By Jack Healey

It was a great Shrine Game on Saturday! It was competitive and it was exciting and there was a big crowd on hand who had to leave the stadium and then go back in after a long weather delay. Vermont won its third straight Shrine Game 24-13. Burr and Burton’s Jay McCoy with a pair of touchdowns as he scored on a 33 yard interception return for a touchdown and a 10 yard run. Vermont quarterback Seth Balch of Windsor scored on runs of 3 and 6 yards. Hartford’s Tyler Hamilton, the Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year, rushed for 67 yards in the 2nd half and he also had an interception. Rutland High’s Jared Miglorie was one of the unsung heroes as he was the lead blocker on most of Hamilton’s rushes.
Vermont has now won three straight years for the first time since 1975, 1976 and 1977. Vermont has never won four straight.
This is absolutely my last reference to the New Hampshire East-West CHAD All Star football game played in June at the University of New Hampshire. You know the drill…..the best New Hampshire players don’t play in the Shrine Game etc. Saying that every single time the Shrine game is mentioned shows disrespect to the Vermont players and certainly disrespect to the New Hampshire players who play in the Shrine Game and don’t play in the CHAD game. No more disrespect!!!!!
By the way the attendance at Spartan Stadium at Castleton University for the Shrine Game was 5,229. The attendance for the CHAD Game played at UNH was 2,088.
Another American Legion baseball tournament is in the books and Essex Post 91 pulled off a dramatic victory over Colchester by scoring three times in the last of the 7th to win the championship 3-2.
I again was part of the All-Tournament selection committee and even though I welcome the challenge I’m glad it’s my last year for awhile as the tournament will be held at Colchester next year and White River in 2020. Even though the awards are individual awards, I will always give more selections to the All-Tournament team and the MVP from the team that wins the championship[unless your name is Bobby Richardson, Jerry West or Chuck Howley]. Generally speaking the runner-up team would receive the 2nd most selections. This year however Post 91 the champion did have the most selections with five, but SD Ireland and Franklin County both had three selections which was one more than runner-up Colchester. I thought that both SD Ireland and Franklin County had individual players who stood out more more than Colchester players did. Colchester did get two players on the All-Tournament team and certainly would’ve had more if they won the championship or were to lose if another game was played. One of the extra players for Franklin County was the Sportsmanship Award winner and that player could’ve come from any of the teams. The umpires should choose that player anyway in my opinion.
Red Sox fans shouldn’t get too giddy after the 4 game sweep over the Yankees this past weekend. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very important to win the division and you don’t want to be in that wildcard game and if you lose the season is right down the drain. However let’s say the Red Sox go on to win the division and the Yankees win the wildcard game then it’s the Sox and Yankees again and everything that happened during the season doesn’t mean anything and it’s back to square one. The division winner of course would have home field advantage.
I wonder how many of you got my Bobby Richardson, Jerry West and Chuck Howley reference.