Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

The King Philip Warriors celebrate their Super Bowl victory over North Attleboro.

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering after the soothing effects of the icebags on the knees wore off in the middle of the night:

** I've reached the end of another fall season of calling high school sports on North TV, my seventh as a play-by-play announcer, and it's entirely appropriate that I offer a few thoughts on the topic.

First and foremost, what an impressive accomplishment it was that all four of the football teams we cover at North TV -- North Attleboro, King Philip, Bishop Feehan and Tri-County -- all reached their respective state championship games. For North and KP, it was the MIAA state Division 3 title game. For Bishop Feehan, it was a berth in the D2 title tilt. And for Tri-County, which opted out of the MIAA D6 Tournament despite the prospect of having a No. 8 or 9 seed, it was a third straight trip to the MVADA state vocational bowl title game -- this time moving up to the middle of three enrollment-based divisions.

King Philip, making its fifth straight trip to a Super Bowl but first in Division 3, ended North's D3 reign with a 21-10 victory at Gillette Stadium last Friday. Bishop Feehan, making its first visit to a title game in 13 years, had the unfortunate task the next day of falling to the Catholic Memorial juggernaut, 41-14. And Tri-County, which had split the last two MVADA Small championships with Blue Hills Regional of Canton, won the rubber match decisively, 28-6, at Greater New Bedford Voke last Wednesday. 

I was fortunate to call all but two of KP's games this year -- the North Attleboro crew did both KP-North games, but I was there for both -- and I've been the voice behind the vast majority of their past seven seasons, which has been a memorable ride indeed. Yet only once have I been able to call their actual Super Bowl victory, and that was two years ago when KP hammered Marshfield in the final. Still, I've been on the scene for both of their recent 13-0 seasons, and you can't ask for a better memory than that.

It's been a hell of a team to follow. Both Keigan Canto-Osorio and Tallan King went over 1,000 rushing yards this year. Ryan Greenwood, Zach Gebhard and that rock-solid offensive line did their jobs all season long. Liam McGrath pulled in eight of KP's 23 interceptions -- not too shabby for a pass defense that was totally rebuilt from last year. And the list goes on and on.

Frankie Strachan was a total stud.

Still, I'm sure that every athlete and coach on that KP team feels a lot of empathy for at least one member of their vanquished opposition. In the first quarter of KP's victory over North Attleboro on Friday, the Rocketeers' powerful 250-pound running back, Frankie Strachan, was at the bottom of a pile near the goal line and he couldn't immediately get up. Word from the Boston papers was that Strachan had suffered a broken foot, and he was done for the night.

The burly back had put North on his shoulders over the second half of the season, gaining almost 1,000 yards in the last five games alone as well as carrying the ball well over 30 times a game. I still believe KP would have won the Super Bowl -- it would have been tougher, for sure, but KP was one of the best teams I've seen in a while -- but to be the best, you generally need to believe you beat the other team's best. Nobody was happy to see Strachan limp to the sidelines on Friday night.

Storybook end for T-C's Walker.

Perhaps the most joy I gleaned from this championship season, however, was from Tri-County's march to the win over Blue Hills. Three seasons prior to this one, I announced the first game played by T-C quarterback Declan Walker; he had been called upon in a pinch by new Cougars' coach Andy Gomes to start just in his second game as a freshman, with very little preparation for the job. In that game against Nashoba Valley Tech in Franklin, Walker marched his team confidently to a touchdown in his very first possession.

It's not often that you get to put the bookends together like that, but there I was Wednesday, watching that young man play the last varsity game of his career and throw for 146 yards, going over the 2,000-yard passing plateau for the season, and leading his team to a second straight voke bowl championship.

Both Walker and fellow senior and North Attleboro native Nick O'Brien had magnificent seasons, the latter going well over 1,000 yards in both rushing and receiving as the Cougars finished 11-1. And they did it without being able to play at home. Construction of the new Tri-County RVTHS on the current site has rendered the football field unusable, but Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood (where former Norton High coach and AD Ted Currle is the athletic director) stepped forward and let the Cougars play in the Hawk Bowl all season long. There was definitely a storybook quality to the Cougars' season, and I was happy to see the ending turn out as everyone had dreamed it would.

And that brings me to Bishop Feehan. I had the privilege of announcing their big win over BC High at midseason, and I've always kept an eye upon the terrific career of Owen Mordas, the Norton lad that started at quarterback for his entire four-year career. I, like many others, were hoping for the Sisters of Mercy to provide a miracle on Saturday against a school that seemingly pulls in its athletes from all corners of the state (and then some), and had won three of the last four D2 Super Bowls when everyone on the planet knows that the Knights really should be playing in D1.

A rare moment of joy for Feehan against CM.

Despite a brief glimmer of hope when Mordas spied Andrew Orphanos open in the end zone for a 7-yard score and a 7-7 tie early in the game, it was not to be. CM took control of the game, as it always seems to do, and won 41-14 in what was probably the least competitive game of all eight played at Gillette. Lucky me, that was the one I got to call.

I have a strict policy not to be overly critical of high school kids playing sports. They are not pros and deserve in almost every circumstance to be cut some slack for just about anything -- except maybe the most egregious departures from sportsmanship and fair play. So I will bite my tongue and restrain my typing fingers over what I am about to say.

Maybe it was the slap in the face of surrendering an early touchdown to a team they didn't take all too seriously, but it was obvious for all to see in the stadium and on live TV that the Knights didn't like it. And they started playing like it. Watch the replay again, either the version on patriots.com or our North TV version once it's archived this week, and you will see plenty of instances of taunting and dirty play by the winning team as it reclaimed the momentum and built the blowout. 

It was embarrassing and infuriating. It certainly made the D2 game the worst of them all. And at one point in the telecast, I did go off on an angered soliloquy about the behavior I was seeing -- but I made a point of assigning the blame exactly where it belonged.

Squarely upon the shoulders of the head coach.

You see, I remember the days when CM was just another struggling football school, its program mired deeply in the shadow of its very successful basketball program. CM was the school you called if you needed to fill a hole in your schedule with an easy win, and many of our local schools did just that a few decades ago.

Well, obviously, there was a segment of the CM alumni cabal that wanted to change that. So they lured John DiBiaso away from Everett High, where he had built a D1 powerhouse, and gave him a blank check to build a winner.

DiBiaso did exactly that. He has been at CM for eight years now and has a 77-10 record there, bringing his career record of wins to 381 over 30 head coaching seasons. Obviously, the guy knows what he's doing. 

But I and my fellow observers in the North TV booth at Gillette also observed that he clearly didn't give two shits about the behavior of his team. I could use all sorts of adjectives to describe it, and because of the multicultural makeup of the CM roster, some might accuse me of racism for being even remotely critical. Think what you will, folks, but this is now the fourth Super Bowl I've seen from Catholic Memorial and it's not the first time I've seen that behavior -- although this was clearly the worst example of all. And during the game, I practically screamed that it was time for DiBiaso, as the authority figure in charge, to get control over his team.

I don't think the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers teach that sort of public comportment in the classrooms.

I will also note that I was thoroughly impressed with the play and the demeanor of CM quarterback Kise Flannery, a very talented and successful young man that will be taking his talents to Harvard next year. I watched video of four of his games in preparation for this one, and each time I came away fully in awe of his skills and his leadership. There's the fellow that should have been the poster boy for CM's victory on Saturday, and in my opinion, it's a damned shame that the undisciplined play of some of his teammates tarnished the effort even in the slightest.

Maybe it's time for the MIAA to take a stand. I don't think the state association has the sack to stop CM from looking all over creation for athletes as if it was an independent prep school, but it should simply force to CM to play at the same level as 99 percent of the rest of the Catholic Conference, in Division 1.

And if that sounds like sour grapes that Feehan didn't win, so be it. I don't see Feehan as "another cheating Catholic" as some might claim -- its co-ed enrollment of about 1,100 students is made up quite differently than the all-male behemoths that raise eyebrows in D1. In fact, if not for the MIAA rules that force Feehan to play up a division because it is a faith-based regional school, the Shamrocks should have been doing battle with like-sized schools such as North Attleboro, Mansfield, KP, Marshfield, Barnstable and Hingham in D3.

Sad it is that the last game of the year left that sour taste in my mouth, but I'm still very pleased and proud that the Shamrocks got to the last game, as everyone in the Feehan community and our area in general should be.

** I'm hoping someone might answer a question for me.

Ever since I was a mere tyke, the TV station at the top of the VHF dial (and I know nobody knows what that is any more) was Boston's Channel 2. WGBH-TV, or what we called back in the day, "educational television." Obviously, that station still exists as one of the anchors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an association of television and radio stations of like mission that provide news, information and entertainment that some would call "highbrow" in content. PBS gave us Sesame Street and Masterpiece Theatre and a lot of intelligent programming in-between, including magnificent documentaries such as Ken Burns' recent look at the American Revolution. 

Even if you don't pay attention to its programming, PBS probably rang a bell for you because it's been in the news lately. Our lord and master, King Donald the First, managed to yank all federal funding away from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

Trump hates any sort of independent voice that would accurately point out that he is rapidly turning the United States into a dictatorship, and his only recourse with PBS was to pull federal support away from it -- which is why the lists of supporting corporations and foundations that you hear before every PBS program has grown longer and longer in recent months.

GBH, fighting the good fight.

Anyway, as I said, WGBH has been one of the founders and driving forces behind the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- or, as they call it these days, just GBH. And that has puzzled me a little because as far as I know, it's still a broadcast station governed by the rules and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission -- another federal entity that has been weaponized by Trump against what he calls "wokeness," although that's a complaint for another day.

What puzzled me was why they have removed the "W" from the call letters -- and, given the changes in broadcasting these days, if you don't know what call letters are or why they exist, in a nutshell, they are the three- or four-letter identifying names given to North American broadcasting stations. In the U.S., most radio and TV stations on the eastern side of the Mississippi River start with W, such as WBZ, WCVB, WJAR and so on. In the west, most start with K, such as KABC, KCBS and KTLA in Los Angeles (although one of the oldest broadcast stations in the country, KDKA, hails from Pittsburgh).

Canada and Mexico have their own similar call-letter system, too. Canada uses CF, CH, CJ and CK and just two more letters as identifiers, holding to the four-letter format as there are far fewer broadcast outlets north of the border. Mexican stations similarly start with XE or XH.

(An aside: I do work in TV these days, but because North TV is a local cable station and not a broadcasting entity sending our signal out to Alpha Centauri via radio waves, we don't have call letters. I think it would be cool if we were WNTV, but those are apparently the call letters for a real TV station which operates out of Greenville, S.C., and carries PBS programming over Channel 29.)

New swag! Be a winner!

Anyway, because I am sometimes inexplicably obsessed with finding answers to questions of dubious importance, I was relieved to find that, for the purpose of legality, WGBH is still WGBH in the eyes of the broadcasting powers-that-be. I looked on their website to check that out. But I could not find out when or why they dropped the W from their corporate branding. It's probably because for as long as I've been around, people just referred to the station in everyday parlance as "'GBH," dropping the W out of convenience or haste.

If someone knows the reason why, please drop me a line at the email address that always appears at the bottom of these missives. If you'd like to include your name and mailing address in the email, the first one that responds correctly (and I will check with GBH to confirm) will receive one of my spiffy new green-and-gold "The Owner's Box ... After Dark" winter hats in return.

** Speaking of the Asshole-in-Chief, it just seems to me that every time I believe we've reached the limit of the embarrassment that can be caused to this country by President Donald von Shitzenpantz, he tops it. 

The latest bad joke: The "FIFA Peace Prize."

The most recent example was the international soccer federation's presentation to him of the "FIFA Peace Prize" by the organization's president, Gianni Infantino -- whose name I confused in an earlier typing with that of the late and great Carmine Infantino, the comic-book artist that brought The Flash to life in the pages of DC Comics when that character was revived and re-envisioned in 1956. Many apologies to THAT Infantino family.

Talk about your all-time suck-ups! FIFA, apparently terrified that Trump's anti-immigration policies will threaten the success of the upcoming World Cup games in the U.S. (seven of which are to be at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro), seized upon the Mango Führer's disappointment at again being rejected for a Nobel Peace Prize by creating one of its own to massage the fragile ego of our Cheeto Benito.

Indeed, they have reason to be fearful about waves of ICE thugs yanking individuals out of the stadium waiting lines and sending them to gulags in the dark of night. There are already rumblings that international ticket sales will suffer (as well as associated travel industries) from the climate of fear Trump and his evil minions created in what used to be the Land of the Free.

But the "FIFA Peace Prize?" REALLY??? From one of the most corrupt organizations in the history of this planet? This is supposed to be something that anyone should take seriously? 

You know, there's a reason why they're called "soccer riots."

Better it should have been called the "FIFA Piss Prize," as that was probably what was running down Donald's leg when he received it. Besides, that's the way Melania would pronounce it anyway.

** I now have three things at the top of my list of things that make me immediately turn off the sound on whatever I'm listening to at the moment:

        1. The "1-877-Kars-for-Kids" jingle,

        2. Any commercial that starts with, "Hi, it's your favorite president, Donald J. Trump ..." and,

        3. Any mention at all of "Lane Kiffin."

** The North TV winter sports schedule came to me this morning, and I'll be a busy boy.

Alex Salachi and I will bring you four King Philip basketball games, two apiece from the boys and girls, and the North-based crew will have two others for those that follow the men and women of Metacomet. Del Malloy and I will also have two Bishop Feehan girls' games for you, for which I've been lobbying for some time now. And I've got quite a few hockey games as well.

Other than those, Alex and I will be bringing the bulk of the Mansfield High home basketball schedule to the world via Mansfield Cable Access, both boys and girls. And we'll even show up for a few games of the Foxboro girls over the course of the season. Not bad for a couple of codgers -- one of whom turns 72 tomorrow.

Hint: It's not me. Not yet, anyway,

See you around the gyms, my friends.

MARK FARINELLA climbed many more rows of bleachers to reach press boxes this season than his aching knees would have preferred. Send along advice about knee replacement surgery to him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.