Tom King

Ahhh, there’s nothing like the holidays, because while you can enjoy great food you can also enjoy some tasty tids and bits in this space, so here we go:

First, we’re going to miss the Chic-fil-a Nashua Holiday Basketball Festival. Last year the pandemic put a halt to all holiday play as no winter sports had started their seasons yet.

This year? Probably still a good idea not to have it, but actually it wouldn’t have been held last year either if there were no pandemic, because of the new basketball schedule.

Teams are playing some regular season games next week, including Nashua. The North girls and boys are playing Portsmouth Thursday, Dec. 30 and the South girls are at Spaulding Dec. 29 with the boys hosting the Red Raiders. Alvirne has a couple of regualr-season boys games.

As long as this schedule is in effect, a holiday tradition is by the boards, which is a real shame.

Meanwhile, good to see that Hollis Brookline-Derryfield picked up the baton to keep holiday hockey alive at Conway Arena. Remember, NHIAA hockey is staying with its traditonal schedule, so teams either would have to take two weeks off or find a tournament somewhere. Good job.

– Yes, Patriot fans are very disappointed in their team’s performance last Saturday night. But one has to admit it sets up some great drama for what might have been a boring last three weeks, including Sunday’s fabulous Bills-Patriot matchup at Gillette.

If the Patriots win, they clinch the AFC East title. If they lose, the Bills just tighten things up with a tie with the two teams having two games left. New England home vs. Jacksonville Jan. 2 and at those red hot Dolphins Jan. 9.

If the Dolphins win out – or even finish above .500 – after starting the season 1-7, Brian Flores has to be a candidate for Coach of the Year.

It’s quite a jumble in the AFC, and it will take these three weeks to sort it all out. For the neutral fan, that’s fun.

– What a difference a year or two makes for the Nashua Silver Knights in terms of the off-season.

Uncertainty because of what teams would be in the league delayed the schedule at the start of 2020, then COVID really delayed it.

And of course uncertainty with the pandemic last year delayed it as well.

Now, the schedule came out over a week ago and general manager Cam Cook can start selling. He even has a fairly full roster. A product to sell and time to sell it.

“What’s awesome is when we put out the schedule (10 days ago), our sales have been pretty impressive to start,” Cook said. “In two or three days.”

The team also put their player postings (signings) out on social media and the response/interaction “has been more than it’s ever been before.”

– Count us in as in agreement with the move to limit fans at Nashua North and South home athletic events. You could see it coming, for certain, as the virus numbers aren’t going anywhere but up.

Still, it’s a shame, because there won’t be the raucous atmosphere for the Nashua North and South boys and girls hoop doubleheader that’s set for Friday, Jan. 21 at South.

– Still don’t get the reason behind this new NHIAA basketball setup. The reason we’ve been given is to give more rest for student athletes between the winter and spring.

It’s a pilot program, basically, but here’s the thing. Is it worth crunching things together and having teams play morning games after night games in order to get them in because with three games in a week there’s no room for reschedulings?

“It’s a long winter, this is a pilot,” Nashua South boys hoop coach Nate Mazerolle said.

“I have a feeling it will change next year. But I’m just a coach who wants more practices.”

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