Overtime with Kyle Brennan

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Kyle Brennan
Kyle Brennan

Round of Applause

Woodland Principal Arnold Frank announced his retirement last week, and his departure will mark an end of the first era in Woodland Regional High School history. I’m going to do a little bit more of an in-depth column-style look at what he has meant to this area in the near future, but in the meantime I thought it was important to extend my gratitude to the best high school principal for which any of the 1,500 or so Woodland graduates he’s produced ever could have asked. Most people who have ever attended Woodland or worked there know that it’s just a special place that really goes beyond words, and the atmosphere created there can be attributed more to Frank than any other single person. It has been my pleasure not only to graduate from a school he shaped, but to work with him as closely as I have in a number of projects since my graduation. I think I speak for the entire Woodland community when I say thank you, Dr. Frank.

The class of 2013 was an awful lot of fun to cover over the last four years. There were some great moments this year and some great athletes over the last four, and we’ll be recapping all of them throughout the next month here in these pages. Some of Monday’s graduates have some more sports in them (either in college or during Saturday’s all-star football game at Rentschler Field) and we’ll make sure to keep track of them. For those whose competitive careers are over, consider the last few years well spent and your honors, no matter how big or how small, well earned. Most of all, good luck in the future! Y’all will always have a nice little home here in the Valley.

The Stanley Cup Final was one of the best sports series I have ever watched. Three of the six games went to overtime. Game 1 went to triple overtime. Game 4 was a 6-5 shootout and didn’t seem over, even when it was over. Game 6 saw the Blackhawks score two goals in 17 seconds, right at the end of the game, to send the Bruins packing on their home ice. For those of you who think the NBA Finals were better, two games do not make a series. That’s all basketball presented this month. Get into hockey, folks. It’s good for you.

Chorus of Boos

Aaron Hernandez is a real winner, isn’t he? Shortly after signing an absurdly lavish contract for being the second-best player at his position on a New England Patriots team that is steadily becoming more punkish and circuslike, Hernandez has been back up to the type of behavior he reportedly has been involved with since his days at Bristol Central High School. A man was found dead close to Hernandez’s home in Massachusetts. Hernandez’s car was linked to the man. Hernandez broke his phone, trashed his security system and hired a professional cleaning service to scrub his home in the wake of the apparent murder. While there’s no evidence that Hernandez pulled any triggers or killed anybody, it sure doesn’t look good for a guy who reportedly was pretty involved in gangs back in Bristol and allegedly shot a man’s eye not all that long ago. He was arrested Wednesday morning and among the charges is murder and the Patriots released him not long afterwards. All I can hope is that he gets what he has coming to him. Punks will be punks.