Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

With Newtown High School in its first full week of practice, I took a moment to think back on last fall when there were three South-West Conference champions (boys’ soccer, volleyball and girls’ cross country) and one CIAC Class LL runner-up (boys’ soccer).

Will we see another season like that?

Let’s hope so.

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It’s not basketball season – yet – but there is some basketball news.

Senior Kelley Haines recently made a verbal commitment to play for the University of New Hampshire in 2004-05.

The 2003-04 Newtown High School season already promised to be a busy one for the prolific guard. Haines is 142 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point plateau, which has been done by only one other female player in school history – Lynn Lattanzio.

Haines also has a realistic shot at breaking Lattanzio’s school record of 1,115 points.

That’s enough to think about without throwing in college visits and recruiting calls and what not.

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 “We can make him better than he was – better, stronger, faster.”

That was the intro to the old Six Million Dollar Man television series and it was the first thing that popped into my head when I was watching Sportscenter on Monday morning and a report came on about Willie McGahee, who tore up his knee in the Fiesta Bowl back in January while playing for the University of Miami.

McGahee, drafted by the Buffalo Bills, is recovering so well from knee surgery that he may be able to practice with the team in a couple of weeks and be cleared to play sometime in the middle of the season. In fact, the report indicated McGahee’s knee may be stronger now than it was before.

Incredible.

Oddly enough, it also brought to mind this short story by Michael Resnick called “Monsters of the Midway.” Clever, witty and fun – it’s football with a sci-fi bent. It’s in the collection Ultimate Frankenstein (recently published in paperback) and that one story alone is worth the cover price.

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Why is it I can watch a spring training baseball game with no problem, but can’t stand pre-season football?

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ESPN opened the 2002 National Football League season in spectacular fashion – a little Thursday night celebration in New York (complete with a performance by Jon Bon Jovi) prior to the New York-San Francisco game (which the Giants lost, 16-13).

It was great.

But leave it to television to ruin a good thing.

In what is being called Kickoff Celebration II, ABC will be broadcasting the Washington Redskins – New York Jets season opener on Thursday, September 4, and will kick it off with a celebration featuring not one musical performance, but several.

Aretha Franklin will be there, for God’s sake.

Last year, the celebration was cool. This year, it will be overkill.

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With Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons and Chad Pennington of the New York Jets on the shelf for quite some time, I shudder to think of who some teams in our Fantasy Football League are going to stuck with at quarterback.

Patrick Ramsey?

Chris Redmon?

Tommy Maddox?

Gadzooks.