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Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indianapolis Star
After 3 straight runner-up finishes, Westfield enters IHSAA boys golf state final round up 6 shots
CARMEL – Eminem is Westfield's middle ground. When the Shamrocks can't decide between golf coach Josh Bryant's preference of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre or the 'newer guys,' as Bryant called them, the players and coach settle with listening to the Detroit-based rapper. However, after a team victory, there's no settling, no discussion. "Tsunami" by DVBBS and Borgeous booms from the team bus speaker. The Shamrocks are 18 holes away from blasting the popular electronic dance song from Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel back to Westfield as the IHSAA boys golf state champions. After shooting 5-over-par as a team on the front nine, Westfield made six birdies and an eagle on the back nine to finish even on the day in round one of the boys golf state championship Tuesday. When the Shamrocks finished their opening round, reigning champions Zionsville were two strokes behind Westfield with three holes remaining. The Buffalo Bills of IHSAA golf? Westfield coach has lighthearted approach to runner-up finishes More: Some of Indiana's top HS golfers won't be at state meet — by their own choosing. Here's why Zionsville bogeyed the eighth hole and double-bogeyed the ninth to finish the day +6. The Eagles went +9 on the front nine after a stellar back nine where they made 3-under-par. Westfield enters Wednesday with a six-shot lead and their sights set on a state title after finishing runner-up three straight years. 'The difference in back nine was that we settled in,' Bryant said. 'That early stretch on the back nine shooting four straight birdies and, of course, finishing. You can't count on finishing 5-under on the last three holes. But we talk a lot about championship-winning teams finishing even on the last three holes. They play those last three holes even, and they oftentimes win. 'There are a lot of thoughts around two-day tournaments that, 'You can't win the tournament on the first day, but you can lose it.' We wanted to approach it more, 'Let's treat each day as its own tournament and win both days.'' Before Tuesday's round, Bryant informed his team the course was scoreable due to its moisture, which allowed balls to be easily marked, cleaned and replaced to ensure a good lie. He believes his players took advantage of the course's condition once they relaxed. The Shamrocks, whose team scoring average is 1-over-par on the year, began to rely more on placement golf on the back nine rather than making an 'emotional decision,' Bryant said. A team that usually attacks golf courses, Bryant applauded seniors Jake Cesare and Will Harvey for using their experience and 'stepping up' to help guide Westfield through the final holes. Harvey and Cesare (-3) are tied for third in individual standings heading into Wednesday, two shots behind leaders Luke Johnston (Evansville North) and Brycen Tisch (Zionsville). The two were on the Westfield teams that finished second the past three years. 'You need your senior leaders. They've been here, and whether they knew they had to or not, their momentum carries the team forward. This is their fourth year, and let's be frank, at an average golf tourney you're not going to have more than mom, dad and a couple of friends,' Bryant said. 'Now you come up to the first tee, your name gets announced and you have 500 people on the green at states. That's a feeling you can't simulate. So, with experience, you begin to understand what you are up against. "Friday nights in December, the gym is packed for basketball and the environment is similar when you reach sectionals. In golf, there's nothing like the environment at states.' The atmosphere at state influenced Bryant's message to the team after the first round. Bryant stood in the center with Westfield players huddled around him just outside the 10th hole and told them that winning a championship requires great composure. Bryant noticed a difference in his players' body language and the pace at which they walked and conversed on the back nine. He also credited the support of the 25 Westfield golfers in attendance for the Shamrocks' being front runners for the state championship. After last year's second place finish, Bryant said, "If you keep knocking on the door, at some point, the door is going to open.' Replicate Tuesday's performance on Wednesday and the fourth knock does it. That 'door' finally opens. 'Tomorrow, we take it hole by hole, shot by shot and control what we can control,' Harvey said. 'This group is definitely good enough. We play our game tomorrow, I don't think anybody touches us.'
The 42
08-06-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Who will be the next generational talent to emerge in Kilkenny hurling ranks?
SHORTLY AFTER MICHAEL Fennelly retired in late 2017, he put a final message into the Kilkenny senior hurlers WhatsApp group, imploring the younger players to step up. The eight-time All-Ireland winner felt he'd let the first few years of his own senior county career pass him by. That he'd waited for a spot in the team to open up when he should have been pushing players out. He had current Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng in mind and acknowledged that while he waited for Lyng to retire, Michael Rice and James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick snuck in ahead of him. 'I told them to just jump straight in there and don't be holding back for a year or two or three years thinking you'll get your place then at that time,' revealed Fennelly of his WhatsApp message. Eight years on, Kilkenny are enduring their joint longest ever streak without All-Ireland success and, as far as another household name goes, a truly generational talent to mirror those of the golden era that the Shamrocks man played in, they're still waiting for one to emerge. One of Fennelly's colleagues during the boom times, Jackie Tyrrell, addressed the issue during a chat with Radio Kerry after the 2021 Championship. 'We just haven't had a 'wow' hurler since Richie Hogan came in in 2007/2008 – that's 13 years ago,' said Tyrrell. 'Every year, if you go back, there was a 'Cha' Fitzpatrick, there was a Richie Power, there was a Tommy Walsh, a JJ Delaney, a Henry Shefflin. 'We had all those players coming through in the space of 10, 15 years. We've now gone 13 years and we haven't had this wow hurler come through since TJ Reid and Richie Hogan.' Hogan retired after the 2023 season though Reid is still going. And Kilkenny continue to lean on the 37-year-old for inspiration. TJ Reid. Ken Sutton / INPHO Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO That's understandable, of course. He is a generational talent but as one of just three players left in the squad – his brother Richie and goalkeeper Eoin Murphy are the others – with an All-Ireland senior medal from 2015, he is increasingly surrounded by a silver generation of performers. Tyrrell did suggest that Eoin Cody, in time, could be a genuine iconic figure. Joe Canning, a 'wow' player back when Galway were at their peak as All-Ireland champions in 2017, said something similar about Cody ahead of the 2022 All-Ireland final. Going through the players individually for his Irish Times column, Canning pointed to Cody as a player who 'has the potential to be one of the great Kilkenny forwards'. But while Cody went on to collect an All-Star in 2023, a mixture of injuries, patchy personal form and Limerick's excellence has so far prevented him from making that leap to superstardom. Neither Lyng nor his predecessor Brian Cody can be accused of sitting on their hands on the issue. The Allianz League is the home of experimentation and Kilkenny have been busy doling out spring-time debuts. Even in the five-game Covid affected campaign of 2020, Cody used 34 different players in the league, searching in every nook and cranny for the next TJ or DJ. He used 32 players in 2022 while Lyng performed his own trawl after he took over in 2023, handing competitive game time to 37 different players in that season's league with the figure standing at 35 for the 2024 league and 32 this year. The opportunity to experiment in the championship is rare so when Kilkenny and Wexford faced off last Sunday week in a dead rubber Leinster SHC tie, Lyng got creative again. Peter McDonald, Zach Bay Hammond, Padraic Moylan, Killian Doyle, Luke Connellan, Peter Connellan, Billy Drennan and Owen Wall all started their first championship games of 2025. Gearoid Dunne, Niall Shortall and Shane Staunton came on for their first appearances in this year's championship. Advertisement Luke Connellan impressed, pinching two points, but Wexford won and, afterwards, Lyng wasn't enthused by the overall display, lamenting the fact that Kilkenny 'didn't get the result and a better performance'. The search, it appears, goes on. Eoin Cody. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO Adrian Mullen, like Cody, has the potential to be one of Tyrrell's 'wow' players though time is not on his side. His younger brother, Jake, has been ripping it up in the minor championship this year and is definitely one to watch in the longer term with potential marquee status in mind. Mullen the elder played that game against Wexford at centre-back in a novel switch. Fionan Mackessy, the former Kerry star, lined out too, just his third championship start for Kilkenny after making the unlikely inter-county transfer. Kilkenny have rarely done those sort of transfers over the years. Lyng is clearly having to search for something that Cody was gifted with – stellar talents in virtually all lines of the pitch. Kildare's Joe McDonagh Cup final manager Brian Dowling spoke recently about breaking through to one of Cody's senior teams as a teenager. He was gone after a couple of seasons and never got a second chance. Dowling said it left him with a tonne of regrets. Cody had that luxury, to simply turn to his bench and beckon forward the next phenom who, typically, came armed with All-Ireland minor and U-20 medals. Between 2002 and 2014, when Cody was in charge of the seniors, Kilkenny teams won five All-Ireland minor titles and four All-Ireland U-20 titles. Since 2014? Not a single minor win and just one U-20 crown, in 2022. Moylan, Doyle, McDonald, Drennan and Dunne were all on that successful 2022 U-20 team. Doyle is among a talented bunch of young Kilkenny players who won a Croke Cup medal with St Kieran's College. The college won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024. Moylan won a Fitzgibbon Cup All-Star earlier this year with DCU. Plenty more, like Harry Shine, a St Kieran's graduate who started against Offaly in the championship last month, have come to the senior panel with significant reputations. 'There are players that have come up through the Kilkenny ranks that are very talented, the likes of Harry Shine,' said Walter Walsh, who famously displayed his own prodigious talent with 1-3 for Kilkenny on his debut in 2012 against Galway in an All-Ireland final replay. This year's U-20 team reached the All-Ireland decider, losing out to Tipperary, and, who knows, big full-forward Marty Murphy from that team could yet be the next Walter Walsh. He's from the same club too. Eoghan Lyng from the 20s team is already on the senior panel, coming on against Antrim in the Leinster championship. Most likely though, Kilkenny will go with tried and trusted again for today's Leinster final. Martin Keoghan, at 26 years of age and on the panel since 2018, has been their best player this season. More concerning, the average age of the team that lined out against Dublin in Round 4 – the last time they fielded their strongest team – was 28. 'They still haven't found a player like Tipperary have found in Darragh McCarthy,' said Walsh. Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng. Ken Sutton / INPHO Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO Not that Lyng is complaining about any of it. For him, the sum of all his players' individual efforts is adding up to a powerful collective. And waiting for history to repeat itself and for another Henry Shefflin or Tommy Walsh to materialise doesn't keep him up at night. 'We compare all the time to the past teams and we have to stop doing that,' he said after the win over Dublin. 'We have a team here that's competing really well and competing hard. I think there's probably a narrative that we're going to be the team that was there 10, 15 years ago, whatever it was. That's not the case. It's Kilkenny of 2025.'
Boston Globe
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Bishop Feehan softball marks coach Bill Milot's final playoff run with first trip to Division 1 semifinals
Senior Mylee Ramer struck out 11 in the circle, with senior Caitlyn Deveney and sophomore Olivia Abren each driving in a pair of runs as the fifth-seeded Shamrocks upended No. 4 Attleboro, 7-4, in the Division 1 quarterfinals. 'The final year, it means everything,' said an emotional Milot. Postgame, he handed Ramer the gameball. 'It really just shows you how much he cares about us,' said Ramer. 'We want to be here, but he loves us so much, it keeps us going.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Ramer encountered trouble in the first inning, as Hockomock League MVP Lola Ronayne cracked a two-run home run to left center. Ramer re-centered, allowing six hits and a walk overall. Advertisement 'I just had faith that my teammates would pick me up with the bats,' said Ramer, the Catholic Central League MVP. 'We wouldn't be here without Mylee — period,' said Milot. 'The difference between this game and the last game was that our bats lit up.' On May 26, the Blue Bombardiers (18-5) won, 3-2, in a matchup of schools located a mere 2.4 miles apart. This time, the middle of the order came through for the Shamrocks (19-5). Senior Bella Silva, hitting third, plated Boston University-bound Maddie Coupal in the first inning. Abren's double to left-center scored Gwen Camara and Deveney in the third for a lead the Shamrocks would never relinquish. Advertisement Silva scored twice, first on Deveney's two-run single to right field in the fifth inning and again on an error in the sixth. On a sun-drenched day, Feehan's bats and a gritty performance from Ramer supplied Milot with something he's worked for during his 11 years at the helm: hardware. Division 2 State Silver Lake 10, Wakefield 1 — Senior Delaney Moquin fired a 13-strikeout one-hitter as the top-seeded Lakers (19-3) dispatched the No. 16 Warriors (14-6). Division 3 State Dighton-Rehoboth 13, Medway 1 — Behind a seven-strikeout, two-hit complete game and 4-for-4 hitting with four RBIs from Edy Latour, the top-seeded Falcons (21-2) scorched their way to a second-round win over No. 16 Medway (11-11). Emma Horrocks chipped in with a solo home run and Cam Cloonan drove in two. Cam Kerry can be reached at
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Eastern Mass. boys' lacrosse: Globe Players of the Week for May 14-20
Related : Nolan Jennings , Burlington — The Bentley-bound senior racked up 13 points (8 goals, 5 assists) as the Red Devils captured 16-5 wins over Keegan and Cooper Masso , Bishop Feehan — The brothers were pivotal for the Shamrocks in wins over Scituate ( Advertisement Brothers Cooper (left) and Keegan Masso were instrumental in a 2-0 week for Bishop Feehan. aferreiraphoto Kam Tremblay , Billerica — The junior attack totaled 11 goals and four assists across a 3-0 week, which included thrilling one-goal triumphs over Andover ( Jacoby Patterson and Bray Carbone , Shawsheen — A junior attack, Patterson combined for 10 goals and two assists in wins over Sharon (15-13) and Haverhill (19-11). Carbone, a senior attack, notched nine goals and three assists over the same stretch.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Playoff Game Thread: Knicks at Celtics, Game Five, May 14, 2025
The Knicks head to Boston tonight with a 3-1 series lead and a chance to eliminate the Shamrocks on their home floor. Jalen Brunson continues to dominate, carrying New York's offense and controlling the tempo, while OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Mitchell Robinson have anchored their defense. With Jayson Tatum injured, the pressure falls on Jaylen Brown and Boston's supporting cast to keep the season alive. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EST on TNT. This is your game thread. This is CelticsBlog. Please don't post large photos, GIFs, or links to illegal streams in the thread. Enjoy yourselves. And go Knickerbockers! Advertisement More from
