NFA girls lacrosse coach departing; amazing Little League championship game

Just thought I’d empty out my reporter’s notebook while hoping the Red Sox join the billion dollar sweepstakes for the Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani, the world’s greatest baseball player …

Norwich Free Academy said goodbye to another great coach when Taylor Shannon returned to her alma mater to coach the Waterford girls lacrosse team. Shannon has been NFA’s head girls lacrosse coach for the past five seasons.

Shannon graduated from Waterford High School in 2010 and went on to play soccer and lacrosse at Eastern Connecticut State University. She is a physical education teacher in the Waterford school system.

“We are excited to bring Taylor back to Waterford after her playing days here,” Waterford Director of Athletics Chris Landry said in a press statement. “She brings a drive and determination and a passion to compete. We expect great things from the Lancers under the leadership of Coach Shannon.”

The Lancers return 25 student-athletes from the 2023 team that finished with a 10-6 record. Waterford defeated Bristol Eastern, 14-4, in the CIAC Class M tournament qualifying round before losing to eventual state champion Guilford in the first round.

“It has always been one of my dreams to come back home and coach at Waterford High School,” Shannon said. “I look forward to bringing new perspectives and assets to the table to further grow and develop the girls lacrosse program at Waterford. I am excited to have this opportunity to continue building relationships with many former middle school PE students, now as their coach supporting their goals as high school athletes.”

Shannon, who is a big Boston Bruins fan, also coaches the NFA girls soccer team.

*It was heartbreaking to see the Norwich/Preston Little League 12-year-old all stars fall short against Columbia/Lebanon in the District 11 championship game at Preston Community Park.

Norwich/Preston was just four outs away from advancing to the state sectionals before Columbia/Lebanon rallied for the 4-3 victory. Norwich/Preston loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with no outs but couldn’t deliver the tying run as two players were thrown out at home plate. Unbelievable.

Still, our local Williamsport team battled to the end and should keep their heads held high. The team was managed by Andy Hatch, along with coaches Joe Cutter and Dennis Muench. The team’s 11-player lineup featured Cam Hatch, Nick Bettini, Gavin Churchill, Brody Hewitt, Austen Muench, Andrew Camp, Aiden Ventura, Connor Walker, Shawn Spring, Nick Rorke and John Jaronko.

*Have you heard about the summer high school football all-star game between Connecticut and New York? The two-game series is slated to begin next summer. Several venues were discussed by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association and the New York State High School Football Coaches and at the very top of the list for the first game was Michie Stadium at West Point.

While interest has been expressed by West Point, nothing official has been agreed upon. Both sides are meeting again at a press conference on July 26 at Buffalo Wild Wings in Wethersfield.

Connecticut has had a history of summer all-star football games. The last one, in 2019, was The Super 100 Classic, an intra-state game featuring two teams (Team Constitution and Team Nutmeg) made up of approximately 50 players on each squad.

There was a series of games between Connecticut and Rhode Island that I recall covering at Southington High School and Rentschler Field. Those games always seemed to be one-sided affairs won by Connecticut.

There was also a high school all-star football game years ago between New Haven County and Fairfield County that brought out the best in the players for bragging rights.

*The 2023 Major League Baseball Draft concluded Tuesday with 17 former Futures Collegiate Baseball League players being selected, lifting the number of alumni who have been drafted or signed into affiliated professional baseball to over 250 since the league’s inception in 2011.

Maryland shortstop Matt Shaw, who played for the Worcester Bravehearts in 2020 and 2021, became the highest-drafted former player in league history when the Chicago Cubs took him with the 13th overall selection.

*Jim Irsay, owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts, brought The Jim Irsay Collection – a traveling museum of iconic artifacts from rock music, American history and pop culture – to Boston’s TD Garden on Saturday. It was the tour's only stop in New England. The evening included a free concert by The Jim Irsay Band, an all-star band featuring some of the best musicians in the world. Vince Gill, REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin, and Boston’s favorite rocker Peter Wolf of the mighty J. Geils Band also performed.

Besides owning the biggest guitar collection in the world, Irsay’s eclectic collection includes such things as a Jackie Robinson game-used bat from 1953 (the founding year of the Colts); Muhammad Ali’s championship belt from the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle” versus George Foreman; Ali’s boxing shoes from the 1975 “Thrilla’ in Manilla” versus Joe Frazier; Secretariat’s saddle from its historic 1973 Triple Crown wins; handwritten documents from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln; Miles Davis' trumpet; and Jack Kerouac’s original "On the Road" manuscript, written on a 120-foot-long scroll.

Now, if I were a billionaire like Mr. Irsay, the Jimmy Zanor Collection would include (just off the top of my head): Marvin Hagler’s boxing gloves from his middleweight championship slugfest against Thomas Hearns in 1985 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas; Bobby Orr’s stick that he used to score the game-winning goal in overtime against the St. Louis Blues to clinch the Stanley Cup for the Boston Bruins on May 10, 1970; Curt Schilling's bloody sock that he wore when he beat the Yankees in Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium; and the Dodgers jacket Linda Ronstadt wore when she sang the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium before the 1977 World Series game between the Yankees and the Dodgers.

*STUCK IN THE ‘70s: On July 16, 1978, the Boston Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins, 5-3 and 3-2, before 35,589 sun-drenched fans at Fenway Park. Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski each had three hits and Dennis Eckersley improved to 11-2 with the pitching win in the first game. In the second game, Fred Lynn went 2-for-3 and drove in all three runs.

The first-place Red Sox, under head coach Don Zimmer, improved to 60-28 and had an eight-and-a-half game lead in the AL East.

Jimmy Zanor can be reached at jzanor@norwichbulletin.com.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich/Preston Little League game, NFA girls lacrosse coach departs