Tom King

It’s finally here: Super Bowl Week.

Did we think it would ever happen with the pandemic? Probably not.

February also is here, so let’s give you some tids and bits as we cross a second month off the winter calendar and begin a third:

First, Rivier University is losing a perfect fit in baseball coach and sports information director Anthony Perry.

Perry, whose last day at Riv was Friday as he now takes on the assistant athletic director job at his alma mater, Fisher College, was fantastic at the school. He has the right temperament to deal with the students, as well as his superiors.

You could tell, if something needed to be done, whether to fill in as an assistant coach with other sports, or make sure this info needs to get out, etc., Perry would do it.

Baseball? He smartly would sell recruits on Holman Stadium, and how could a college player not want to play there? The problem was, of course, the school has no field on campus. He tried his best to make sure his players got the most out of the Rivier experience. He had some talented players, and he had some unique players.

It says something that on his way out he cited two of his biggest accomplishments in recruiting Mauro Da Silva, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome (now an assistant coach), and Marika Lyszczyk, the first recruited female position player in NCAA history (still on the team).

“Those two student athletes will always hold a special place in my heart,” he said. “The battle, albeit different, that they have gone through and persevered to get to play college baseball is unbelievable.”

On the SID side, there wasn’t anyone easier to work with than Perry. If yours truly needed something, bingo, it was there. The Rivier athletic community is one that is filled with stories that should always be told.

Perry’s sense of the moment is fabulous. Just ask his successor as the new Raiders baseball coach, Louie Bernardini, who was the last baseball coach at Daniel Webster. The last game the Eagles played was at Holman Stadium, vs. Riv, and Perry made sure a picture of the two teams together was taken to commemorate the incredible historic occasion.

It will be great that Bernardini gets a head job once again, after the situation at DWC forced the school sadly to close three years ago. Perry brought him aboard a couple of years ago as an associate coach, and the pair, as they did even as opposing coaches, worked well together. Bernardini can now resume his career as a head coach and build up that experience.

But without Anthony Perry, things at Rivier simply won’t be the same.

• It was a tough blow that the Nashua High School South girls basketball team had to go on pause once again due to circumstances related to the coronavirus. That meant a delay in the tribure the Panthers had planned this weekend for late Nashua coach John Fagula. According to the North-South schedules, the teams will at least play at Nashua North on Saturday, Feb. 13. It’s likely that tribute can be held then as Panthers coach John Bourgeois had already spoken about it with Titans coach Curt Dutilley. As always, stay tuned.

• And yes, Super Bowl Week. It will be very different than those of the past. First of all, as we all know, it’s historically a Tampa Bay home game. Secondly, the Kansas City Chiefs, in this pandemic season, smartly won’t even be arriving there until a day or two before the game. Remember, teams usually would be at the site the week prior to the game. All the Tom Brady hoopla aside, it will be a Super Bowl unlike any other.

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

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