I have very few rules, but one of them is this: “Anytime I watch 8 games over 2 days and lose my voice PA Announcing , there HAS to be a Top 10 after”. So here you go…..
 

10. BABY, DON’T TREAT MY EARS BAD
For anyone who wasn’t born in the mid-late 70’s (Read: all the players and student sections involved), you might’ve walked out of Alvirne’s gym saying “What the hell did I just hear?” . You can thank Dave Haley and his iPod filled with stone-washed goodness for that. The personal highlight for me was Dave turning Firehouse up to 11. Those poor kids…

9. “YOU HAVE NOT BEEN INVITED ON TO THE COURT YET!”
In the Pembroke – Trinity game on Saturday night, a Trinity sub tried to enter the game as a ref was giving the foul info to the scorer’s table. That’s a no-no, but the ref’s response (seen above) had me covering up laughter. Who knew you had to RSVP to get into the game?

8. TRINITY’S STUDENT SECTION
Well that one kid anyway, who pretended to win the 50/50, and then started shouting “YOU’RE GREAT!!” at me, undoubtedly while thinking “This guy is really wearing a pink shirt?!” .  I think the chant that had us (Haley and I) laughing the hardest was “Start the tractors”. Pembroke is just outside of Concord! There’s no tractors there! (Are there?)

7. KEVIN BONNEY AND EVERYONE AT ALVIRNE
This was the first time I’ve ever met Kevin Bonney, Seth Garon, and everyone else that was such a giant help at Alvirne HS, and they were the nicest people you could ever meet. An event like this doesn’t happen without a whole bunch of work from the people at the host venue, and the Alvirne staff was terrific all weekend long.

6. “WHAT IS THIS, CONTAGEOUS?!?”
If you’re up in a game, and you have a size advantage on your opponent, you probably shouldn’t be jacking up 3’s, right? BG had a lead on Bishop Brady on Friday night, when they got 3 point fever. Coach Jim Mignault took out his 5 on the floor, put in another unit… only to watch them start jacking up 3’s. That’s when Migs spat out the line of the jamboree.

5. I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE TOP 10 PLAYS
Specifically #1 – it should’ve been, WITHOUT A DOUBT, Carmen Giampetruzzi’s reverse layup (which he did with his right hand, as a lefty) – it came at a critical moment in the Trinity vs Pembroke game, and was a great play with Carmen using the rim to protect himself from getting the layup rejected. Patrick Welsh’s dunk was fine, but not #1. Where’s Jen Chick, I need to scream at her for these choices!!!
 
4. CONANT BELONGS WITH THE BIG BOYS
This the first time I had seen D3 Dynasty Conant play- Dave Haley has talked to me about Conant like Worf talking about going to Qo’nos to see Kahless (look it up… actually, don’t), but I haven’t had a chance to get to Jaffery to see them in action. They faced a really, REALLY good Central team (I’d be surprised if they don’t get to UNH) in the 2nd to last game of the night on Saturday. Central ended up winning by double digits, but it was a much closer game than the score would indicate. Believe the Conant hype.

3. PELHAM’S SHOES
I don’t even know what color those things were- some sort of yellow? Maybe? The Pythons had matching kicks, and they were awesome. Pelham is going to be a hell of a team this year too, lead by Jake Vaiknoras. Also, Matt Regan has the best earring game in all of NH HS Hoops. He’s got ice on that looks more expensive than my car.

2. YOU GUYS
Between the two nights I believe we were able to raise about $6 G’s for New Horizons. That’s incredible- from the refs who donated their time, to the people that volunteered to sell tickets, to the fans that drove a few hours to play their 5 bucks and see some great hoops, you all made this a great event, and we can’t wait to do it next year.

1. “CAN YOU BELIVE THIS IS A F*%*$@# PRE-SEASON GAME?!?”
These were the words Dave Haley kept repeating to me at the scorers table during the main event, Pembroke vs Trinity. The game felt like a March playoff game, with student sections chanting, 3 refs, both teams going 1000 mph, the whole bit. It was a great atmosphere, and a great game. No Dave, I COULDN’T believe it was a pre-season game!

ALSO RECIVING VOTES: The Union Misleader not mentioning NHsportspage AT ALL in their coverage of the event, Everyone I’ve ever talked to says the same thing about Sports Talk Matt, Mitch Cyr’s shoes, Grilled Cheese, “One more Cardinal and they can elect a pope”, DJ Jazzy Bless