Alan Greenwood

As usual, spring is teasing us with a few cameo appearances while struggling to take hold. Coaches and players are antsy for the sun to shine and the mud to dry.

Consider how frustrating it was for Nashua High School coach Buzz Harvey 65 years ago, whose baseball training camp lagged, not to mention spring football practice.

MARCH 27, 1956: “Battling against the time element and the heavy snows, coach Buzz Harvey, as a last resort yesterday afternoon called out the first contingent of 1956 football hopefuls and began the annual spring drills at the Senior High gym.

“… Harvey indicated that he hopes to get in about 10 days of the preliminary grid sessions indoors and that he has all but given up hope of being able to put the Purple candidates through outdoor drills. The inconvenience comes in a year when the spring sessions are more important than ever, he pointed out, citing that several changes in various positions are being planned for the 1956 campaign.

As for baseball, Harvey expected that double sessions would be necessary during the April vacation to prepare his club for the season.

MARCH 28, 1961: “Dick Piwowarski last night was named coach of baseball at Nashua Junior High at a meeting of the Board of Education. He will pilot the club made up of seventh and eighth graders.

“Piwowarski, a member of the Junior High faculty, is also coach of football and basketball at the Spring St. school. His baseball coaching salary will be $200.”

MARCH 29, 1969: “There was a large turnout at the baseball clinic last night at the Park-Recreation Youth Center. Former professional ballplayers directed the program.

“Also, Alfred Arel met with the biddy basketball managers to discuss plans for the final playoffs starting Friday night at the Charlotte Ave. gym.”

MARCH 30, 1971: “In a see-saw contest right down to the final buzzer, the Jets edged the Waves, 22-21, to capture the Girls Biddy Basketball League championship Saturday afternoon.

“… Linda Breault, the league’s leading scorer with 382 points on the season, added 18 in the title game before fouling out of the contest.”

MARCH 31, 1981: “Nashua’s invincible Andrews Power Gym made it five consecutive state championships over Bucky’s Gym of Manchester in the State Powerlifting Championships held in Berlin this weekend.

“… Claude Gionet, lifting in his first state meet, was the first state champ, earning the 114-pound title, Guy Bruno successfully moved up from the 165-pound class (where he was the champ in 1980) and won the 161-pound crown. At the 220-pound level, Steve Monas earned the state title with an impressive performance while Wayne Andrews capped off the day with a victory in the 242-pound class.”

APRIL 1, 2001: “It’s surely a gamble, but right now, Nashua’s Josh Cappi believes it is one that will eventually pay off. Cappi opted to forego his senior year as Nashua High School North’s starting goaltender to play for the Boston Bulldogs of the Atlantic Junior Hockey League. That season is now over, but Cappi says will return to the Bulldogs in 2006-07.

” ‘It was tough,” Cappi said. ‘High school is fun, really fun, I enjoyed it. I just wanted to get more exposure and look towards college and playing college hockey. I hang out with the (Nashua) guys, still. I missed it. But I was just worried about my future.’ ”

APRIL 2, 2020: “It’s become almost a daily ritual for Nashua’s Matt Neverett, former Nashua Silver Knights/WSMN radio broadcaster. He leaves his Las Vegas apartment, located about four or five blocks from the famed Vegas Strip, and takes a drive up and down the Strip.

“Normally, it might take him a half hour with all the traffic and pedestrians. But he can do it now in a breeze. In the COVID-19 pandemic, that whole area is a virtual ghost town.

“‘Pretty much every day, or every other day, I go out and take a drive, and go up and down the strip and see how dead it is,’ said Neverett, who like many is waiting for professional baseball to resume so he can get knee deep into his new job with the Las Vegas Aviators, the Oakland Athletics’ Triple A team.”

Newsletter