Monthly Archives: January 2009

January 31, 2009 · 12:29 pm

Taryn O’Connell: Worthy of Notice

Georgetown coach BarriAnn Lorenzo with star senior Taryn O'Connell

Georgetown coach BarriAnn Lorenzo with star senior Taryn O'Connell

Taryn O’Connell not only plays under the basket but also “plays under the radar,” according to her basketball coach at Georgetown High School, BarriAnn Lorenzo. 

“In a league with big schools like Masco, North Andover, and Ipswich not much attention is paid to little Georgetown and Taryn O’Connell,” claimed Coach Lorenzo.

The neglect seems unfair since the Royals’ senior has been a four-year starter, has reached 1000 points, and is closing in on an even more impressive stat – 1000 rebounds. 

She is currently in the 900s in rebounds and her 12 per game average could get her to that 1000 mark by the end of this season.  That would put Taryn into the exclusive career quadruple/quadruple club that Ipswich High (UMaine recruit) Amber Smith just entered on January 27th. 

“When you stop and realize that rebounds only come one at a time and points can accumulate one, two, or three at a time you see how significant the 1000 rebound mark is,” explained Coach Alonzo.

Coach Alonzo has coached Taryn for four years.  “She is great at deflecting attention away from herself,” said the coach.  “For us, she is a leader off the court and the stat leader in all the categories on the court.”

Joining the varsity as a freshman, Taryn had ten points and eleven rebounds in her first game.  “I was 5-7 and the taller girls had graduated so I played right away,” said Taryn, recalling the start of a career packed with big numbers.

Those big numbers, through ten games this season, have Taryn with 47 (That’s not a typo!) double/doubles.

You would like to think that there was a highlight game somewhere in that run but Coach Alonzo couldn’t think of one.  “Taryn is always so consistent for us in points (20+ per game) and rebounds (12+ per game) that her numbers don’t fluctuate very much. Her reliability is her trademark.”

Taryn was quick to credit her parents with helping her get ahead in basketball. “My mom offered me the option in 5th grade of joining an AAU team,” she said.  “I accepted and when I started practicing those extra sessions I developed a love for the game.”

She added that her dad was her rebounder when she practiced at night in the summer in the backyard.  “He even landscaped the backyard so that we have a flat surface and put up a nice, glass backboard.”

The Royals qualified for the state tournament last season and hope to again this year despite a possible losing record.  “There is something called the Sullivan Rule,” explained Coach Alonzo. “If 70% of your schedule is against teams from higher divisions then you only have to win 50% of the games with the teams of your division size that you play against.  If we can defeat either Manchester-Essex or Rockport in upcoming games we’ll qualify.”

Next year Taryn expects to be playing basketball in college.  “I’ve been accepted at WPI and I’m waiting to hear from Hobart and Bates,” she said.  “I have talked with the coaches at those places about basketball so there could be opportunities for me.” 

“Taryn started in the post but when she stopped growing taller she realized that she needed to improve her ball-handling and outside shooting if she was going to play in college,” said Coach Lorenzo.  “With hard work she has developed into a 3-point shooter and sometimes will bring the ball up for us.”

Coach Alonzo started an email to me by saying, “I can’t wait to brag about Taryn.”  Now I know why.

(Prepared to appear in The Town Common on February 11th.)

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January 24, 2009 · 12:09 pm

Two Sets of Sisters Add Confusion to Amesbury Basketball Team

Dana and Deryn Zahoruiko with teammates Meaghan and Morgan Sydlowski

Dana and Deryn Zahoruiko with teammates Meaghan and Morgan Sydlowski

Are you called by the wrong first name regularly? 

It might happen if you have same-sex siblings close to you in age or if you look like other siblings in your family.

Some parents increase the odds considerably by giving, close-in-age, same-sex siblings, names that start with the same first letter.

Consider the Zahoruiko’s and the Sydlowski’s on the Amesbury girls’ basketball team.  There’s junior Dana Zahoruiko and sophomore Deryn Zahoruiko.  A further look turns up junior Meaghan Sydlowski and freshman Morgan Sydlowski.

The included picture of the four of them suggests to me that the confusion over their names doesn’t have to do with visual similarities.  It’s the names themselves.

I chatted with AHS coach Chris Perry now in his 19th season about the possible confusion over the names in a recent interview.

“With these two families you have to take things one step further,” he said.  “The Zahoruiko’s have an 8th grade sister (Delane) while the Sydlowski’s have a sister (Mollie) who just graduated. Mollie was on the varsity last year.”

That makes three “D’s” for the Zahoruiko’s and three “M’s” for the Sydlowski’s.

Coach Perry told me that he was raised in a family with first-name, first-letter similarity.  “My father’s name was Charles.  I had three brothers and a sister and everyone’s name started with a “C” except for one brother who was named, “Mark.”  Both of my parents are gone now and I never got an explanation for why my brother Mark didn’t get a name starting with “C.”

Chris added that he used to mix up the names of his own three daughters when they were very young.  “It happened all the time,” he laughed.  “I started calling them “1,” “2,” and “3.”  My wife didn’t like that and shut that down right away.”

Being called by the wrong name was something that the Zahoruiko and Sydlowski sisters are quite familiar with.  “It happens all the time at home,” said Dana.  Meaghan added that for them it happens, “at home and at school.”

Deryn told me that being on the same team with her sister was good.  “On the court we work pretty well together.”  Off the court?  Those of you with siblings can imagine what your answer would have been when served up a setup question like that.

Coach Perry called the Zahoruiko sisters, “basketball junkies.”  In the spring, they’re on an AAU team that practices three times a week and plays four-six tournament games on weekends.

For the Sydlowski sisters, this is the first time for both of them on the varsity.  “We help each other out because we’re just getting used to the varsity level of play,” said Meaghan. “We also play the same position.” 

Freshman Morgan said that she and Meaghan discuss basketball at home.  “She helps me figure out the plays.”

How do they respond when called by the last name?  Meaghan seemed to best summarize it best – “If they’re looking at you when they say the name, then you guess that they’re talking to you and you just respond as if they had the right name.”

Coach Perry teaches physical education at the Amesbury Middle School.  “My confusion with names usually happens there.  By the time I have players on teams at the high school I already know them.” 

Did that keep him from getting confused with the first names of the Zahoruiko’s or the Sydlowski’s?  “I mix them up sometimes,” he admitted, a point that the sisters confirmed with a smile when I interviewed them earlier.

(Should appear in The Town Common on February 4th.)

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January 20, 2009 · 5:36 pm

Hugh O’Flynn: The Doctor On Call for Ipswich High Athletics

IHS team doctor Hugh O'Flynn

IHS team doctor Hugh O'Flynn

By day, Dr. Hugh O’Flynn is an orthopedic surgeon at Coastal Orthopedics in Beverly.  By night, if he’s not at an Ipswich school committee meeting, he’s probably at an Ipswich High School varsity event sitting inconspicuously in the stands.  His preference these days is varsity girls’ basketball since his daughter Hannah is a sophomore starter on that team.

“The first thing I did when I moved back to town (in 1999) was to call up the school and see if I could be the team doctor,” recalled the graduate of Harvard and Columbia Medical School. 

I suspect that the athletic director at the time, Dave Dalton, may have thought of the Julie Andrew’s line, “I must have done something good,” from My Fair Lady, when he heard the offer. 

Former IHS trainer and current Ipswich AD Tom Gallagher put the magnitude of Hugh’s offer this way, “Many schools struggle to have a physician work with them period, and not only do we have one that is there for us any time we need him but he is also an orthopedic doctor.  This allows our athletes to be seen for sports related injuries immediately.  Most people have to wait weeks or months to see an orthopedic.”

“I have seen him evaluate people on the sidelines, in the gym, on the field, in the training room, in the parking lot, and even before or after a school committee meeting,” added Tom.

Sports medicine has been an interest of Hugh’s since his days as an athlete (captain of the 1985 Tigers football team) at IHS.  “I was injured and cared for by orthopedic surgeons,” he said.

He did his residency at an all-orthopedic hospital in New York City and during that time provided medical care for the Giants and the Mets.  He was involved in operations on Lawrence Taylor and Bret Saberhagen.

Hugh takes the volunteer position of team doctor seriously but tries to stay out of the way of the trainers.  “I let them (trainers) take first role if they’re around.  I am just there for backup and clarification.”

However, if the situation presents itself, he’ll step in.  I saw it happen at an IHS boys’ tournament game at St. Mary’s last year.  The Ipswich point guard (Alex Lampropoulos) went down late in a close game with a leg injury.  The trainer got involved and then Hugh stepped in.  “Alex was just having muscle spasms,” he said.  Hugh had Alex do some stretching and quickly massaged his leg. Before long Alex returned to action and helped Ipswich win at the buzzer. 

“We were weak at the guard position,” said Doug Woodworth, the IHS head coach at the time.  “We needed Alex on the floor and Dr. O’Flynn treated him and assured us that Alex could play some more.  We might not have put him back in otherwise.”

Tom Brady’s knee?  “I know nothing special about it,” he said although interested.  “Infections are a disastrous complication.  Anyone can get them at any time.  I’m hopeful that the infection didn’t damage the ligament.”  He conceded that since the Patriots are keeping Matt Cassel around it might indicate that they know more about the seriousness of Brady’s condition than they’re letting on.

AD Gallagher probably summed up the contributions of Dr. Hugh O’Flynn best when he described him as the “unsung hero” of Ipswich High School sports.  “He offers everything and expects nothing in return.”

(To appear in The Town Common on January 28th)

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January 18, 2009 · 1:40 pm

WordPress: Adjusting the setup of wording under inserted image/captions

(This is another entry about using a WordPress Blog.  When things don’t work the way I would like them to, I try to see if adjustments are possible.  If I can’t figure things out on my own (most occasions), I do a Google search.  If that fails, I contact my mentor.  On this one, I got results from the Google search.  I turned up a helper named, Mark McLaren (McBuzz Communications), who walked me through to solutions – Thanks, Mark)

What I wanted to do, on my Writing Scots blog, was to put “Ben Gaskill 13 rebounds” on two separate lines with “Ben Gaskill” on one line and “13 rebounds” on the second line. 

In VISUAL, I put the cursor where I wanted the picture/caption to land. I set up the picture with the caption in the Media Library and inserted it into the beginning of a paragraph.  I was disappointed that the “13” was on the top line with “Ben Gaskill.”

How did I fix the caption setup?

I clicked out of VISUAL and into HTML. 

I then found where the data was for the picture/caption. 

The first line in mine started with “[caption id” minus the quotes.

In between the first “Gaskill” and “13” that appeared I inserted “<br/>” without the quotes.

IMPORTANT: I needed to stay in HTML and click, “Update Post.”  I then saw the wording set up the way I wanted it.

CAPTIONS CAN REVERT TO ORIGINAL SPACING. Successfully fixing one caption setup led to my going back into the same post to insert another picture and work on another caption in the same post.  I successfully set up the new one but noticed that my first one had reverted to its old “Ben Gaskill 13” ways. 

The solution was to make sure in HTML that both pictures had the “<br/> in place before hitting, “Update Post.”  When I did, that both pictures were set up the way I wanted them to be.

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January 11, 2009 · 9:59 pm

MVPs At All Newburyport High School Home Basketball Games

Paul Coleman, Peter Murray, Pete Carlson, and Tom O'Brien pose before another NHS home basketball game.

Paul Coleman, Peter Murray, Pete Carlson, and Tom O'Brien pose before another NHS home basketball game.

They are easy to miss, but if you go to enough Newburyport High School home basketball games, for either boys or girls, you will soon figure out that a certain four gentlemen were there every time you went.

The men I am referring to are; Paul Coleman, Pete Carlson, Peter Murray, and Tom O’Brien.

Paul takes care of the ticket sales at the home games while Pete, Peter, and Tom make up the stat crew.

“They’re invaluable to me,” said NHS athletic director John Daileanes in reference to the four of them, when I spoke with him during the recent home NHS/Masco junior varsity game.  “They have always been reliable and they know what they’re doing. They also have great personalities.”

Paul Coleman coached football and taught at NHS for many years. He became involved with ticket sales during that time.  “I have probably been doing this for 25 years,” he said.  “I heard that they needed someone back then so I volunteered.”

His job at the games is probably not one that most folks would enjoy.  “I spend the first half with my back to the game,” he explained.   “Sometimes I’ll sneak a peek at what’s going on.  I usually get to see the second half.”  Paul is retired but finds time to substitute teach at NHS.

The other three men are at the scorer’s table with arguably the best view in the house.  It is a place, however, where drawing attention is not usually a good thing. 

“People who have never done stat work don’t realize that it can be nerve-wracking,” added AD Daileanes.  “Like an official, you’re only noticed if something is wrong.”

All three stat men started doing their jobs at the Nock Gym. 

“I was a spectator at a lot of the games there when the AD then, Jim Stehlin, asked me to do the scorebook,” recalled Pete Carlson.  “For a while I took care of the book home and away.  I’ve been part of the stat crew for about twenty years.”  His specific jobs now are the possession arrow and the 35-second clock.

Peter Murray is the rookie of the group.  “It’s been sixteen years for me,” he said.  “I take care of the game clock.” 

“You get a different perspective of the kids from where I’m seating at the scorer’s table than you do in the classroom and I like that,” added the fifth-year NHS wellness teacher and girl’s softball coach

The dean of the group is Tom O’Brien.  Known to almost everyone in Newburyport as City Councilor Tom O’Brien, his connection to athletics at NHS is a lengthy one.  “I sold tickets for 21 years and during the last nine years I’ve been keeping the scorebook,” he told me. 

When asked to compare keeping the scorebook with being a city councilor he smiled and said, “This is exciting but nothing is as exciting as the city council.  There’s a thrill a minute there.  It’s relaxing here.”

There is some financial compensation but the draw for the men is being among friends.  “We have a good time together,” was how Peter Murray put it. 

(Prepared for The Town Common and should appear in that weekly on January 21st.)

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January 7, 2009 · 5:30 pm

More Pictures and Words From the Reopening of the Parker River Bridge

(This will be more of a pictorial coverage of the January 5th opening of the Parker River Bridge.  The “official” version, which will appear in The Town Common, is in the entry below this one.  Everything underlined in this entry can be clicked on and should show a picture from the event.  I used similar coverage when I reported on the Amesbury Super Bowl victory.)

For months, we saw signs near the Newbury (MA) town offices and at the 1A Parker River Bridge itself giving us the bad news about the bridge – it wasn’t open.

The early plans, to keep the bridge partially open as the repair work went on, gave way to the bad news that the bridge was too unsafe for such a plan and the only solution was to close it and completely rebuild it.  That closing took place on September 27, 2007.

The impact was felt immediately.  Instead of driving approximately 200 yards to get from one side to the other, the trip was closer to ten miles.  Almost simultaneously, gas prices lurched skyward.  It was not a happy time for many.

Then the, “Am I reading this right?” news started trickling out that the bridge work was ahead of schedule.  And sure enough, on January 5th, the bridge reopened.

Any public works project in Massachusetts that is done early is cause for celebration and there was plenty of that at the ceremony.

I did get a sense before the ceremony that those closest to the bridge, despite being happy it was restored, had gone through quite an ordeal during it construction.  You had to pity Kate Huggins who house is situated as close to the north side as anyone.  I spent a few days this summer living near a construction site in Pennsylvania  so I had a small idea of what 15 months of rebuilding must have been like.  Deliveries are made late at night and in the early AMs.  Trucks have to back up……and you know what that sounds like.  And then there’s the noise.  Kate was given flowers at the ceremony for surviving the long ordeal.

Not surprising was the fact that there was no one on hand suggesting that the bridge shouldn’t have been repaired.  Trust me, before the closing there was plenty of opposition.  Senator Bruce Tarr and Representative Harriett Stanley were given honorary hardhats by the work crew and I believe it was Senator Tarr who quipped something like, “I could have used this hat when I went to some of the area town meetings concerning the bridge closure.”

I spoke with Rep Stanley before the ceremony.  I had never met her before but fortunately, for me, she had on a MassHighway (?) jacket with her name on it so I found her easily.  I identified myself and she scolded me for sending her an email requesting permission to speak to her at the ceremony.  “You’re with the media.  You can speak to me anytime,” she said.  I asked her about her involvement in the bridge project and I’m glad I did.  She has served as state rep for this area since 1994.  She told me that after hearing about the condition of the bridge she had decided to look for herself in 1997.  She brought a camera with her and crawled underneath the bridge for a look.  What she saw prompted her to take pictures as she became convinced that the bridge was in dangerous shape.  When she joked that she was the “arm twister” and “knee breaker” in getting the project started and completed I suspected that she had gotten into the faces and ears of numerous Mass DPW officials over it.  The MassHighway commissioner, Luisa Paiewonsky, may have hinted at it when she said at the ceremony that she had a meeting with Rep Stanley to discuss ten issues and the representative would only talk about one – the Parker River Bridge. 

I also spoke with Mrs. Ilsley before the ceremony.  She told me that she lived about ½ mile away on High Road and had lived in the area all her life so she knew the bridge well.  She said that the closure affected her significantly because she is a nurse at Sea View Nursing Home on the other side.  She ended up with a trip, as a result, that was eleven miles.  She said that she was surprised that things had been done so quickly.  She remembered that one of the new bridge beams had been dropped on 128 on its way to being put up.

I also chatted with Terry O’Malley (assistant harbormaster of Newbury) who told me how the bridge work had affected his job on the Parker River.  Later I would see Terry at the head of the line heading over the bridge when it opened.  Terry directed me to the project manager for S&R Corporation – Russ Burnham.  I told him that he had pleased many area folks by getting the project ahead of schedule and he credited others for making it possible.  He also told me that there was some more work to be done in the spring but that it would only involve some brief lane closings.  Having since driven over the bridge it is apparent that road resurfacing will be part of what S&R will do.

The ceremony was brief with five speakers.  All commended the workers and the people in the community for getting the project done quickly.  Selectman Stuart Dalzell spoke for Rowley and Selectman Joe Story spoke for Newbury.  Joe was especially grateful to the town of Rowley for providing police and fire protection on the Rowley side of the bridge during construction. 

Loquacious state senator Bruce Tarr was another of the speakers.  I have heard him speak at Memorial Day services and knew that without notes in front of him he can turn some terrific phrases.  I got this one on tape: “It is a testament to the fact that not only one person got involved or one person made a difference but everyone who got involved made a difference.”  Try saying that one without notes!  He told me afterwards that he had worked with MassHighway on practically a weekly basis to make sure that things at the bridge were proceeding smoothly. 

After the ceremony Luisa, Harriett, and Bruce cut the ribbon and led the walk over to the Fernald side of the bridge and back.  Bruce and Joe walked back together.  There was also a group shot taken of some of the MassHighway workers and some of the speakers.

Next, the canopy was taken down and the removal of the barriers began.  I talked to Terry O’Malley who was positioned at the head of the line of traffic ready to cross the bridge.  I remarked to him about the significance of being the first one over.  He suggested that he had probably cut in line by coming out of the wharf parking lot.  He also suggested that Bunny Fernald had probably already gone over and back earlier in the day.  His recollection also was that Bunny Fernald might have been the first one over the last time the bridge was closed and reopened when Bunny came over as an infant in his father’s car. 

Russ Burnham got the signal from the Fernald side of the bridge and the Parker River Bridge in 1A in Newbury was back in business.

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January 5, 2009 · 5:33 pm

Bridge Reopens – Area Rejoices

Barriers get pushed back as Parker River Bridge reopens on January 5th.

Barriers get pushed back as Parker River Bridge reopens on January 5th.

First built in 1758, famous folks including; Benedict Arnold, George Washington, James Monroe, and Lafayette have used the bridge over the Parker River to get from one side to the other.

However, since September of 2007, only MassHighway and S&R Corporation employees have been in the bridge area on Route 1A in Newbury since its closure due to its unsafe condition.

To the surprise of many, the rebuilding process was finished months earlier than expected and the bridge reopened on Monday afternoon (January 5th) in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

One of the speakers at the ceremony, MassHighway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky, praised the project as, “a model for other projects we do,” and, “the one we’ll refer to often in the future.” 

Many who drove over it regularly did not easily accept the idea that the Parker River Bridge even needed repair.  Those who had seen it from below knew differently.

“We weren’t surprised when they said that the bridge needed repairs,” said Barbara Page a resident just up High Road from the bridge who was on hand for the ceremony.  “My husband (Arthur) and I are boaters and when we went underneath the bridge we could see the terrible condition it was in.  You’d swear that you’d never go over the top of it once you saw underneath.”

Another speaker, Representative Harriett Stanley (D-West Newbury), became a convert to the need to repair the bridge in 1997.  She informed me that she “crawled down the rock embankment that year after being told about the problem and took some pictures of the underside of the bridge.” 

Convinced by what she saw, she jokingly described herself from that time on as the, “chief knee breaker,” and, “arm twister,” to see that steps were taken to make the bridge safe.  “I have a MassHighway file on this bridge that is about a foot thick,” she recalled. “That is why having the bridge fixed and reopened makes this a very exciting day for me.”

The other area representative (State Senator Bruce Tarr) was equally pleased.  “This is a time when for once it worked out right and we’re all the better for it.  Everyone who got involved made a difference.”

The general contractor, S&R Corporation of Lowell, received compliments from every speaker.  Their willingness to work extra hours, Saturdays, and in poor weather took months away from the projected reopening in mid-2010. 

S&R project manager Russ Burnham shrugged off the congratulations with, “We did it in less time than usual because we had cooperation from everybody.” 

Russ told me that the work wasn’t completely finished yet.  “We’ve got to put the top down on the road and replace the temporary sidewalks with concrete ones.  We will do the work in the spring and will not need to close the bridge to do it.  We may take a lane but it should be fairly uneventful.”

Newbury assistant harbormaster Terry O’Malley was the first to drive his car over the bridge from the north side once the barriers were removed.  Anticipating some sort of historical explanation for his positioning himself at the head of the line, I asked him about it.  “I just want to get home,” he said smiling.  No more ten mile round-about routes home or to work in his future and thankfully for many others in the area as well.

(To appear in The Town Common on January 14th)

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