Here’s a few mid-January tids and bits as we are stuck in the dregs of winter:

There’s a new Evil Empire in high school girls basketball, and earlier this week we found out what all the fuss was about. And that fuss is as local as it gets, while the school isn’t even in the area.

Introducing the Concord Christian Academy girls basketball team. It’s starting five has two players from Nashua, sisters Taylor and Kayden Rioux, and three from Hudson: Emma and Kate Smith, and Lily Carlile (yes, no ‘s’) who is the daughter of the team’s coach, Rebecca Carlile.

The Kingsmen outlasted Bishop Guertin – the former girls hoop Evil Empire – and went into that game 5-0 having beaten five Division II opponents by an average of 35.8 points. Friday night they cruised by a contending Hanover team.

Yes, a local starting five in the Capital City. Huh?

The Kingsmen played BG last year during Christmas week when the Cards reached out after their plans to play in an elite Florda tourney got scuttled by the Southwest Airlines fiasco. Then they went on to win the Division III championship. Next they threw Division II into an uproar when Manchester West left that division to co-op with Manchester Central. To fill the void, Concord Christian was more than happy to move up in mid-November. That certainly raised eyebrows for all the Division II ADs and coaches.

But they wanted to grab that shot. “These girls love to play competitive games,” Carlile said. “They knew BG was top of the hill last year so they were dying to play them. Our claim to fame last year was we beat BG in the first half. We’re young, we’re tiny, too. Coming off the Christmas break, we have to get our legs back.”

So how did a host of locals end up going north? Carlile had a Hudson following, and said that with COVID, the trend was for more kids to go to private schools (less restrictions, not remote). “(Parents) needed their kids to be in school,” she said. “We got lucky in that regard.”

Quite a story.

—- Whoever will be running the Patriots, having the No. 3 pick basically comes down to a choice between two players: LSU QB/Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, or Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison,Jr. The other two heralded quarterbacks, Caleb Williams of USC and Drake Maye of North Carolina will likely go one-two to the Bears (unless they trade the pick) and Commanders. What to do Patriot fans? The receiver or the QB? We say the quarterback; there are other receivers said to be worth it in this draft. You don’t want to see Bailey Zappe/Mac Jones again do you? Ugh.

—- The spring high school tournament season the last couple of years ended with a nice Sunday of boys lacrosse, the Division I, II and III title games played as a tripleheader at Exeter’s Bill Ball Stadium. Nice and tidy and convenient, especially for the media, wink-wink.

Well, not this year. They’re not only in three different spots – Stellos Stadium (Division II), Bill Ball (Division I) and Laconia’s Bank of NH Stadium (Division III) all at 5 p.m., they’re on Saturday. Yeah, the day they have the baseball finals at Manchester’s Northeast Delta Dental Stadium and the softball finals for all divisions at Plymouth State. And let’s not forget the boys volleyball finals at Nashua South. Yes, Saturday, June 8, Championship Saturday. Fans will have to make a lot of choices, as if the baseball-softball wasn’t enough. But wouldn’t it have been nice to have Championship Weekend instead?

— The majority of Super Wild Card Weekend wasn’t so super heading into today. Saturday’s game were snoozers, Buffalo-Pittsburgh was moved to today (the right call, by the way) and the Green Bay upset of the Cowboys was a stunning blowout, captivating us here because that may mean Bill Belichick could be heading there. The Divisional Round may not be much better. Thank goodness for Sunday night’s Rams-Lions close game.

—- It’s Battle of the Bridge Week, and we can’t wait for the Nashua North-South basketball doubleheader next Friday, the event of the winter. The Holiday Tournament finals were just the appetizer, also at North. But across town the Merrimack boys will be at Bishop Guertin, and the Cardinals that night at halftime will honor the 1983 Skip Barry-led Class L boys basketball championship team that beat the unified Nashua 56-50. As a member of that team, Craig Heisner said, “It might be a cool story to tell, especially when you consider what those games were like bac in the day and the rivalry between BG and Nashua.”

That was when the crowds were loud and a city was captivated. Can’t lose next Friday, no matter what choice you make.

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

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