Zanor column: Arremony earns 300th win, Clark Mania, and other thoughts
Just thought I’d empty out my reporter’s notebook while hoping Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy places a bet on the Boston Celtics to win the NBA championship …
300-win milestone
Griswold softball coach Rick Arremony earned his 300th career win following the Wolverines’ 11-8 victory over Norwich Tech on Wednesday at Griswold High School. Arremony’s career record is 300-110 since becoming the Wolverines head coach in 2006.
Arremony served as Jason Gerum’s assistant coach from 2001-2005. The duo went 102-31 while guiding the Wolverines to the 2003 Class M state championship. The Wolverines also reached the Class M final in 2002 and 2018.
In 534 games as a head coach and assistant with Griswold, Arremony’s teams have a won-lost mark of 402-141. That's great stuff.
100 goals
Kudos to Norwich Free Academy senior Alice Rourke who collected her 100th career goal in the Wildcats’ 15-3 girls lacrosse win over RHAM.
The Wildcats are off to a 3-1 start and should make some noise this season. Eric Page, who was the assistant coach the past two seasons, became the head coach again this spring when former Wildcats coach Taylor Shannon returned to her alma mater to become the head coach at Waterford.
Page, whose daughter, Wildcats junior Molly Page, is one of the leading goal scorers in the ECC, was the Wildcats head girls lacrosse coach from 2002-2018. He compiled a won-lost mark of 170-131-1 while winning three ECC championships.
Clark mania
Caitlin Clark is giving Taylor Swift a run as the most famous woman on the planet.
From the record number of viewers tuning into the WNBA Draft to see Clark being selected No. 1 by the Indiana Fever to the league putting 36 of 40 Fever games on national television, Clark Mania is for real.
Clark's Fever T-shirts sold out on the Fanatics website, outselling some NFL teams. She signed a huge NIKE shoe deal. And teams around the league are moving their games with the Fever into larger venues.
Clark and the Fever make two trips (May 14 and June 10) to the Mohegan Sun Arena to play the Connecticut Sun. Tickets for these games will be slightly less than ducats for the recent Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show at the Sun.
The Clarkies have arrived.
More: Softball: Driscoll powers NFA to win over East Lyme
Trivia time
The Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup a record 24 times. What NHL team has carried the Cup around the ice the second most times?
Teddy Ballgame
You hear the term GOAT tossed around quite a bit these days. Maybe we need a different and higher word than “greatest-of-all-time” for Theodore Samuel Williams.
Ted Williams from 1941 to 1947:
1941 - batted .406
1942 - Triple Crown
1943 - WWII
1944 - WWII
1945 - WWII
1946 - MVP
1947 - Triple Crown
Quest for the Cup
The quest for the greatest trophy in sports, the Stanley Cup, begins this weekend. It doesn’t get any better over the next two months for hockey fans. 16 Ws gets your name etched on the Cup forever.
The best first-round matchups feature an Original Six series between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs and a Western Conference battle between the Dallas Stars and defending champion Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Fasten your seatbelts, hockey fans! Batten down the hatches! It’s time for playoff upsets, marathon overtime games, Game 7’s, playoff beards, the handshake lines, the Conn Smythe Trophy, and the smiling team captain skating over to get the Stanley Cup from Commissioner Bettman.
More: Spring notebook: Ellis Tech's Lopez tosses no-hitter
Tough opener
The Boston College Eagles open the 2024 college football season against the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee on Monday, Sept. 2. I’m guessing the ‘Noles are still a little ticked off for being left out of the four-team playoff last January. Not an easy game for the Eagles, by any means, but a victory would be the perfect way to begin the Bill O’Brien Era in Chestnut Hill.
Trivia answer
The Toronto Maple Leafs have raised the Stanley Cup 13 times, the last in 1967. Our beloved Boston Bruins have won the Cup six times, the last in 2011. The Bruins also hold the dubious distinction of losing in the Stanley Cup Finals a record 14 times.
Stuck in the '70s
On April 21-22, 1972, Boston’s mighty J. Geils Band - Peter Wolf, J. Geils, Magic Dick, Seth Justman, Danny Klein, Stephen Jo Bladd - rolled into the Cinderella Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan for two rollicking house party shows. The performances were recorded for the band’s “Live” Full House album.
The album, which features iconic, high-energy versions of “First I Look At The Purse”, “Lookin’ For A Love”, “Hard Drivin’ Man”, and “Whammer Jammer,” is the J. Geils Band at their full-throttle best.
Jimmy Zanor is a sportswriter for the Norwich Bulletin and can be reached at jzanor@norwichbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter@jzanorNB.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Rick Arremony earns 300th win, Cailin Clark, and the Stanley Cup
