Here are a few tids and bits to munch on before you hit that holiday food:

First, put those skates on, it’s high school hockey season.

Think of this: The area went seven years before having a team play at Manchester’s SNHU Arena; it had teams in the finals during a pandemic season of 2021 but the BG girls won their title at the Dover Ice Arena and Hollis Brookline fell to Berlin-Gorham at Concord’s Everett Arena as different venues were used. But last year there were three locals playing: the Bishop Guertin girls and boys, and then Merrimack in the Division II boys final. Two out of three (the BG wins) weren’t bad. But that’s not going to be an annual occurrence, we don’t think. The BG girls will usually contend, but the Cards won two titles thanks to now graduated forward Jenna Lynch meshing with two different combinations of players; Merrimack had great goaltending and a top scorer Eliot Medlock, who does return so maybe…And the BG boys had 15 seniors but have started off 2-0. But having that many seniors is incredible and certainly doesn’t happen every year.

We’d love to see Nashua North-Souhegan and South-Pelham get to the tournament level, and loved Kings coach Jordan Sarracco’s preview comment that his team “has decided it’s time to ‘Change the narrative’ for South-Pelham hockey.” But they’ve started 0-2 and aren’t happy about it at all.

New North-Souhegan coach Chris Zarlenga knows the first narrative he has to change is the revolving door of coaches the program has had. A 1-1 start, but here’s the thing: The way the schedule worked both Nashua-based co-ops have two weeks before a game that counts in the standings. They have no games this week but will play three days in the HB hosted Backyard Brawl tourney next week.

—– Still on hockey, we’d still like to see Nashua’s Conway Arena host a high school state tournament semifinal round. It’s time to for the rink to see if it could get the Division I boys or girls semis or the Division II boys semis. The Stellos Stadium/Nashua YMCA lot can be used for what would be a massive parking overflow. It’s certainly something worth checking into.

—– Mickey Gasper gets it. The former Merrimack High baseball and Silver Knight standout spent his early childhood in New Jersey (where his family now lives) and basically grew up a Yankees fan, so it was special for him to be part of that organization since 2018. Now he’ll be a Red Sox minor leaguer after being plucked in the Rule 5 Minor League Draft, and his thoughts went back to his days going to Wilton to work with popular local hitting guru Bob Caswell, remembering that the late Caswell always wore a Red Sox cap. Gasper, one of the best two-strike hitters these eyes have seen, certainly knows who helped him along the way and paid tribute. Caswell, who passed away a few years ago after battling cancer, is sorely missed around local baseball circles.

—– It’s going to be a very interesting next few weeks while Patriots owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick dance around whether or not Belichick will be returning. They win, you’ll start to see this or that story with sentiment about Belichick possibly returning with stipulations. They lose like they did on Sunday, and his foot gets further and further out the door. Who knows, they may have already figured it all out. But doubt it. If it is the end – it seems even the opposition knows that it is – there will be a lot of irony in the fact his possible last Patriots game will be against the Jets. If that’s the case, they should announce it ahead of time and let Belichick get a proper sendoff from the Gillette crowd that day. What the heck, neither team is making the playoffs, right?

—– What a turnaround by the Rivier men’s basketball team under new head coach Tom Glynn, whose team went 8-2 before the semester break. But it’s a sign of what can be done at the small college level – or any collegiate level, for that matter – with the transfer portal. You can turn things around a lot faster. Transfers come in, establish a winning culture, and what does that do? Helps recruiting, perhaps even with more transfers, but also freshmen. Glynn does have seven freshmen on the roster.

It will be interesting when the season resumes in early January and the Great Northeast Athletic Conference schedule gets into full swing. But so far, the Raiders are a good take – and their games seem to always go right down to the wire.

—- If you want to see a great post-game interview, check out ESPN’s Lisa Salters’ chat with Seattle QB Drew Lock after the Seahawks rallied in the final minute to beat the Eagles on Monday night — the game the NFL flexed the Patriots-Chiefs out of. Lock, who lost his job to Geno Smith after winding up with the Seahawks two years ago, was as honest and as emotional as could be, with Salters letting him speak his mind. Gold.

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

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