A lot — to say the least — has happened since Aug. 10, 2018. And ever since, I’ve wanted to speak up. Every week I’ve told myself, “This is the week I’m going to publish my reflection.” And every week, I cowered. I was afraid people would use my words against me, and I have no doubt that they still will.
Why is it that now, more than ever, National Basketball Association (NBA) players are forced by the media to be overly concerned about their legacies? This doesn’t necessarily result from the media questioning the players directly during interviews; rather, it’s the consequence of legacies being such a hot topic amongst NBA analysts on television, Twitter and other forms of media and the need to fill the 24/7 sports talk and news cycle.
Hopkins Men’s and Women’s Track and Field competed in their final meet of the regular season before the Centennial Conference Championship at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia this weekend. Both teams brought their best to the meet; many athletes posted personal bests. Sophomore distance runner Jared Pangallozzi is just one example. Pangallozzi spoke with The News-Letter about his achievements and what it took to make them happen.
Coming into this weekend, the Hopkins baseball team sat at the top of the Centennial Conference standings. They were up by two games over second-place Franklin and Marshall College (F&M) Diplomats with a doubleheader against the Diplomats Saturday after Friday’s game against Swarthmore College was postponed.
The Hopkins women’s tennis team took care of business at home this past weekend, defeating the Haverford College Fords on the Jays’ home courts by a score of 8-1. The Blue Jays emerged victorious again on Tuesday, beating the Gettysburg College Bullets 8-0 and the Loyola University Maryland Greyhounds 4-3.
Originally scheduled to play on Friday, the Hopkins women’s lacrosse team faced off against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Thursday, April 18 instead due to expected severe weather. Despite the change, both teams still gave it their all, as the game stayed close until the very end.
Both men’s and women’s track and field rolled up to the Widener Invitational this Saturday and flew out of the meet with second place finishes just shy of first.
Whoever said that it’s lonely at the top clearly wasn’t talking about the Centennial Conference, as the Hopkins baseball team is feeling very comfortable after securing sole possession of the top spot in the Conference last week with two wins each over the Washington College Shoremen and the Dickinson College Red Devils.
As a National Basketball Association (NBA) fan watching the playoffs, I want there to be intrigue, upsets and games that go down to the wire, but unfortunately most of that does not come until the Conference Finals and NBA Finals. Meanwhile, I overhear all the drama of the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs and wish I was a fan of the NHL so I could: 1) Enjoy the early round matchups and 2) Understand the history of what happened in the first round.
In a media atmosphere where the entirety of television is fighting for viewership from a week-to-week basis, it’s important to not fall behind in the ratings war. With the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoffs and the National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs all occurring at the same time, each night is a battle to capture the eyes of America.
After a bit of a relaxing week with only one game played last Tuesday, Hopkins baseball played four intense games this weekend, finishing with a 2-2 record. The Blue Jays started off the weekend right with a 13-3 demolishing of the McDaniel College Green Terror on Friday.
In late February, Greg Chimera was named the 27th head coach in Hopkins football history. Chimera was appointed as the successor to the late James F. Margraff, for whom the head coach position is now named.
I may or may not have come in last place in my high school’s NCAA tournament bracket pool last year. Either way, it is irrelevant because this year, I placed in the 99th percentile of all ESPN brackets. After some embarrassments in years past, I made sure that this year would be better, and now I’ve won just about every bracket pool I entered, including The News-Letter’s Sports section’s bracket pool. With so many teams competing, many people think it all comes down to luck, but I’m here to tell you that there’s a method to the madness.
It was a busy week for both the men’s and women’s tennis teams. The men’s team had two Centennial Conference matchups, and the women’s team had three matches, including one Conference battle over the weekend.
The Hopkins track teams were all over the map this past weekend. Some Blue Jays flew off to Lewisburg, Pa. for Bucknell University’s Bison Outdoor Classic and Emmitsburg, Md. for the Mount Multis, while some stayed home for the Hopkins/Loyola Invitational, as both the men and women produced multiple winners.
Last week, I watched what may have been Kemba Walker’s last game in a Charlotte Hornets jersey. Now that he is a free agent, he has to choose whether or not to stay with the city that he has called home for his eight NBA seasons. Nothing could have summed up his eight-year career in purple and teal better than that game. Walker went off, going for 43 points with a 72 percent effective field goal percentage. It was as entertaining as it was dominant, with a slew of aerial acrobatics, mesmerizing handles and a jumper so sweet it would send you straight to the dentist.
This weekend both men’s (No. 25) and women’s (No. 23) tennis competed against Centennial Conference opponent Muhlenberg College. The men additionally faced a non-Conference opponent Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Both teams emerged from the weekend victorious with impressive scores.
The Hopkins women’s lacrosse team continued Big Ten Conference play this weekend against the fourth-ranked Northwestern University Wildcats. The game was exciting from the start, but in the second half, Northwestern started to pull away and secure their lead.
The 162 game marathon known as the MLB regular season finally commenced this past week, and fans around the country rejoiced. Baseball’s offseason always seems to take an eternity, almost as long as the season itself takes.
With March Madness wrapping up this week, it’s time for a whole new group of seasonal fans to come off of the hardwood and onto the frozen pond as the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs begin a new iteration this week. Sixteen teams will begin their quest for the greatest prize in hockey, and with new faces and old faces ready to collide, the stage is set for a fun month of springtime hockey.
