The Olympics... and beyond

It's been an unusual high school season. Perhaps the most jarring part about all of it was the lack of fans in many gyms and arenas over the course of the winter. Many schools were allowing a small number of fans, in most cases, a couple of fans per player from the home team. A few other schools allowed two fans per player from both teams. But there were a number of schools who were not allowing fans at all. The only people in the gym, besides the coaches and players were school officials and media members such as myself. This definitely took some time to get used to. It hit me the most at my first hockey game of the season, which took place at the Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. Berlin-Gorham was in town for the game and the only people in the arena besides the coaches and players on the bench were a few Laconia-Winnisquam-Inter-Lakes parents who had been taking temperatures at the door, ADs from the schools, arena staff, the Berlin-Gorham bus driver and a couple of Berlin-Gorham pl...

And breathe... The past fall and winter sports seasons have been the strangest season's I've dealt with in my 20 years doing this job. They've also been the busiest seasons I've had. With the 10 extra schools put on my list to start this past school year, I've found myself driving all over the state to cover games, even more so than normal. Most weeks I would drive north to Lincoln or beyond at least once, sometimes twice, to cover teams in the Littleton Courier area. Add that to the teams all around the Lakes Region, then throw in playoff games, championship meets and the like and the mileage started to pile up. But, that's part of the job and I'm OK with it, as long as I remember to get some sleep so that I don't total another car. And now, the winter season has drawn to a close and I can breathe again. For a month or so. All in all, it was a fairly successful season and it ended on a pretty good note, for the most part. All three teams in my coverage ...

Another week and another update from the Olympics, this time almost a dozen years in the future. The International Olympic Committee announced last week that it was entering a targeted dialogue with the city of Brisbane about hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics. While it is not official that the Australian city will be hosting the Summer Olympics in 2032, it is likely that the Olympics will be returning Down Under for the first time since Sydney hosted in 2000. As of right now, there are still no plans for the Winter Olympics in 2030 and 2034, though there are a few cities that are rumored to be in the mix, including Salt Lake City and Sapporo, Japan, both of which have hosted the Winter Olympics in the past. It is believed that most of the cities that are exploring Winter Olympics are waiting to see just how the Tokyo Olympics go this summer as well as the Beijing Winter Olympics next February go before moving forward with their bids to host. On a personal note, last week also brought th...