Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

JUDGE THIS!

I have always looked upon judged sporting events with a certain amount of disdain because no matter what quote-unquote scoring system is used for technical aspects of performances, it all comes down to subjectivity.

We all know what happened in Olympic figure skating a few years ago and what happened in Olympic gymnastics last summer. But closer to home, I have seen swim officials awards sixes and threes for the same dive; I have seen the Newtown High School cheerleaders get completely robbed a couple of years ago at the South-West Conference championships.

The new South-West Conference dance competition is a wonderful thing for the all the dancers who perform for their schools at football and basketball games, but – for me – it already started out on a bad note.

The Newtown Markettes – who have been doing this sort of thing for a lot of years – were awarded third place behind Brookfield (the host school) and Masuk. I certainly won’t begrudge Brookfield it’s title because the girls performed a very nice routine and deserved to win (although the same could be said of the Markettes), but how Masuk was awarded second ahead of Newtown I’ll never know.

Subjectivity – I guess I’m guilty of it, too.

THREE CHEERS

The Newtown High School cheerleaders have had an exceptionally busy 2004-05 campaign, what with their furious fundraising efforts over the summer and their trip to the Nationals in Orlando, Florida last month.

Well, they added another fine note to their resume with a fifth-place finish at the CIAC state cheerleading championships last weekend. The Lady Nighthawks competed against 16 other teams in their division, including SWC rivals Bunnell (seventh) and New Milford (15th).

The girls will be competing for the last time this Saturday at Western Connecticut State University. Stop by and cheer them on, okay?

STUDENTS vs FACULTY – THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL

Wait a second – the 2004-05 basketball season hasn’t quite come to an end yet. Oh no, the seniors on the Newtown High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have ONE more game to play … and it’s a biggie.

Relatively speaking, of course.

The seniors will be taking on an, uh, All Star team of Newtown High faculty members on Friday, at 7 pm, in the Hawks Nest. Tickets are $5 at the door and all proceeds will benefit the Haitian Health Foundation to build houses in Haiti.

The faculty, uh, All Star team will consist of names like Dellasala, Davey, Gelderman, Marks, Petro, Gratt, Greenfield, Pennucci, Violette, Ferguson, George, Edwards, Foss, Micena, Obloj, McHugh, Percivalle, Tierney, Neumeyer, Culhane, Swanhall, Russell, O’Sullivan, Dyer, Mallory, Kuroski, Hall, Tolson, Nichols and Ryder.

Gregg Simon will coach the student team while Kevin O’Sullivan will lead the faculty team. Dan Winsett and Carl Strait will provide, ahem, impartial officiating of the game.

It’s for a good cause. Stop down and have some fun.

BRACKETOLOGY (1)

Fill out your bracket yet?

Well, if you haven’t then you’re too late – ha, it’s Friday and games started Thursday.

Last year, New York outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated it cost American businesses $101 million for every 10 minutes an employee worked on his or her NCAA office pool sheet and went so far as to estimate the total cost at somewhere around $1.4 billion.

I guess companies like CG&C like to come up with reports like that in order to throw a scare into employers or to prove to prospective clients that they have a pulse on American business, but reports like that are just stupid.

Sure, offices around the country have their own NCAA pools and, sure, employees will spend some time at their desks filling out their brackets on company time. But I guess CG&C assumes that employees will actually forgo making business calls, or pass on meetings, for fail to file reports or whatever in order to fill out their brackets.

Will a construction firm take an extra day to put up an office building because of the NCAA pool?

Will a broker wait a day to make a big trade because of the NCAA pool?

Will your daily paper come out a day late because of the NCAA pool?

Come on.

Now, I don’t speak for all employees, of course (I know there are a lot of slackers out there), but I think if an employee is not filling out his or her bracket then he or she is getting a cup of coffee or going to the bathroom or talking about the last episode of Survivor with the person in the next office or cubicle.

It’s called down time. How much does that cost?

MORE ON STEROIDS

Jeremy Giambi, the brother of New York Yankee Jason Giambi, admitted in a newspaper article last week that he took steroids.

Jeremy Giambi is a lifetime .263 hitter with 52 home runs in 510 career games and is struggling to get back into the major leagues.

Jose Canseco has said that without steroids, he never would have been a major league player. Canseco is a lifetime .266 hitter with 462 home runs in 1,887 games.

Steroids didn’t do all of that. And they certainly haven’t done anything for Jeremy Giambi.

BRACKETOLOGY (2)

As I peruse my brackets (on company time – but since this is for the column, it doesn’t count) there seems to be no way I can get Southern Illinois and the University of Texas El Paso into the championship game ... not unless I want to completely throw logic out the window.

Just imagine in the NCAA 2005 championship game – the Salukis versus The Horned Frogs.

Wouldn’t that be great?

For those who don’t know, a Salukis is a breed of dog dating back to 2100 B.C. and ancient Sumeria. Believed to be the oldest pure breeds of dog in the world, mummified remains of such animals have been found in the tombs of the pharaohs.

How Southern Illinois came to take that animal as a mascot, I don’t know.

Now, a horned frog – as you can imagine – is a frog that appears to have horns. It is the most commonly kept frog in captivity, generally coming from South America, Columbia, Uruguay and Brazil.

Horned frogs are known to have huge mouths ... which may or may not apply to their fans as well.