Telegraph Sports Reporter Tom KIng.

We have reached the second weekend of January, and moving forward this time of year is always a good thing.

Thus, here are a few tids and bits to munch on in the midst of Wild Card Weekend:

• Yes, 2020 was a tough year and we lost some great people heading into its final week – John Fagula, Bob Bates, Bill Brown, Pete Smilikis – and then, unfortunately, the year ended with us losing one of the best of them all, former youth baseball and high school basketball coach/super scout Dave Drescher. Back during his heyday as a hoop scout, if Drescher was at a game, yours truly would always look for that seat near him in the high rows of the bleachers. The knowledge he shared was incredible. But beyond all that, Drescher was just a fantastic individual, as one could tell by the tributes that came pouring in from people after his passing nearly two weeks ago.

Again, a tough 2020, as the local sports community lost some very special people.

• Love the fact that two former players yours truly saw play in high school years ago are now top national college coaches, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Florida’s Dan Mullen. Mullen played at Trinity and Day many will remember came to Holman Stadium in 1999 and engineered a huge upset of Nashua for Manchester Central in the Division I title game. And of course Day will lead the Buckeyes into Monday night’s National Title Game vs. Alabama.

Now, that being said, you saw both coaches get their names mentioned last weekend for potential NFL coaching openings. Please, let’s not get carried away. Day is in his second year as a head coach – he reportedly silenced any further reports – and Mullen, who has become a yapper, is just establishing himself at Florida.

“When you get to this level, you know it’s going to be hard no matter how you shake it,” Day said during a recent press conference. “You’ve got to be on top of your game and you’ve got to do a great job gettingthe guys prepared, playing at a high level and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

It should be a fun game to watch on Monday night if it’s played then; as of this writing earlier in the week there were COVID concerns that could have the game rescheduled a week later.

• It’s been almost two months since high school teams have been competing – Nashua North’s and Souhegan’s football title wins on Nov. 21 were the last games played locally. That will change at the end of this week with some high school basketball and hockey games, but a big chunk of the anticipated schedule will be missing with both Nashua High School North and South athletics on pause. We’ll see how far things can go; Friday in Division I locally Alvirne hosts Pinkerton in boys hoop while the Bronco girls are at Pinkerton; Merrimack girls host Salem while the boys will be at Salem.

In Division II, a good take will be the Hollis Brookline boys hosting Milford while the Spartan girls will host the Cavaliers. Campbell (Division III) and Wilton-Lyndeborough (Division IV) have teams starting early this coming week.

• The Futures Collegiate Baseball League will certainly be keeping an eye on what some of the short season New York-Penn League franchises that lost their affiliations with the league dissolving are thinking of doing. Some of those spots – Vermont, maybe – could be ripe for the picking. In other words, become expansion franchises for the FCBL. Stay tuned.

And stay safe.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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