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| Game over. Season over. School year over. |
The Bruins dominated from the opening faceoff, winning 14-1. Brodie Firestein started the scoring party just 45 seconds in as the Bruins ran to an early 6-0 lead.
The Bruins allowed me to tag along on the bus -- something I'd like to see more of. Many families don't want to go to the road games so it's convenient to have the broadcaster go along, and riding the bus is an economical move that works for all parties.
But...let's circle back to that.
The bus ride was peaceful. I kept to myself as the players and coaches did their own thing. I'm sure many were wondering who the strange dude was in the third row. A straight shot up 684, which ends straight onto 22, then a right at Amenia on 343 and a left onto 41 and we were soon there. The whole trip took about two hours.
The Berkshire campus is beautiful, with scenic hills and mountains serving as a backdrop. We drove past the lacrosse field before being let off at the athletic center, which meant walking back across campus to the field.
No worry, as it was a beautiful day.
Joe, my trusty Local Live cameraman, was waiting, and completely unaware that I'd be there. I soon faced the reality: this field had no power.
No lights, no press box, no sound system, and a limited scoreboard.
It looked like I had taken a ride to plug a microphone into his camera and call the game. The duffel bag of equipment (as well as my computer and so on) seemed unnecessary.
Eventually, we walked to a house (yes, a house on campus) right behind the small set of bleachers we were stationed on. A gentleman stood outside tending to his flowers. We asked about power nearby.
"If you have enough extension cord, I'll plug you in inside my front door," he said.
And so he did.
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| Power. All set. |
All concerns were erased and the broadcast proceded. I was able to make do with minimal cell service (it's bad up there) and produced a Robcasting audio call (see below).
The game went on, I packed up and walked back to the athletic center where goalie Christian Barnard's mom was handing out sandwiches.
She was kind enough to give me a chicken parm (and thank you!).
For the next two hours, we drove back to Brunswick as the players laughed and sang and watched college lacrosse.
A happy atmosphere for sure, and I'm glad nobody seemed bothered by the infiltrator.
I said my thank you and drove away.
Thank you to Brunswick isn't quite enough, but it's the best I've got.
In the end, it looks like I did 35 games between football, soccer, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and baseball for Brunswick in 2018-2019. While that will never be enough for me, I still enjoyed what I got to call.
I lost a few games due to the hockey tournament in New Jersey. I lost a few more due to cancellations and schedule snafus. Others were, frankly, my own fault (and something that will always bug me). And I lost a couple of others to...well...I just lost a couple of others.
I probably could have done over 40-50 in the end.
Still, I'd love to see it be even more, but there are reasons for what it is.
Frankly, it's a lot more than I did this year for Greenwich High, and that's astounding to consider (for what it's worth).
I've come a long way with Brunswick. Even if people don't know my face (they mostly do not) they seem to know my voice, and that's a good thing. They also know my name.
People generally don't realize that I was a part of a broadcast with Brunswick 20 years ago, and I've been around ever since.
So where there's a will, there's a way, and that's why I like to travel. We'll find a way to make it happen (even if some situations are worse than others).
I apologize for not getting to know the players and coaches enough. I'm hoping to improve on that as we move forward, and Joe Early has done an incredible job of feeding me info to improve my knowledge base.
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| 14-1, Brunswick |
Thank you, families, players, and coaches, as well as staff. Enjoy your summer, best wishes to the graduates, and we'll see you soon.
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