Tom King

Here’s a few tids and bits as we enter the sports transitional month of June, as we go from the busy spring season to the relaxed atmosphere – if there ever is such a thing in local and regional sports – of summer:

First, the biggest news of 2022 so far is the fact that longtime Rivier University Athletic Director Joanne Merrill is wasing out of the job during the next few months, with a successor to be named by August.

Make no mistake, Merrill is River athletics. For 42 years she has presided over an athletic department that has gone through multiple changes, with grace and style.

That includes developing one of the best facilities in the area, the field turfed rectangular playing surface at the Linda Robinson Pavilion, high atop the campus bears her name.

She took over a department that had basketball, softball and volleyball at an all-women’s school and guided it into the 21st century as it has become department that offers multiple sports at what is now a co-ed school and helped create the league, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, that they all play in.

Merrill, as we reported more than a week ago, will stay on for one more year as basically a guide to the new AD on how things are done at Rivier. Merrill has guided with grace and style; she’s made some tough decisions and also had to keep an entire athletic program together during the toughest challenge it would face – the pandemic. And,in the last year, incorporate two major teams – men’s and women’s ice hockey.

While it’s still a challenge, the Raiders came out of it with its teams enjoying fabulous numbers, talented athletes, and, from what these eyes have seen, a big increase in fanfare. All you had to do was be at the men’s ice hockey opener back in late October at Conway Arena and then the men’s lacrosse GNAC quarterfinal a month ago to see how the athletic program has grown.

The change will be interesting; it will certainly be a challenging one for the coaches, all of whom have worked for one AD over the years.

In any event, let the tributes begin for a legendary career that will leave a fabulous legacy in the history of Nashua sports. A job well done, Joanne Merrill.

– Break up the Westfield Starfires. That’s the biggest takeaway we get from the start of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League and the Nashua Silver Knights season. Westfield at mid week, after a mercy rule win over Pittsfield (10 run lead after seven) was 7-0, scoring 71 runs in that time while hitting .339 as a team. The Starfires GM, Hunter Golden, came from the New England Collegiate Baseball League and is said to have connections galore.

The Starfires evidently have just one incoming college freshman on their roster, a top player from the Miami, Fla.,area. It’s not like most of their players are from top Division I schools – most are from New England Schools, with a Marist and a couple from Seton Hall mixed in. Sometimes you love it when a plan come together, and this one apparently did.

– One of the most dramatic moments of the high school sports year to date came this past Tuesday in the woods in Amherst, at Camp Young Judea, when the Alvirne and Souhegan girls tennis teams were battling in the Division II semis.

It came down to a tiebreaker between the teams’ No. 2 doubles tandems. They ended up being the only ones on the court, and every point brought loud cheers from one side or the next, making it feel like a major tennis event.

Tennis usually takes a back seat in the spring to baseball, softball and lacrosse in terms of fanfare, but you wouldn’t have known it from the drama. A lot of pressure for both teams, and as one half of the winning Alvirne team, Gabbi Cummins said, “You could hear the fans breathing.”

– One thing in favor of the Golden State Warriors in this NBA Finals series vs. the Boston Celtics is the fact the NBA got rid of the foolish 2-3-2 format nearly 10 years ago. It was almost a guaranteed two out of three for the home team in the middle, and three straight games on the road. If you remember, the Celtics were up on the Lakers 3-2, after taking Games 4 and 5 in Boston while they actually lost the first game at the Garden, Game 3. But then they lost the next two in L.A.

Back then, home court was everything in an NBA playoff series. That doesn’t seem to be the case these days, does it?

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