Here a some tids and barbecue bits left over from a different Memorial Day Weekend while joining the ranks of those chuckling that aspiring golfer Tom Brady should not give up his day job:

– Welcome back to New Hampshire high school football, coach Tony Johnson. You’ve been missed.

And he’s probably missed it, too. Johnson, the former longtime Bishop Guertin coach who was just named the new Bishop Brady head coach, didn’t have the success many thought he would on the prep school level at Worcester Academy.

What happened? It seems as though Worcester wasn’t financially equipped to hand out a lot of scholarships. Johnson’s recruiting efforts fell short against wealthier schools, plain and simple, to hear him explain it.

“Can we fund 35-40 kids? The answer’s no,” he said. “We want to play at the highest level.

“A few years back I had some conversations with the powers that be at Worcester and said, ‘What do you want to do with football? You can’t continue to do what you’re doing. It’s not working. It was frustrating for me. I had some good kids, we just didn’t have enough of them.”

Johnson hasn’t changed much. He seems as passionate and intense as ever, is still big on flexibility. He had his players on Mondays at Worcester take a yoga class. He lined up a professional instructor for an hour and 10 minutes.

“I thought about it at BG, but I just couldn’t put it together,” he said.

– It’s still hard to believe that more likely than not Green Meadow will cease to exist as a golf course after Nov. 1 with the pending sale of the property.

What’s the spillover going to be?

“We already have leagues which have reached out to us,” Amherst Country Club director of golf operations Chad Zingales said recently. “Which we’re thrilled with. But honestly you never want to see a golf course close. In that case it was sold.

“But that’s a staple for New England golf. That’s the starting of the Friel Empire right there. That’s a piece of history. I spent three seasons over there, was with the Friels for 15 years. Great family, that’s a great piece of history, and a great clientele.”

First Buck Meadow, now Green Meadow. Any course named “Meadow” better watch out.

– One more Johnson item: If you ask him what he probably enjoyed the most at Worcester Academy, it likely wasn’t even coaching football or track. It was coaching alpine skiing.

“They were looking for a coach,” Johnson said. “I’d taught skiing, and I coached a racing program when I was up at Plymouth State, at Waterville, a junior program and I loved it. So they said, ‘Guess what, you’re now the head coach of alpine skiing.’. It was great. The kids were great, it’s a different type of kid. But again, when you’re coaching a lot of different types of personalities … it just makes you a better coach. And I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I had some really good skiers, the kids were great. It was fun.”

– There’s a new hockey league on the horizon, and it might just be something fun to watch. It’s a 3-on-3 league, called 3Ice, and it’s commissioner is former 1980 Miracle on Ice assistant coach Craig Patrick. It was founded by E.J. Johnston, the son of former Boston Bruins goalie and longtime Penguins front office member Eddie Johnston.

There will be eight teams of seven players apiece, and the plan is to travel to a different location in the U.S.or Canada each week for nine weeks beginning in June 2021.

The league announced just the other day it will have eight Hall of Famers as coaches: Guy Carbonneau, Grant Fuhr, Ed Johnston, John LeClair, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, Angela Ruggiero and Bryan Trottier. That’s quite a lineup.

Of course it’s based on the 3-on-3 overtimes we’ve seen in the NHL, and it should be a lot of fun to watch.

It probably would’ve come in handy the last two months, no?

– We hope Nashua Pride fans of years past enjoyed Glenn Murray’s recounting of that glorious championship season 20 years ago, one that was a sudden success both on and off the field. We’ll continue to talk to people from that season and run their memories occasionally during the summer, but if any of you fans have some great memories, feel free to share via email.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_TomK.

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