To My Fellow Seniors: Good luck next year in whatever you choose pursue, have fun, and always remember your 2011 class. We are, and will always be, the best there ever was.

To The Juniors: Have fun Senior year and don’t take it for granted. Live it up, it goes faster than you can imagine.

Underclassmen: Eh, you’re underclassmen. Laterrrrr

Every year its the same story, “the field is too wet” or “the dirt isn’t ready” or “the ground temperature is too low.” I’m sick of all these excuses. Get our field ready so we can play. The ground temperature in Westborough cannot be that drastically different than that of a town less than twenty minutes away. For a town that is known for being pretty wealthy, it’s pretty sad we can’t get a field ready in time.

Start investing in tarps and field covers, or anything that can speed up this terribly slow process of getting our fields ready. Every other team that we play has an extremely huge advantage when they are allowed to host actual practices. To be frank, I’m pissed. This whole routine is just old. How about we stop being hypocrites here and follow what many sports teams have adopted as a slogan, “NO EXCUSES.”

And now I will get angry. Saturday night was senior night for the varsity hockey team. They faced off against our rivals, the Algonquin Tomahawks. Now as a tradition for senior night, all seniors play in the game. But coach Temple of the boys hockey team decided that saving their precious 3-10-1 record was so important that he wouldn’t play all of his seniors. Senior forward Andrew Whamond didn’t see any ice time. Earlier in the season coach Temple convinced Whamo to stay on the team, only to not play him on senior night? Really? That is so disrespectful and it makes me so angry that he would neglect to play one of his seniors, who has come out and practiced hard like everyone else, on senior night. I know that all other coaches in Westborough High School would play their seniors no matter the situation. Sure they may only play a few minutes, or a few shifts, but you have to play your seniors. It is an unwritten rule in varsity sports and as a varsity coach you should know that. No offense to the hockey team, but you have nothing to lose when your record is 3-10-1. Andrew Whamond better get ice time in the remaining games or you will have one angry blogger on your hands.

I think we can change that quote to “the last (insert how ever many home games there have been since Groton) home games felt like away games.”-Brian Orlando.

We have let our team down. They are currently on a 3 game win streak and just beat Marlboro. Marlboro is a perennial league contender and we just sat them down, beating them by 19. Granted I cannot say much because I wasn’t at the Marlboro game either, but we need to start showing them support. I recently was sent a mobile phone picture taken by a parent of the “student section” at the Marlboro game…I literally felt bad that I wasn’t there, that WE weren’t there (picture shown at top).

Now we have only four games left and we are sitting at 7-8. We need to be .500 or better to be in districts. Now I know there will not be a lot of fans that go to the Nashoba game at Nashoba, but, I know we can get our whole entire school over to Algonquin for Thursday, February 12th. IT IS ALGONQUIN. ALGONQUIN. ALGONQUIN. Lets go people! 7pm Thursday night! ALGONQUIN! Black-out, in their gym. Lets embarrass their crowd. Lets go. Lets make the Rangers “away game feel like a home game.”

Have you ever been hit in the face with a baseball? For those who haven’t, it doesn’t feel good by any means. When playing baseball, getting hit with the ball is a risk you have signed up for. But when that continues to happen over and over again because of the condition of the field, something should be changed.

Now that brings us back to the title of this blog, “The Neglected Field”. Each and everyone of Westborough High’s sports facilities are amazing, except one. The turf field is envied by all surrounding schools who don’t have turf, the newly revamped softball field looks great with the fence, the tennis courts are great, the gyms are both great, but then there is the baseball field.

The baseball field may look O.K. from a distance, but when you step onto that field, you can see how terrible it really is. The mound is a just a pile of solid dirt that has a piece of rubber sticking out of it and the whole infield is just gross. The dirt in the infield is this mixture of rock, mud clumps, and weeds. The lip of the infield is the most hazardous part of the field since it shoots the ball up every time its hit there. Ask third baseman Doug West what it is like to take a ground ball while at third base, or I can just tell you…its not fun. And I cannot forget to mention the grass, if you can call it that. Everywhere you look in the grass you can find rocks and pebbles and other dangerous things lying around. Not to mention that it is extremely uneven and full of holes which in no way is dangerous for players running around tracking down fly balls.

All I am trying to say is that before we take time and make a walking path around the backstop, we should look at the field itself. When it comes to the point where players are actually at risk because of the conditon of the field, something needs to be changed.

10. Brian Goodliffe Goal

The boys soccer team’s 5-2 over victory Groton Dunstable was highlighted by one of the best goals I have ever seen in a soccer game. To read more about this please visit my previous post http://lobbyobserver.org/lobbyo/?p=2580.

9. Football wins in OT at Foley

With just under two minutes left in the game, trailing by six, Andrew Grant led the Rangers down field to tie up the game and hopefully go for the win with the extra point. But the extra point was blocked and would’ve been returned for two points in favor of Doherty if it wasn’t for the speedy sophomore Tom Lawton, who made the game saving tackle. In overtime the Rangers received the ball first, and through the pouring rain pounded the ball into the end zone to get the win in front of yet another amazing crowd.

8. Girls’ soccer wins under the lights

For the second game under the lights the girls’ varsity soccer team defeated Milford 1-0. The lone goal was scored by the freshman Olivia McGourty and it was all the Rangers needed to seal the second win under the lights for Westborough sports. Once again this game brought hundreds of fans out and the energy was high throughout.

7. Field Hockey first team to win

The field hockey team got the honor of being the first Westborough sports team ever to play a game under the lights at home. The hype for this game was so huge, and the team lived up to it winning 2-0 against our rivals Algonquin. All the players agreed that this was the most exciting game to play in because of all the fans and the energy there was that night.

6. Orlando beats North Middlesex

When the North Middlesex Patriots came to Westborough I can guarantee they didn’t think they would be facing the soon-to-be Metro West Player of the Week. Brian Orlando lit up the Patriots for 235 yards on 12 carries and 3 touchdowns while the Rangers won 35-6.

5. Boys’ soccer wins under the lights

Along with the team winning , this game had another incredible play in it:  Cam Houghton’s goal with the assist from Steve Geller. Geller was right in front of the huge student section when he sent a perfect cross to Houghton who headed it in to add to the Rangers’  lead. Not only did the team perform well during this game, the fans did too. Let’s just say there was a rollercoaster that involved the parents too.

4. Ali Reed + Laser Show = MVP

This volleyball season was highlighted by Ali Reed’s phenomenal play. She dominated on the court with her “laser show” serves and her ridiculous spikes. I don’t understand everything about volleyball, but I do know one thing:  Ali Reed is very good at it (and I’m not the only one who believes that, she won league MVP!).

3. You, the Fans

As I said before I have the privilege  to help lead the best fan section in Central Mass. We have been featured multiple times on Charter TV 3′s show the “Football Frenzy” and we have definitely had an impact on the games. This upcoming Tuesday we have yet another chance to make an impact and be featured on Charter 3 when the varsity boys’ basketball team opens up at home at 7pm. Let’s make our players proud.

2. Under the Lights Week

I think if any of us look back at this 2010-2011 school year, one of the first things that will be brought up is the “Week of Lights.” This year marked the first year that Westborough fall sports have ever had lights. For one week during the fall season four teams (field hockey, girls’ soccer, boys’ soccer, and football) got to play games under the lights in front of incredible numbers of fans. These were some of the highest energy games I have ever attended and they will not be forgotten. Westborough sports are 3-1 under the lights at home, not too bad.

1. 14-0! 14-0! 14-0! Thanksgiving

This year  was the fourth straight year that the Westborough Rangers defeated the Algonquin Tomahawks on the annual Thanksgiving Day game. This means that this year’s seniors have not experienced a loss to the Algonquin Tomahawks in all their years here. This also means that now until next year’s  Thanksgiving game we now have the right to chant “14-0! 14-0! 14-00″ at any Westborough vs. Algonquin sporting event…ahh this year is going to be good.

Let me know what you think, what did I miss? What should’ve been higher than what? I want to know where you think I went wrong and where I was right, so be sure to comment on this post.

Those people who don’t understand why Recreational Basketball is taken so seriously at WHS obviously haven’t played. Rec Ball is the ultimate bragging right at WHS. Each Sunday 160 WHS boys play their hearts out in an attempt to defeat their fellow classmates. During the Rec Ball season guys no longer wait for the weekend, they wait for Sunday morning. Rec Ball slowly becomes the main topic at break and at lunch as sign ups approach. The talk of how your coach can draft the perfect team becomes more and more intense as players try to team up and have their dads coach together. All I can say is that Rec Ball is extremely intense and it is the event that I look forward to more than anything else all year.

So in this holiday season let’s try our best to make all of our soldiers feel like it actually is the holidays by bringing in items that can be sent to them in a care package. The Lobby Observer is organizing a care package drive in which people can bring items to Mrs. Stoker’s room (C115) or to the Lobby by December 17th. Look for the fluorescent yellow  flyers around the school that tell you what soldiers would like. In case you don’t have time to look for the flyers or cannot find them, here are some of the items that my brother asked for the most while he was serving in Iraq last year:

• body wipes in plastic pull-out canisters
• body wipes in plastic pull-out canisters
• body wipes in plastic pull-out canisters

That was no mistake that I wrote that three times, I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of body wipes we sent to Mike while he was overseas. The opportunity to shower does not come often for soldiers, so the closest thing they are allowed to have are body wipes.

Other items:

• chapstick
• phone cards
• powdered drink mix
• headphones
• hard candy (NO CHOCOLATE! IT MELTS!)

Hopefully we can gather a lot of these needed items and send over a huge care package that hopefully makes the soldiers’ holidays a little bit better.