Play by Play at the Clark University Tournament

I had a new experience yesterday. I did the play by play announcing for the basketball game between the Hudson High School Hawks and the Nipmuck High School Indians from Upton. These two teams were playing in the invitational tournament at Clark University which was being played in Worcester, Massachusetts for the 69th straight year!
My daughter Lynda who works for the town of Hudson as a media specialist asked if I would take on this task yesterday, and I found it to be a lot of fun.
Working with television in an announcing role is not new for me. I have done it before. When Paul Cellucci became ambassador to Canada, there was a big parade in Hudson and I announced the parade live with another announcer while my daughter worked the route cameras from a large remote van filled with all sorts of cables and cameras. I also had my own TV program entitled "New England Adventures". When I taught school in Worcester, I used television frequently in the classroom. I notice now one of my former students (Judy Warren) prominent on the local television channel.
Working a basketball game while trying to keep statistics at the same time is next to impossible though. There are three point shots, two point shots, foul shots, and all type of statistics to keep track of, and all the while keep up a commentary on the game. It cannot be done properly by ONE PERSON, LYNDA! I really enjoyed doing it, because of the challenge, but TWO people are needed to do the job right.
I am anxious to see the tape. It probably won't be as good as Tommy Heinsohn, but what the heck, I had to pay two bucks for a bottle of water!
Oh, I almost forgot, Nipmuck High School won the game in a squeaker 61-59 when Nipmuck senior Shawn Aldrich scored his only basket of the game with 7 seconds showing on the clock! The best part of the game was the great sportsmanship and maturity shown by both teams. When we were kids we used to talk about the "hungry basketball player" This meant someone who would "hog" the ball. It meant someone on the team who would always want the ball to shoot and nobody else had a chance to shoot. None of this "hungriness" was exhibited by either of these teams. The PASSING was truly noteworthy and for a small team as Hudson High was, it kept them in the game. I was most impressed with the three point shooting of one player named Chad Dyer. He took the three point shot when it was there to take, but passed off when it wasn't. Chad finished the game with 18 points. His teammate Nicholas DiBlasi finished with 14 points. On the winning side, Joey McCann had 20 points and Andrew Vanslette ended with 17 points. However, more important than those 17 points were Andrew's 12 rebounds. You see Andrew is six feet five inches tall and nobody on Hudson's team could match that height. In my opinion, there was the difference in these two beautifully coached teams. Lynda, ask me again.