Tom King

Time for one of our favorite holidays, when the food is great, football is flowing and hopefully it’s not snowing.

Here are some of the sports moments we’re most thankful for since last Thanksgiving:

– A local 2021 winter sports season that was held despite all the COVID concerns, pitfalls and pauses. It produced moments like the BG girls hockey semifinal overtime win over Hanover, the great BG-Hollis Brookline wrestling final, a BG-Nashua North boys quarterfinal matchup that while it couldn’t have the crowd had plenty of interest, a North post-season wrestling win and some championship moments.

– The return to sports for local high school spring teams as well as those at Rivier University after a the previous spring when fields were completely empty.

– The classic Bishop Guertin-Bedford girls lacrosse state semifinal, won by the Cardinals 11-9 after they trailed at halftime 7-5 en route to the state title, won four days later in a 20-3 rout of Pinkerton. It was the most competitive lacrosse game of the season by far that these eyes witnessed for either the high school boys or girls seasons.

– The ingenuity and creativity of the Nashua Hall of Fame Committee. Yes, yours truly is a voting member, but can’t take credit for the idea to hold the long-awaited ceremony on a virtual basis with spectacular interviews of the inductees done by Jason Robie and Nate Mazerolle. A piece of history, and it will last forever on line.

– A return to competition for track athletes after having to sit out the winter due to lack of facilities able to host meets due to COVID, a spring season that saw history with the Nashua North boys and girls teams winning the Division I championship.

– Another summer during the pandemic of Silver Knights baseball at Holman Stadium. Granted, it wasn’t the same as the championship summer of the year before, but things felt more normal and the ability to see baseball every week at Holman was, like the previous summer, a great escape.

The Knights had a couple of walk-off wins that were must-see, and a late playoff push that almost worked.

– A full 162-game baseball season that saw the Boston Red Sox return to relevance as Fenway Park came alive again.

– The return of the New England Patriots to relevance. It’s a fun team to cover, but those games a year ago in an empty stadium just didn’t have the same feeling or results of the past. Now there are full stadiums making NFL games more watchable, and now those Patriots are starting to look like they are ready to make a serious run at another Super Bowl. Yes, we just said it.

– The local high school football season. What a difference a year makes; sure, there was no dominant team like Nashua North from a year ago, but it brought so many great moments, especially with no fan restrictions leading to some great crowds for some great games, the most dramatic ones being Nashua South’s win over North with no time left on the clock, North’s win on the last play (game-winning field goal) over Merrimack, the Titans’ upset win in the final minute over Pinkerton, Milford’s workmanlike streak to the title game, etc.

The full presence of fans just made it worthwhile.

– Tournament soccer. This past fall, it was unlike anything else we’ve seen, with the epic South-Hanover boys Division I title game before 2,000 at Stellos won by the Panthers in 11 rounds of penalty kicks and the North-South incredible semifinal won in the final 30 seconds by the Panthers, and Bishop Guertin’s girl title win over Bedford 1-0 at Exeter with the Cards holding on for dear life at the end.

– The return to basketball for Rivier University’s men’s and women’s teams, as well as the creation of the men’s and women’s hockey teams. The opening night at Conway Arena brought a crowd we have never seen before in the fine facility, and it was also great to see fans cheering on hoop teams at the Muldoon.

– And finally, we’re thankful for you, the readers, who continue to follow all the local and regional sports happenings online and in our weekend print editions, and also keep us aware of what’s going on with story ideas.

Have a great holiday, everyone.

Tom King can be reached at tking@

nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter

@Telegraph _TomK.