Here’s a few tids and bits as we continue to experience March in February — until later this week, that is — while we wait for Aaron Rodgers to emerge from his Four Days of Darkness (see rolling eyes) after the first of many Sundays without NFL football:

First, with Biddy Basketball back in action with league finals this week in Nashua, it’s very fitting that the memory of popular late hoop official Dave Mansor will be honored. Mansor was one of the tough early casualties of COVID, passing away in early spring of 2020, when the world stopped and we had no idea of how to prevent these tough, seemingly senseless losses.

Mansor was a great ref for the Nashua Biddy program, because he would explain his calls to the kids so they knew what they did wrong.

“He was great with the kids,” local Biddy official Bill Soubosky said. “Dave just took the chance to teach them, he wanted them to have a good experience and get something out of it.”

Mansor is sorely, sorely missed. Gone too soon, and it’s hard to believe it was almost three years ago.

—- Nate Mazerolle stood on the Trinity court after the Nashua South boys basketball team blew the Pioneers out last Monday afternoon and said, “It’s still light outside, isn’t it?”. Yes, afternoon, which was certainly different. It’s a shame that the trouble between Nashua and Manchester kids scuttled JV games, and limited crowds. Selfishly we’ll take an afternoon hoop game here and there. But referee Dave Greenidge looked around and shook his head and said, “No fans.”

“The situation is so unfortunate,” Mazerolle said, “but all the decisions we’re making are the right ones.”

Can’t argue with that.

—– Please, please, please, can we move the NHIAA indoor track and field championships away from Super Bowl Sunday? It was great to have the indoor meets back. While they were gone the NFL added a week, so you’d have to figure that would finally separate the two, right? Wrong. The meets went with the Super Bowl like a magnet. What made it even more of a busy Sunday was the fact that the hamster who runs on the power treadmill at the University of New Hampshire fell off and the power was out for the state swimming on Saturday.

So on Sunday you had no less than eight state championships decided between two divisions of boys and girls track and swimming. Serenity.

—– Sad news coming out of Burlington, Vt.. Vermont Lake Monsters manager Pete Wilk was recently diagnosed with Glioblastoma Brain Cancer and has begun chemotherapy treatment. Wilk, the former longtime Georgetown Univeristy head coach, has done a fabulous job in Vermont and was gracious and great to talk to after the Silver Knights’ epic ninth inning championship rally last August. Sitting near the dugout in the photographers pit during the game, right near where Wilk was, was a treat.

“Time to dig in and can’t wait to get back to the 802,” Wilk posted on social media.

—- Not a big fan of MLB making the “ghost runner” a permanent fixture for extra innings. Let the game be decided by the regular way it’s played. Sure, the FCBL has the Home Run Derby that the fans love, and that’s great. But in the pros, nope. Let’s hope they never have it apply to the playoffs and World Series as well.

—- You want to know what the event of the winter has been? Try the Tri-County Middle School basketball championships that were held last weekend at South’s Belanger Gym. The place was packed, and the most dramatic moment of the winter was when Fairgrounds’ Daniel Karavanic put in a layup at the buzzer to give the Falcons a win over McLaughlin of Manchester. The place went nuts and the game was televised on Nashua ETV (shameless plug).

And in the girls Division 2 game, World Academy of Nashua looked like a machine in beating St. Chris in an all-Nashua final. But get this – the two coaches are both Nashua and Rivier Univeristy alums: Dan Caruso of Fairgrounds and Aaron Dufoe of World Academy. How’s that for a quiz answer.

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

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