By Kim J. Harmon

T

o be honest, I TOTALLY expected the Newtown High School girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams to just coast to a championship in the newly formed South-West Conference. But when the girls’ were beaten, 13-9, by New Milford last week it appeared as it at least one of the teams will be challenged in their quest. With so many new (and non-competitive) teams in the leagues, having a real foe would make the winning of a title that much better . . . after talking with Sean Martins a couple weeks ago at a Newtown High School boys’ track meet, I just HAD to go back and look at the school records again. Of course, I found that Martins still owns the records to the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles. Now, the Nighthawks have the top hurdler in the South-West Conference again – and his name is Kyle Tobin. Last year, Tobin won both events at the SWC meet and this year he should be favored to do it again. Funny thing is, Tobin is STILL a couple of seconds behind Martins in both events. Goes to show you what kind of talent that Martins kid had way back when . . . somewhat strange how the referees at the Newtown-Danbury boys’ lacrosse game last Friday were forced to watch for crease violations without there being an actual crease painted on the field (or, rather, a very DIM one being painted on the field). It would have been a bigger deal in a tougher game, but the Nighthawks easily beat the Hatters, 17-3 . . . It was a Newtown kind of day during a recent 3.55-mile run in the Roxbury Road Race Series. It seems that Pat Dennen, 20, of Newtown took first in the race with a time of 21:14 (besting Mike Abraham of Woodbury by just 14 seconds) and then Ed Sandifer, also of Newtown, took fourth at 22:33 . . . of the best parts of covering a high school golf match is walking these beautiful courses without the pressure of having to make a tough shot. Last week, I was along for the walk when Newtown High School traveled to Orange Hills Country Club in Orange to take on Jonathan Law. It is a gorgeous place, believe me, but if I had to navigate the greens those guys had to navigate and try and make some of the shots that Greg Korotash and Mike Troy had to make, for example, I would have grown – mighty quickly – to HATE the course . . . speaking of golf, there was a beautiful picture of Tiger Woods teeing off at Augusta in the April 16 issue of Sports Illustrated and while the tee was bracketed on three sides by hundreds of fans, I found myself oddly curious about a number of people on the peripheral edge of the photo. There were people with their backs turned to the tee, one guy with his hands on his head staring at something in the other direction, and even people walking AWAY from the tee. Didn’t these people realize that the greatest golfer in the history of the sport (Jack Nicklaus not withstanding) was about to CRUSH another poor, defenseless ball? I mean, you could SEE the shaft of his golf club bending. I can understand being somewhere else on the golf course, following SOMEONE else, but I can’t understand being in the area and not wanting to stop and watch. Heck, maybe it’s just me . . . maybe one day, when I have absolutely NOTHING to do (and that includes toenail maintenance and re-lacing my sneakers), then maybe I’ll become a draftnik. So much energy is spent in two days (by a bunch of people who should be doing something else – ANYTHING else) on what football teams are going to trade up or trade down and pick this one or pick that one that it is just mind boggling. Especially when so many No. 1 picks turn out to be busts (i.e, Aundray Bruce and Ryan Leaf) and so many fourth-round picks turn out to be gems. About 20 years ago (has it been that long?), I remember a lot of people booing vociferously when the New York Giants picked quarterback Phil Simms from Moorehead State. These people were OUT OF THEIR MINDS. And what happened? Simms went on to become the greatest Giant quarterback ever and brought us the Super Bowl twice (yes, I give him credit for helping the team get to 10-0 in 1990 before he got hurt and Jeff Hostetler ended up taking all the credit). Anyway, if Mel Kuiper can be recognized as an authority on the National Football League draft that I figure I could probably make a go of it, too . . . how come when the New York Knicks hit the front pages with these HUGE stories, it’s never for anything good? On the one hand, center Marcus Camby has to stand by while his mother and two sisters were held hostage in South Windsor and, on the other hand, point guard Charlie Ward has to backpeddle and apologize for anti-semetic remarks he made in a magazine article (of course, his comments were taken out of context he says but isn’t that always the case? Didn’t John Rocker claim his comments were taken out of context . . . as if ANY context could shed a better light on the stuff he said) . . . getting back to the NFL, it seems as if there is something of a downside to the salary cap – which is, by and large, the best thing that ever happened to the sport. But the cap often leads to a lot of casualties at the top of the salary scale – such as Mike Mamula of the Philadelphia Eagles and John Randle of the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, these guys can still play – but not for the kind of money they are supposed to get paid. One thing a lot of people don’t realize is, almost all NFL contracts are not guaranteed (like baseball). People might ooh and aah over the 10-year, $100-million contract that Brett Favre signed with the Green Bay Packers, but any clear-thinking fan KNOWS that Favre is not going to see the end of that contract OR half of the money . . . someone should tell Boston Red Sox_fans (like my brother) that it’s only April. After the June Swoon hits, then give me a call and we’ll see how the race in the American League East is going, okay? . . . why does it seem that you always find yourself stuck in a traffic jam just 20 feet after you pass an exit? . . . ‘nuff said for this week, I guess.