NCAA has loosened its regulations about what numbers are legal on a uniform, and what aren't.

Sometime in the 1960s, I believe, the NCAA adopted rules to prohibit any combination of numbers including 6, 7, 8 and 9, because officials needed to signal players' numbers to the scorer's table using two hands when reporting fouls. If your number was 16, an official would need either an extra digit on his or her left hand, or a third hand. The NBA never adopted a similar rule, although I'm not sure why.

But now, with the advent of TV replays and monitors at the scorer's table in most college venues, it's not difficult to see the number on the offending player's shirt. So everything from "0" to "99" is fair game on a college shirt.

There hasn't been a similar move on the part of the National Federation of High Schools, probably because there's no electronic help to the scorers. The numbers 0, 1 and 2 have come into popular usage, but at least for the time being, 55 remains the highest number any high school boy or girl can wear legally.

** Time to see how many handwarmers I can stuff into my pockets tomorrow. Cheers, and we'll see you on the hardcourt.

The Owner's Box, Ep. 51.

John Leahy, play-by-play voice of Merrimack College hockey, joins the podcast.

We're back with a new podcast, and as befits Thanksgiving week, it's chock-full of information about the holiday football rivalries.

My guest is John Leahy, a very busy play-by-play announcer for college hockey (mostly at Merrimack College) and other sports, including Minor League Baseball. He's a native of Stoughton (just up the road) and that's where he started his broadcasting career with local cable, and he came back to his alma mater this week to do the call for the annual Canton-Stoughton football game.

John had gotten in touch last week and asked me to guest on his podcast, called "Airing It Out: Files from Leahy's Broadcast Booth" on which we could discuss a lot of topics related to high school football, which was one of his first broadcasting loves and something that I do for a living these days. I quickly agreed, but I asked him if I could record parts of it to share with the audience of The Owner's Box as well. He graciously agreed, so I throw in some excerpts of our conversation -- and during those, I make a point of repaying a huge debt to him.

Years ago, John compiled a list of the all-time records of all Hockomock League football teams in competition with each other, some dating back as far as the 1920s. He bequeathed them to me when his broadcasting career took off, and despite some procrastination, I have updated them all and I use that information during my own telecasts of King Philip football for North TV. It's invaluable.

For the whole podcast with me and John, be sure to check out his podcasting site at leahystorytelling.com, or follow the directions he offers during our segment together.

Then after that, I talk about all the holiday games of the schools I used to cover for the local paper that were played on three different days this week.

I hope you enjoy it.

This is one hell of a team.

The King Philip Warriors celebrate their 41-21 win over Barnstable (Tyler Hetu photo).

I've had the privilege of announcing the games of one of the best high school football teams I've ever seen this fall, televising all of its games save for one (too long a ride on a Thursday night back in September). And that leads me to the question of whether it's been more enjoyable for me as a play-by-play announcer or if it would have been in my former incarnation as a sportswriter.

That's a tough question to answer. I just hope I've done the King Philip Warriors justice in my current line of work.

Coach Brian Lee's team is a perfect 11-0 going into the home stretch of the season, and its last two games will be played at two of the sports Meccas of New England -- Fenway Park on Tuesday night, the annual Thanksgiving rivalry game against Franklin, and then on the last week of the month (date and time to be announced) in their third straight Division 2 Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium, against either perennial nemesis Catholic Memorial or dangerous upstart Marshfield. 

North TV will be there for both games. We'll do the Fenway game live on Tuesday, and unless we get the NFHS Network gig for Gillette, we will record the Super Bowl for later viewing on our Community Channel. I'm very much looking forward to doing both games.

Having covered Hockomock League sports in one media form or another since the 1969 football season, it is always special when one of its teams ascends to championship level. And sometimes, there's a sense of personal joy as well as professional joy -- such as in the 2018 basketball season, when I traveled to Springfield to watch two of all-time favorite teams play in state championship games at the MassMutual Center, the Foxboro girls in Division 2 and the Mansfield boys in Division 1.

Of course, I'm a Mansfield alum. And it filled my heart with pride to see my alma mater ascend to the height of the toughest division in the land to bring home the title (ironically, against fellow Hockomock member Franklin). And I had a long and abiding relationship with Foxboro girls' basketball extending back all the way to the late 1970s, just a few years past Title IX, when a hard-working group of girls proved to me that they could be as fun to watch as any boys' team.

I was particularly glad I could write those and leave the lasting legacy of print. Print journalism is fading into memory now, but I still feel as if it is more tangible and more attuned to preservation than the electronic version. Fifty years from now, someone will pull old, crumbling clippings out of an old trunk and be able to read the words of praise a long-dead sportswriter wrote on that amazing day.

Times change, and so does the media. This is my sixth sports season as a member of the electronic media, and it's been a blast. Last year I had the chance to announce two state-title basketball games, and at least one of my teams won. I still watch both of the games frequently to re-live the moments. And I certainly hope that's what this year's KP football team and its fans will be doing with my efforts as the season becomes part of history.

Last night, Del Malloy and I were televising the game on behalf of the NFHS Network, which has national reach as a clearing-house site for high school games from all over the nation. KP was playing a dangerous Barnstable team at neutral-site Weymouth, and it was our job as announcers to present more of a balanced outlook at the game because we weren't simply playing to the KP audience.

We may have failed. But it wasn't our fault.

From the opening kickoff, King Philip put on a clinic of championship-level football. They surrendered one first down to Barnstable on the first possession, but got the ball at midfield to start its first possession and it ceased being a competitive game at that point.

Drew Laplante has over 1,100 yards this season.

The Warriors scored on five of their next six possessions, and they did it every way possible. First it was a 10-play drive leading to a 1-yard run by fullback Jack Berthiaume. Then a 1-yard run by Drew Laplante after just a three-play possession that started at the Barnstable 25. One hiccup, a lost fumble at the Red Hawks' 30, was followed by a 63-yard pass from Tom McLeish to Mason Campbell on the first play of a possession. Next came Laplante's 25-yard run at the end of a seven-play possession, and finally, a score on the last play of the half -- 23 yards in the air from McLeish to David Constantine. Sean Woods added his fifth point-after kick of the half, and it was 35-0 at intermission.

That early first down by the Red Hawks? It was their only one of the half.

It was so dominating a performance against a team that had averaged 37 points a game prior to last night, Lee was able to send his second-team offense onto the field at the start of the second half and the defense not long after. The final was 41-21, as Barnstable tacked on a few late scores to send some fans back to the Cape not feeling as if their team failed to show up. The fourth quarter was played in running time, per the MIAA's blowout rules -- the third time in three playoff games for KP.

It's been an amazing run for a team that had some key holes to fill from graduation losses, and showed improvement in every game.

I could sing the praises of so many kids on this team, I'd feel badly if I left someone out. But I will offer some of the highlights.

I became a big fan of Laplante this year on his way to joining the 1,000-yard club. The kid hardly played at all last year, but he stepped in and became a huge part of a running-back corps that had expanded to 13 members by last night.

When I went to a preseason scrimmage at Wellesley, I noticed a kid wearing No. 1 that wasn't afraid to go over the go over the middle and make the tough catch. His name was Mason Campbell, another player expanding his role significantly from last year, and he's KP's leading receiver going into the final two games. McLeish also came back bigger, stronger and with great accuracy on his passes. He doesn't have to carry the Warriors on his back as some quarterbacks must, but he's fully capable of it, and his talents make KP a diverse offense and a nightmare for opposing defensive coordinators.

And I have to sing the praises of an offensive line that has remained intact all year and just dominates its opposition. Luke Danson, Sean King, Matt Terio, Logan Van Vaerenewyck and Drew Herlin have done the work of men all season long.

Ditto the defense. The defensive line and edge rushers terrorize opposing QBs. The linebackers bottle up runs. And the defensive backs have improved so much over the course of the year, they are now a great strength instead of a possible Achilles' heel. Constantine, Hayden Schmitz, Brandon Nicastro, Tommy Kilroy and all the situational insertions have been as steady as they come. And I have to tip my cap to junior Sean Woods, who had to replace a super-productive kicker in Matt Kelley and did so beyond most expectations.

I must mention one blip on the screen from this year, and it's that KP was found to have had a ritual at its preseason summer camp that has been regarded as hazing. Veteran players organized an unsupervised "fight club" for younger kids on the team, and while no one was hurt and the premise was not meant to degrade or abuse the kids, it still ran afoul of MIAA rules. Lee had to sit out one game (he still got credit for the win because the MIAA credits suspended coaches with victories achieved during that suspension), and the punishment followed MIAA guidelines for first-offense situations that favor lenience and education over Draconian punishment.

Some don't like that. Even my former newspaper editorialized that Lee's punishment was not sufficient. Had the ritual in question been more abusive, I would have agreed. And if it's repeated, there should be hell to pay. But this was not the time nor the place for hellfire or brimstone.

Throughout the season, KP's behavior has been exemplary. The Warriors play hard and compete cleanly. They don't commit stupid penalties. They conduct themselves with the poise of pros, and that has brought them to this point, their third straight Super Bowl berth, and hopefully fulfillment of the old saying, "Third time's the charm."

We shall see. And I will be there to let you all know about it.

The Owner's Box, Ep. 50.

Getting my first haircut at Claude "Butch" Picciandra's Sunrise Barber Shop.

Well, we've finally made it through 50 episodes of "The Owner's Box." which debuted before anyone knew what COVID-19 was, and also which survived three computer meltdowns -- the last of which have still kept the video version off YouTube for the time being. We're still working on that.

But because 50 is a nice, round number, I wanted to do something special for it. So we've taken a turn away from sports for the time being, and we're trying something else. I hope in the future to take occasional strolls down Memory Lane here in my hometown of Mansfield, Mass., and recall some of what made growing up in this formerly small and close-knit town somewhat unique. 

For this episode, I contacted my long-time friend, Alex Salachi, for help in putting this idea into motion. Alex, of course, was formerly the basketball and volleyball coach at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, and he and I are broadcast partners for high school basketball on North TV and Mansfield Cable Access. We first met as fifth-graders at Dominican Academy in Plainville, we transferred into Mansfield public schools together for seventh grade, and we remained classmates, teammates and confidants for our whole lives -- and now we're just shy of 70 years old, Alex getting there next month and me following in January.

I jokingly said that one of our reasons for doing this deep dive into our memories was because at some point, they may start to disappear from our minds. At that point, I hope someone will play this podcast for both of us and we can kick our faltering hard drives back into action.

Norman Vickery, owner of Vickery Motoes, sold me
six cars -- but not this 1970 Plymouth Duster.

We chose to take virtual trips around the town of the 1960s and concentrate two areas in which Mansfield stood out in our memories. For Alex, it was the cluster of eight downtown barbershops that left indelible memories, especially the family-based influences that dictated where he got his hair cut in those formative years.

And for me? I became a car nut at an early age. I wasn't into racing or souped-up jalopies (although I did have a brief fascination with NASCAR), I liked my cars new. And when I was 9 years old and I could ride my bike all over town without supervision (try that these days!), I'd hit all eight of the town's new-car dealers in the early fall, trying my best to get peeks at the closely guarded secrets of the new models before they were officially revealed to the public. My segment talks about all eight of those dealers, what they sold as Mansfield became a transportation hub, and how they eventually disappeared.

It's a fun cruise into the past, and Alex and I will probably find new topics in the months to come to keep those old memories in the forefront. We both hope you enjoy this episode, and let us know with an email to theownersbox2020@gmail.com if you can.

It's not about you ... until it is.

Field hockey has become a faster and more dangerous sport in recent years.

Something terrible happened in a local high school field hockey game recently, and because of the unique nature of the circumstance, it has become a national story -- and a talking point for those on the conservative side of the ledger that point to this situation as an example of the decline of this country's moral fiber.

Which is bullshit, of course.

But that doesn't stop the reactionary souls that raptly absorb the daily dose of right-wing propaganda that's spewed with impunity by Fox News and other so-called conservative media organizations. Armed with very little actual knowledge and a snootful of manufactured outrage, lots of those slack-jawed Fox viewers have come forth to comment upon a story in our local newspaper and offer their unsupported opinions that hordes of virile and burly young male athletes are plotting to take over women's sports.

That couldn't be further from the truth. But it does play into the Trump-tainted Republican Party's national agenda to vilify transgender athletes that are seeking equal opportunity to compete. It doesn't even matter that there were no transgender athletes involved in this particular circumstance; the GOP has prospered by embracing the notion that you never need to confuse a good rant with facts.

Here, as far as I know, is what happened.

The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School field hockey team, seeded No. 21 in the MIAA Division 3 state tournament, was playing on Thursday at No. 12 Swampscott in the Round of 32. With about three minutes left in the third quarter and D-R trailing 1-0, Swampscott set up for an offensive corner, and the ball was sent out to a Swampscott player at the top of the circle, who sent an elevated shot toward the goal. The shooter was a male athlete.

The shot struck a Dighton-Rehoboth defender in the face, and the result of the impact was catastrophic. The player had several teeth knocked out and suffered other facial injuries, according to media reports.

There is a video of the play making the rounds of the Internet. It's not a close-up and it's very difficult to determine exactly what happened from it. A statement released by the Swampscott athletic director later that night claimed that the male player's shot was actually deflected off another player's stick before it hit the unidentified D-R player in the face. That is not easy to confirm from the video that is available.

Of course, this was a terrible accident, an unintentional injury that is the direct result of athletes hitting a very hard ball with sticks against athletes that are wearing no specific facial protection. But the fact that a male athlete hit the ball has unleashed a wave of outrage from those that have been conditioned to view any mixed-gender situation as a left-wing conspiracy to take away the rights of female athletes.

In a matter of a few hours, suddenly this boy became a physically mature and burly man with a linebacker's body who unleashed a fearsome slap shot into the face of the D-R girl, and then gloated about it because it is the Democrat agenda for men to take over girls' sports. All of that is absolutely untrue. I was not present at the game and can only go by the images in the fuzzy video, but it appeared to me that a tallish and slender individual took a low swing at the ball off the corner pass, followed by piercing screams of anguish from the injured player and by her horrified teammates.

Interviewing injured athletes has 
never been an easy thing to do.

I hate to see injuries. I've seen far too many of them since I started covering high school sports in 1969. I've even suffered a few of my own, and they remind me to this day of the damage they caused. I've seen people carried off fields, rinks and basketball courts and I've winced in sympathetic pain at their suffering. And worst of all, I have seen two young men playing in football games that were subjected to seemingly innocuous contact but were never again able to get up on their own for the rest of their lives. Risk is part of athletic competition, but sometimes it seems so damned unreasonable.

If there is any good news to be found, it's that the injured D-R athlete has been released from the hospital. She will need a lot of recovery time and the hard work of talented medical personnel for the purpose of restoration, and I can only hope she will find solace and strength in the support and love from her family and friends. 

As for this particular instance, it was absolutely legal for that male athlete to be competing in that game -- and it's my guess is that 95 percent of the commenting individuals aren't even remotely aware of the rules governing mixed-gender teams in this state.

The truth is, field hockey in this state has been open to male participation almost since Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972 was put into effect to ensure equal opportunity for female athletes. Locally, Norton High School became the first area school to have a boy on its field hockey team in the late 1970s. That young man (not identified here because I don't feel it's necessary to involve him in a totally unrelated controversy) was the Lancers' goalkeeper and he was pretty good, although not at all dominant. And while he was somewhat of a novelty at the time, I never sensed that there were many objections to his presence.

This state codified the provisions of Title IX by adopting the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment in 1979, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association amended its own rules that same year to state, “A girl may play on a boys’ team if that sport is not offered in the school for the girl, and a boy may play on a girls’ team if that sport is not offered in the school for the boy.”

Over the 44 years since it became legal for such mixed-gender teams to exist, there has not been a flood of young boys looking to play girls' sports, or girls seeking to join boys' teams. But I do remember some notable examples.

When I worked at The Patriot Ledger of Quincy in the 1980s, I wrote about a female goalie on the boys' ice hockey team at what was then Plymouth-Carver Regional High School. She was pretty good and got regular turns in goal. I've since known of a smattering of girls on local football teams, including Foxboro High. This year, I know of girls on the roster at Tri-County and Taunton; the Taunton girl is a placekicker that has contributed a few extra points and sometimes handles kickoffs. 

There have been other, more notorious instances. Not long ago, Somerset Berkley Regional High had two boys starting on its field hockey roster and it won two state titles in a four-year period. Some schools didn't want to play Somerset Berkley because they believed the two boys created an uneven playing field. 

Some local girls' volleyball teams also had to make room for boys because their schools did not offer boys' volleyball. For a while, the MIAA tried to restrict boys on volleyball teams to back-row play because it was feared that their potentially powerful spikes could injure players on the other side of the net, but that guideline was prohibited by the provisions of the 1979 legislation.

In many cases, schools just bit the bullet and started to fund teams for both genders in a number of sports such as ice hockey, lacrosse and volleyball. Girls are still participating in football and wrestling and boys in field hockey because there just isn't the demand among athletes to field new same-sex teams.

In the wake of the tragic injury to the D-R athlete, one of her teammates wrote an essay that D-R Schools Supt. Bill Runey (the former Attleboro High principal) forwarded to the MIAA. It was a well-written and well-researched piece that offered objections to the participation of males on female field hockey teams due to the many physiological differences in the sexes. The essay also claims that 41 males are playing field hockey in Massachusetts at the present time.

That may sound like a lot, and I was hoping for more context -- such as how many athletes in total compete in field hockey. I found some figures on the National Federation of High Schools website, and I will attempt to provide some context from them.

There are 383 schools that are members of the MIAA, but not all of them compete in all sports. Field hockey is one of the oldest offerings, but not everyone plays it; Norton has since dropped its team, while Bishop Feehan added it only a few years ago. The NFHS says that 218 Massachusetts schools compete in field hockey, with a total of 6,743 athletes participating. What I found does not offer a breakdown for varsity, junior varsity or freshman athletes.

So if 41 boys are participating, that comes out to 0.6 percent (0.006). Even if there are more boys playing at the lower levels, the percentage is still negligible. 

That's not an invasion. That's not a caravan at the border. That's not the first sign of the apocalypse. It's not an ideal situation for either gender, but it's not the collapse of Western civilization, either.

I have to admit, I'm no expert in field hockey. I do know that in some countries, particularly India and Pakistan, field hockey is a men's sport. My high school sweetheart was briefly the goalie of the Mansfield High JV team before Title IX. I took a brief interest in the sport later in the 1970s because I was dating the coach of the Seekonk High team. Neither the relationship nor the interest lasted. But field hockey was a big part of the comprehensive coverage of local high school sports that we offered at my newspaper, so I didn't ignore it.

But in the last five years, in my new role as a play-by-play announcer for high school sports on local cable TV systems, I've seen more field hockey than I had in the previous 30 years combined. And I've marveled at the changes -- and not just the fact that the kids don't wear kilts for uniforms anymore.

Field hockey is much more athletic and much faster than I remember it from the 1970s. Artificial turf contributes to that, of course, but there are just better athletes playing the sport. There are still too many silly whistles stopping play too often, but it's a far more interesting sport to watch when teams play it well -- and we're blessed to have some very good teams in our area.

It was during my announcing of two local games recently that I saw another aspect of how the game has changed -- the velocity of the shots by some of these very athletic girls. I won't mention their names here because, again, I don't want to associate them with an unfortunate tragedy. But I can recall two instances where I actually reacted with shock in my voice at the velocity of the ball as it left the players' sticks. One of those shots might have caused a similar injury to what the D-R girl suffered if the goalie hadn't seen it coming and simply dropped to the ground.

Goggles aren't enough
protection in today's game.

Even before the unfortunate recent circumstance, I found myself wondering why after all these years, field hockey athletes don't wear helmets and face masks. That ball is every bit as hard as a hockey puck, and female hockey players wear helmets and masks and much more body padding. While the rules of field hockey discourage lifted shots, they won't always prevent that one that gets away from a shooter and turns into a rocket hell-bent for destruction.

At the very least, I hope the MIAA will look at this incident and see the need for increased safety equipment. It's not simply a boy-vs.-girl thing, because there are girls that could easily shatter teeth with their shots. Had this been the case on Thursday, and a girl's shot caused the injury, everyone involved would have felt just as terrible about it -- but it wouldn't have become a national story because it wouldn't have fit the Fox News narrative.

As I said, it's not an ideal situation. There is truth to the physical differences in the sexes and how that translates to athletic competition. But at the same time, it is virtually impossible for the state to legislate in favor of discrimination. Smarter minds than mine will need to find the solution.

Another thing that irritated me is that the conservative pundits are also trying to use this situation to further their GOP-approved vilification of transgender athletes, even though there's no hint whatsoever that a transgender athlete was involved.

The morning show "Fox and Friends" tried to rope Bill Runey into that morass this morning when they had him on as a guest to discuss the accident and his player's thoughtful response to the MIAA. Runey is well-schooled in media matters, and he wasn't duped into playing along with the interviewer's prodding, but this was one of those very irritating times that reminded me that Fox News is only in the "news" business to seize upon the ignorance and gullibility of a certain segment of America and turn it into frenzied support for the ultra-conservative agenda.

I've probably said or done my share of dumb things in my lifetime, and maybe it took me the full 70 years to reach a certain level of enlightenment. But I do know I have learned to try to put myself into the shoes of others before I pass judgment upon anyone or anything. And that's why it absolutely infuriates me that transgender individuals have become, at least in the latest conservative manifesto, the new enemy. I won't even repeat the accusations and insinuations that are voiced every day in conservative media because I find them reprehensible and totally in opposition to the Constitution's promise of equality for all Americans, emphasis upon "all."

I can't claim to have personal experience in transgender matters. All I can do is think about what it means at the most elemental level -- especially to the young man or woman that has, or is considering, transitioning to a different gender. What has that person experienced? What is it like to know that your heart and soul is telling you that you are actually something you're not? What kind of personal anguish has it caused to bring one to the ultimate decision of transition? And what about the emotions that have been experienced by other family members?

I can't answer those questions. I can only listen to those that have answered them, if they care to share. Otherwise, I don't ask questions about something that's not my business. I'd like to think that I assess individuals at face value, and that doesn't include X-rays of their innards.

Years ago, I covered an athlete that played basketball locally. A biological female, she played quite well and attained her share of accolades, and then went on to college and I lost touch with her. Many years later, I got a letter at my office from someone with the same last name and a male first name. I opened the envelope and read the letter -- it was from that athlete, who had transitioned from female to male and became a writer. He sent along a copy of a story he wrote about his personal conflicts as a younger person and why he transitioned, and included in the story was a mention of thanks to me for having treated him with respect and a sense of equality when he was female, even though it was not fashionable at the time for sportswriters to treat female athletes as equals to their male counterparts.

I was touched. I was happy this person understood my intention to support and encourage equal treatment of female athletes at the time when it was more personal and meaningful for him. And I was also happy that he was going forward in life within a vessel that felt right for him.

I suspect that 99 times out of 100, I could stand next to a transgender person and have no clue about his or her transitioning or what led that individual to follow that path. As I said, it's really none of my business. And I believe above all else that it's not the business of our government to be peering into the undershorts of anyone to see what reproductive equipment exists within before they're allowed to play sports, go to the bathroom, or anything that any other American can do without interference.

And even if I do know, so what? Does it affect me in the slightest? No. Who am I to pass judgment upon individuals that have become or are becoming the persons they believe they were intended to be? They deserve to be able to pursue personal happiness, just as I am, and not to face persecution.

The Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." We're 247 years into this quest, and still, some believe that not all Americans are due these rights, whether because of gender, race, national origin, religious beliefs or sexual identity. 

I really wish I understood why. I wish others would as well.

We wrote the check, but is it at the expense of the Hulk?

The original mural of the Incredible Hulk inside Mansfield High's gymnasium.

Well, I'm absolutely stunned.

I went to Mansfield's special town meeting on Thursday night, fully expecting a battle for the combined $7 million needed to renovate the high school's football stadium, Alumni Field, and to replace the 53-year-old gym floor. But as it turned out, there was no battle. 

There wasn't even any debate. When the town moderator asked if there were any questions or comments from the 250 or so registered voters inside the MHS auditorium, not a single person went to the microphones to raise even a peep of protest over the expenditure. A vote was called, about 250 hands went into the air to vote yes, and that was that.

In fact, there was only one moment during the discussion of the article where any disapproval was even hinted among the crowd. As the assistant superintendent of schools explained that part of the renovation of the gym would include a complete re-painting of the gym walls and ceiling, he let it slip that the mural of the Incredible Hulk that has become the trademark of the James Albertini Memorial Gym over most of its 53-year life might not survive the paint brushes. An audible and unmistakable rumble of groans arose from the heart of the auditorium.

That would be a shame, although the Hulk has survived oblivion before. 

The 30-foot mural was originally painted on the south interior wall of the Albertini Gym in 1978 by Mansfield High alumnus Tom Palanza, and it survived for 36 years before repair work on the walls required new support beams to be put in place where the mural was, forcing replacement of cinder blocks and a repainting.

Former student Harrison Bateman
completed the newer mural.

.

Unwilling to surrender the school's association with the Hulk, which was the original creation of Marvel Comics head honcho Stan Lee and ace artist Jack Kirby, Mansfield High art students rallied to recreate most of Palanza's work on the opposite wall. The Hulk 2.0 was completed in 2014 -- maybe a little smaller, maybe a little less dynamic and fearsome in scope, but a worthy homage to the original, and much welcome to those that saw the character as representative of a crucial transitional period in Mansfield High School athletics.

In the 1970s, MHS sports had fallen upon hard times. Mansfield was the smallest school in the Hockomock League and was taking it on the chin in practically every sport, and the athletes needed something to rally around.

Mansfield already had a sports mascot -- the Green Hornet, chosen over "Marauders" in 1948 in honor of a very popular radio serial about a fellow named Britt Reid -- you know, the guy that fought injustice by day as a crusading newspaper publisher, and fought crime at night as the costumed hero called "The Green Hornet," teamed with his faithful Asian sidekick Kato, a master of the martial arts. There would be a later TV show on ABC that would try to capitalize upon the success of the campy "Batman" show, and an even worse movie in 2011 that made a total farce out of the characters.

But very few remember the story behind the Green Hornet of 1948. Mansfield is basically identified these days by an insect -- and only lately have they found a logo that truly represents the proper fighting spirit of Mansfield's teams without being too cartoonish. In the 1970s, however, most of the headlines about Mansfield involved phrasing that included words like "crushed," "stomped" and "squashed."

So, Hornet athletes of the time took a hard look at their plight. Palanza and his buddy, Paul Souza (of basketball and track fame) came up with a plan to embrace a new icon for Mansfield High. At that same time, CBS had debuted its "The Incredible Hulk" series based on the Marvel Comics character, and Palanza came up with an image that seized upon that show's popularity as well as honoring Jack Kirby's original concept.

At the time, Souza told Palanza he'd even spring for the paint to complete the project if the school didn't get on board with it. Fortunately, it did. 

The Hulk never really replaced the Hornet as Mansfield's sports identity, but that wasn't the intention. The school just needed an image that told opponents not to sleep on the teams playing here, or suffer the consequences. And over the next few years, the Hulk spawned several other murals across the Hockomock League. What had once been barren walls were suddenly graced with images of Rocketeers, Tigers, Bulldogs, Eagles and what have you. The Hulk blazed a trail for others to follow.

Mansfield has renewed its love for the Green Hornet as the fortunes of its teams have improved significantly in the 21st century, but I'm not sure people in town are prepared to consign Dr. Bruce Banner's alter ego to the mists of history.

This might look good on the gym wall.

Work on the gym is supposed to begin in the summer of 2024 and be ready for Hornet basketball the following December. It's going to be an extensive project because there's some asbestos in the support beams at the base of the floor that has to be removed, which drove up the price a little. It's not going to affect my tax rate, the town claims, because most of the money is coming out of surplus funds.

But if I read the room correctly Thursday night, the town may have to revisit whether "The Green Machine" should be erased by a broad brush of beige. 

And who knows? Maybe an enterprising soul might be tempted to inform Marvel Studios of Mansfield High School's 44-year-long infatuation with the Hulk. It can be argued, after all, there may be no more popular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now than Mark Ruffalo's interpretation of the Green Goliath. With a couple of new Avengers movies in the works for the next few years, the studios are always looking for unusual publicity opportunities.

Maybe they'll even spring for the paint!

Time to open wallets and fix the facilities.

The floor of Mansfield High's gymnasium is 53 years old and needs to be replaced.

Tonight in my hometown, there's a town meeting that will decide a lot of financial expenditures, not the least of which are approximately $5.4 million for upgrades to the high school football stadium, and another $1 million for replacement of the gymnasium floor.

That's a lot of money. Hey, I remember that in 1971, the Patriots' home stadium in nearby Foxboro (called Schaefer Stadium after the beer) cost $6.8 million to build. It seated 62,000 people. Mansfield's Alumni Field seats maybe 2,000. Of course, translated from 1971 dollars, Schaefer Stadium would have cost about $51.7 million to build today, and it would still pale before the initial investment of $350 million to build Gillette Stadium as well as the $300 million Robert Kraft has since shelled out for improvements to the 2002-vintage successor.

Also costing a lot of money is the replacement to the gym floor. I actually was one of the first MHS students to set foot on it on a game night after it opened in January 1970, as it was my duty to set up the scorer's table for the night's basketball action. That's still the same floor. It has survived 53 years of basketball, wrestling, volleyball, gym classes, floods, auxiliary baskets falling from the wall to it, countless resurfacing and the replacement of bleachers, and it is now paper-thin. Indeed, the paint for the lines and the varnish are thicker than the wood, and it can no longer be sanded down any further.

There was a time when that wouldn't have mattered much. We were pretty pathetic in basketball for many years. But over the last three decades or so, the fortunes of the Mansfield boys' and girls' basketball teams have improved significantly. Both teams are regular state tournament participants and the boys have been to state championship games three times since 2013, winning the coveted Division 1 title in 2018.

I do have to say, and I mentioned this in a letter to the superintendent of schools recently, this town can be proud of how Mansfield High has been maintained. The James Albertini Memorial Gymnasium (named for Mansfield's only Vietnam casualty) is still a showcase at age 53, and looks newer and fresher than many gyms built much more recently. And I'd know, because I've been visiting gyms all over this state since 1969 as a sportswriter, and now as a play-by-play announcer. 

I think it's fair to reward the kids of future teams for their hard work to give them a floor that's not going to disintegrate under their feet.

Mansfield's Alumni Field needs a facelift.

The Alumni Field renovations did raise my eyebrows over the price tag, but there's a reason. First, the artificial turf has reached the end of its lifespan after a little more than a decade. A new field will be safer, employing newer technologies that weren't available when it was first set down. The running track also needs to be replaced in its entirety, which means that it will be torn up to the gravel base and new asphalt and a running surface will be applied.

A new scoreboard is also in the works (which feels like déjà vu to me after North Attleboro's battle over an expensive new one), new LED lighting will be installed, and bleachers will be extended the length of the field (instead of just east of the 50-yard line) on the home side. It's a long story why the stands on opposite sides of the field face empty space on the other side, and I won't bore you with it.

Again, Mansfield has one of the consistently most successful football programs in the commonwealth. I can understand turning Alumni Field -- which was only going to be a practice field when first opened in 2001 -- into a better home for all Hornet teams that play there.

They aren't addressing one glaring drawback of the field, though, and that's the press box.

There is one there, but it was built as an afterthought and funded by the local cable access company for its purposes and little else. It's grown old, it's too small to allow any media other than the local cable crew, and its wooden structure is starting to rot.

As I told the superintendent, "When I worked for The Sun Chronicle (1977-2018), I was told right from the beginning by then-athletic director Margaret Conaty that the “press box” was not for use by the actual press – that it was basically the sole domain of Mansfield Cable Access and not under her control. Print media that may have needed to shield themselves from the elements could enter only if they remained in the back of the box, with hardly any access to the windows to have an adequate view of the field. And because there was no room inside the box for additional announcers or cameras – as well as a first-dibs situation in the viewing area on the roof for the Mansfield coaching staff (and maybe visiting coaches, although their access was limited) -- visiting cable access crews were basically denied the opportunity to televise games from there unless they could set up in the stands, surrounded by fans.

"I’ve been on both sides of the issue," I continued, "and I can say without hesitation that Mansfield has been the among the least accommodating schools to visiting print and electronic media – and it pains me to say that, because I understand that people at MHS have wanted to be more helpful but are restricted by the facilities."

Yes, the media has changed a lot in the years since my tenure at the local daily. Smaller papers rarely staff games, but the larger papers still send reporters when the games warrant the attention. But now, cable television has become more interested in offering coverage. Some systems will send crews home and away, and that's what we occasionally do when I work for Mansfield Cable Access in the winter doing the basketball calls. But most of my work in the fall is for North Attleborough Community Television (North TV), calling the games from King Philip Regional High in Wrentham. And we sometimes get ambitious enough to follow KP on the road.

In 2019, I almost was able to negotiate a situation where North TV might be able to put a single camera on the roof of the Mansfield press box for a playoff game between KP and Mansfield, and our two announcers could operate out of the stands if we could get electricity to our mixing board. But that fell apart because with all of the coaches up there, there would not be enough room for one lone cameraman.

In recent years, Attleboro, North Attleboro and Foxboro have renovated their fields or built new ones, and the plans included spacious press boxes that could accommodate all of the official local personnel (timekeepers, announcers, coaching staffs) as well as a healthy attendance of print and electronic media. Mansfield should investigate those structures and see if something similar might be worth considering for the future of Alumni Field.

I know that a stand-alone appropriation of a cool million or so for a press box might raise the ire of the more frugal souls that go to town meetings to complain about every penny spent by the town. I also imagine that the right-wing-leaning element in town (we do have a few) would become apoplectic over the notion that the "fake news" media should get any consideration at all. Had the press box been included in the initial renovation cost, however, I doubt it would have raised little more than a few peeps in protest.

As it is, I'm really wondering how things will go at tonight's meeting. Some might balk at the field renovations and replacement, claiming that athletes should play on the grass that God made for them. The critics will have to be reminded that the upkeep of that grass costs a lot more over a 10-12 year span than a properly-maintained artificial surface, which can take a lot more punishment. But they probably won't be swayed. It will take a lot of old Hornets like me to carry the day, I suspect.

And indeed, once a Hornet, always a Hornet. Even if it makes my tax bill go up.