(Rak, 21. Sherry 84 before Cranston West Game)

It seems like just yesterday we were getting yelled at together by our freshmen coach, telling us that we ran like our grandmothers. And after that we were walking out as Captains together in our final high school game vs Lasalle and now my former teammate Matt Sherry is in the NFL!

Former Hendricken and Rhode Island High School standout was drafted in the 6th round by the Bengals (thus making the Bengals my 2nd favorite teams).

Sherry played four years at Bishop Hendricken High School then taking his talents to Villanova. He became a captian in his 5th year. He lead his team in recieving and lead the America team in recieving in the Texas vs the Nation game earlier this year. 

CBS Sportsline: Sherry put on a show during his All-Colonial Athletic Association senior season, leading the team in catches (37) and yards (461) in a run-first system and also caught five touchdowns. His performance in the El Paso all-star game really cemented his chance as a potential late-round selection, showing the consistent hands a good reserve tight end must have to stay in the league.

Congrats to Matt Sherry! Take it to the house baby! YEA HAWKS! Good luck in the league, were proud as hell!

(Sherry 84, Tomillio 24, Petarudy 56, Rak 21 Captains)

Hendricken Hawks 2002-03 Senior Team

Also a good read:

Projo Matt Sherry Article

Bengals coach Lewis Talks about Sherry

 CBS Sports is reporting that current George Mason Coach is saying no to the PC job. This is a great dissapointment in my mind.

Jim Larranaga is rejecting Providence to stay at George Mason, a source has told CBSSports.com.

Larranaga passed on a standing offer to return to his alma mater Wednesday, electing to instead remain with the school he took to the 2006 Final Four. He just completed his 11th season with George Mason and will now receive a reworked contract to begin his 12th in November.

An attempt to reach Larranaga for comment was not immediately successful. - CBS SPORTS

Larranaga would have been a perfect fit but instead he chose to stay at George Mason, dissapointing to say the least. Well see who is the next name to come up for this job.

Jim Larranaga, thr current george mason coach and a former guard at Providence College in the early 1970s, is in talks with PC on their open head coaching job.

“He was indeed contacted and we did give permission to talk to (Providence),” said Richard Coco, George Mason’s athletic department spokesman.

Larranaga just completed his 11th season at George Mason, where he is the school’s all-time leader in wins and in the history of the Colonial Athletic Conference. He’s led the Patriots to four NCAA Tournaments, including this year, when the team finished 23-11 and was knocked out in the first round by Notre Dame, 68-50.

Larranaga expressed interest in the vacant Providence position several times earlier in his career but was never a factor when the Friars chose to hire Rick Barnes (1988), Pete Gillen (1994) and Tim Welsh (1998). - projo.com

I think Larranaga would be a perfect fit. We saw what he can do at a smaller school in G. Mason with recruiting and coaching. He is a former player so he knows what PC is all about.

Amid rumors that Phil Martelli, (the current St Joes coach) will become the next PC coach, Martelli has responded.

sjuhawks.cstv.com

I have not indicated an interest in Providence,” Martelli told the Daily News. “Providence has not indicated an interest in me. I’ve not talked to anybody at Providence and Providence has not talked to anybody here at Saint Joseph’s, or to me or to my family.”

“It’s just one those [things] and it’s running wild,” Martelli said.

Numerous names have came up when talking about this job. It is a big east job so many will be attracted to it. Martelli would be a good fit. His teams are tough, play hard and always seems to get the most out of them.

Just a few years ago Joe Mazulla was leading Bishop Hendricken (Warwick, RI) in a comeback victory in the Rhode Island State Championship over Cranston West, now he is leading West Virgina in the NCAA tourney.

Against Duke Mazulla was the heart and soul of the WV. He scored 13 pts, grabed 11 boards and had 8 assists.

 Because the shortest player on the roster from the smallest state in the union played the biggest game of his career, seventh-seeded West Virginia is headed to the Sweet 16 for the third time in the last four years. And the TV darlings from Duke departed another NCAA Tournament well short of their goal.

Joe Mazzulla, a 6-2 sophomore guard from Rhode Island who has yet to start a college game, drove the Blue Devils to distraction in the second round of the West Regional at the Verizon Center yesterday. When early foul trouble among front-line players forced the Mountaineers to utilize a three-guard offense, the reserve provided a brilliant demonstration of versatility and determination that nearly resulted in a triple-double. In addition to scoring 13 points, he had eight assists and grabbed 11 rebounds, seven more than any player wearing a Duke uniform, in a 73-67 victory - newsday

Even Coach K was raving about Joe:

That kid was fabulous,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose team barely survived its first-round game against 15th-seeded Belmont Thursday night. “He looked like a mini-Jason Kidd out there, getting rebounds and assists and points. The star on that court today was No. 3. I told him that when we shook hands.”- newsday

His name was even brought up in the show Around the Horn on espn today, hes come a long way from a small state.

Today is the day where everyone wants to be Irish and get drunk.

My grandmother is straight from Ireland and still has family over there, one being her brother Micheal - whom when he came to visit,  taught me how real Irishmen do it: drink numerous pints of Guinness (not my favorite beer) all this being done before Noon.

Another memory that goes along with St Pattys for me, is when i was ages 10-13, going with my best friends parents, to a local irish pub, packed to the brim. Drunk irish men singing along to the group Murphy’s Law (who are now back in Ireland).  Theres nothing like drunk people singing along to good irish music. Now whenever I hear those few songs that i can remember, i find my self tapping my feet, clapping my hands and reaching for a “pint”.

Ill leave you with three of my fav’s and maybe they motivate you to go to your favorite pub and grab some green beer:

Also as the group Murphy’s Law also ended their show : ” May the wind at your back…….never be your own!”

Tim Finnegans Wake- (where the drunk Irish people have to clap during the chorus and stop right when its ended)

Whiskey in the Jar

 Leaving of Liverpool:

Bryant vs Bentley is Division II’s version of Duke v UNC. The two rival schools are only miles away and both specialize in Business. All Bryant vs Bentley games over the last couple years have been sold out, with each team’s fans going back and forth at each other.

 The two teams have met in two of the last three NCAA tournaments.  The Falcons have won six in a row against Bryant dating back to Bryant’s 88-78 double overtime win in the regular season in 2006 back in Smithfield, RI.  Bryant and Bentley met in the 2005 regional final with Bryant winning 74-64 en route to a trip to the Elite Eight and National Championship game.  Bentley won all four meetings last season including an NE-10 semifinal win and 85-74 victory in the NCAA Regional Championship game at the Dana Center.

Bentley is undefeated on the year but Bryant has challenged them this year, their last game came down to the final seconds

LAST MEETING WITH BENTLEY - Falcons 69, Bryant 68 (Waltham, MA - Feb. 2, 200
Bryant’s Cecil Gresham (Bloomfield, CT)drained a three-pointer with 7 seconds left to put the visiting Bulldogs ahead and on the verge of an upset of the top-ranked team.  But Bentley had the answer once again as Yusuf Abdul-Ali, held to just 1 of 9 shooting and four turnovers by the Bulldog defense before Gresham’s shot, drove the lane on the Falcons’ ensuing possession and scored the game-winner off the glass as time expired to keep its perfect record intact. The game featured 13 lead changes and nine ties.

Bryant fell behind 57-53 with a little over six minutes left, but managed to draw even at 65-65 with a minute to go. With a chance to take the lead, guard Chris Birrell (Scituate, RI)would miss a three-point attempt with 56 seconds left and Bentley’s Jason Westrol would answer with a drive in the lane to put the hosts up 67-65 with 25 seconds remaining on the Dana Center clock. 

Following a timeout to draw up a play, Bryant would work the ball around the perimeter.  With Bentley, over-playing Jon Ezeokoli (South Orange, NJ), Birrell found a wide open Gresham who drained a deep three from the right side to put the Bulldogs ahead, 69-68 with seven ticks on the clock only to see Ali come up with the game-winning drive.  

Bryant trailed by only a point at the half, 32-31 taking a 13-9 in the early moments.  Bentley would counter with a 14-2 run to race back out in front 23-15.  Birrell would knock down a pair of trey’s before picking up his second foul with 3:09 left before halftime.  Reserve Ray Witkos (Easthampton, MA)entered the game for Birrell and was fouled immediately attempting a three by Bentley’s Westrol.  Witkos sank all three free throws to pull the Bulldogs even 26-26.  Birrell had another fine game on both ends of the floor. The sophomore finished with 17 points and six assists in 36 minutes.  Ezeokoli, who had 11 first half points, added 17 points while Gresham chipped in with 14 plus four boards. Bentley was led by Westrol’s 17 points while Lew Finnegan had 17. 

Will Bryant be the New York Giants of D II basketball and spoil Bentley’s perfect season or will Bentley chalk up another win. Its the Bulldogs vs Falcons, throw out the records. The game is at 730 tonight and can be seen free at http://www.ne10.tv/

In what seems to be a trend for the former Rhode Island High School star, Rocco Baldelli landed on the DL again. Baldelli is a dynamic player (career .282 BA, 58 SB 48 HRs in 4 seasons) but has had numerous problems with his legs. There had been rumors that he would retire because of these problems but he shut down those rumors.

“I’m not here to stand in front of you and telling you I’m retiring. We’re still going to pursue every avenue that we can, but at this time after all the testing we’ve done we don’t have a concrete answer. The doctors consensus is these are the problems I’m experiencing. They have been unable to identify an exact reason or a problem specifically. So that’s what we’re dealing with,” Baldelli said.

Its a shame that this is happening to Rocco. He seemed destined for greatness but can seem to stay on the field.  I hope they can figure this out and he can get back to doing what he does best.

  (pic-projo)

Jamal Gomes (my former coach) and the Hendricken Hawks (my alma mater) soared to their 5th straight Rhode Island state championship beating Woonsocket High School in Overtime 67-64. Billy Baron hit two foul shots to put the Hawks ahead by 1 point with 20 seconds left in the game. The Hawks then pressed Woonsocket and pressure by Brandford Sowah and Sean Murray caused a steal by Billy Baron who was immediately fouled and then calmly hit 2 free throws to put them ahead by 67-64. Woonsocket had an open 3 but the shot was off and Bishop Hendricken became state champs. Hendricken is now only the second Division I boys basketball team in Rhode Island Interscholastic League history to win five consecutive state championships.

Woonsocket seemed to control the first half and most of the second half. They lead by 5 at halftime and kept that lead deep into the second half.  With Woonsocket up 5 with under 5 minutes left, Hendricken got big buckets from Brendan Degnan, Billy Baron and Kevin McCarty to get the Hawks to OT. In OT it was a back and forth contest but the Hawks intensity and defensive pressure brought them to victory.

     (pics projo.com)

Woonsocket was lead by big man Michael Akinrola who controled the glass and gave the Nova’s some big put back baskets. He fouled out with 1:20  left in Overtime and it hurt Woonsocket big time. For most of the game Woonsocket played with the same 5 players.  Micheal Laplante, who is only a sophomore, had 18 points and Brett Cordere scored 15 and seemed to come up with big bucket after big bucket.

For Hendricken Baron lead the charge with 26 point going a perfect 7-7 from the line. Brendan Degnan had 16 points with a clutch 3 pointer late in the game. Nick Manning, a steady/heady guard chipped in with 9 pts. Kevin McCartey who wore his emotions on his sleeve was a beast on the boards with 14 rebounds, took two charges and constantly worked the crowd.

Going queit in the box score but certainly not in the game were Sean Murray and Brandford Sowah. Brandford Sowah, the Hawks star football player, came off the bench numerous times and locked down Woonsocket’s guards and created multiple turnovers. Coach Jamal Gomes’ strategy to insert Sowah into the game down the strech  was perfect coaching. Sean Murray, a captain and emotional leader was all over the court, coming up with big offense and defensive rebounds. His defensive pressure and hustle throughout the game spurred the Hawks to victory. Those two players are perfect role players and key pieces to the championship puzzle.

As a Hendricken Alma mater and former player I am extremely proud of Hendricken’s big win tonight and dominance over the last five years. Congratulations to Coach Gomes (who is not only a great coach but also a great person), Coach Robert “Commander” Stephenson and the rest of the Hawks team! Go Hawks!

“Fight for the Green, Fight for the Gold Mighty Men of Hendricken!”