College Sports
Arizona women's basketball shakes up starting lineup, dominates UCF
The Wildcats started both the first and second quarters on 10-0 runs. They did it by getting the ball inside to Breya Cunningham and turning the Knights over. The Wildcats scored 18 points on 13 UCF turnovers in the first half. They ended the game with 28 points off 23 Knights turnovers. Jones came off […]
The Wildcats started both the first and second quarters on 10-0 runs. They did it by getting the ball inside to Breya Cunningham and turning the Knights over. The Wildcats scored 18 points on 13 UCF turnovers in the first half. They ended the game with 28 points off 23 Knights turnovers.
Jones came off the bench and scored 12 points on 3-for-3 shooting in the first half. She ended the game with a team-high 17 points on 5-for-5 shooting, one rebound, three assists, and one steal. She also had four fouls and three turnovers.
“I thought they did a good job taking care of the ball, played solid defense, and then Sky was great off the bench,” Barnes said. “You know, sometimes when you make a change in lineup, people are really motivated. I thought she did a good job of responding. Paulina wasn’t 100 percent today, so I knew I was playing her limited minutes, but I thought everybody did a really good job. But then the second half was like two different games, and we gave seven offensive rebounds the first half, then gave up seven in the first five minutes of the third quarter.”
Barnes was especially pleased with her young guards in the first half, although she thought the entire team let down in the second half.
“Starting today with Mailien and Lauryn, it spread the floor a little bit because people had to guard them, and that left Breya to go one-on-one,” Barnes said.
Things weren’t as strong for the Wildcats in the second half. Arizona scored the first four points of the third quarter then went cold. Fortunately for the visitors, the Knights were still struggling, too. They also had just four points until the 4:56 mark, but UCF rebounded and outscored UA 16-11 in the quarter.
Swann didn’t have a lot of points in the first start of her career, but her all-around contributions helped the Wildcats to a hot start. She ended with six points, three rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
Jones also started the second half on the bench. Despite not being on the floor to start either half, Jones still ran into foul trouble. She picked up her fourth with just under two minutes to go in the third quarter after just 14 minutes of play.
“Breya got to the free throw line a lot, didn’t convert, and that’s been kind of something we’ve been working on all year, and we’re continuing to work on that because she’s capable of making free throws, but getting there is the main thing,” Barnes said. “We gave up too many in the second half. Second half, we can’t give up offensive rebounds and then fouls and just not disciplined…UCF, give them credit, because they were down, and they were so scrappy. They never gave up, and they were super aggressive and a lot tougher the second half. It’s just they had built themselves a deficit, but they did a really good job outplaying us in the second half.”
Rolf did a strong job of helping run the team in her second career start. She corraled a team-high seven rebounds while scoring three points, dishing out three assists, and grabbing three steals.
It was the second time this year that Jones has come off the bench. The previous was in an exhibition game against Cal State LA.
Cunningham ended the game with 15 points, five rebounds, and four blocks. The Wildcats’ dominant post was able to keep out of foul trouble in the second half. She ended with the same two fouls she had in the first half. She only turned the ball over once.
“The ball moved really good,” Barnes said. “And that showed with we had seven assists on 11 field goals in the first half, and so almost every basket was assisted on. So that’s the positive thing. That means our offense is going well and doing a good job. And that was against man or zone.”
Williams had her 500th career point on a free throw in the fourth quarter. She reached the milestone in 48 games.
She held to that by removing sophomore Skylar Jones and junior Paulina Paris from the starting lineup in favor of freshmen Lauryn Swann and Mailien Rolf. While Paris was out for health reasons, the ongoing body language issues were the primary reason for Jones’ starting the game on the bench.
Despite the big win, Barnes still sees things her young team needs to do.
It paid off in more ways than one. Not only did the Wildcats (11-5, 2-1) get off to a dominant start in a 75-53 win over UCF (7-6, 0-3) in Orlando, Fla., but Jones responded by having one of her biggest games of the season off the bench.
As a team, Arizona shot over 50 percent from the floor—both from inside and outside the arc—in the first half. They held UCF to 27.6 percent overall and 33.3 percent from 3-point distance over the first 20 minutes.
Cunningham had nine points, two rebounds, and a block in eight minutes in the first half, but she also had two fouls and had to go to the bench. In the past, that has meant the opponent is able to cut into the lead. That has happened even against “lesser” opponents that Arizona should dominate. It didn’t happen this time.
“Yeah, you will.”
As a team, the Wildcats tied their season high with 19 assists, a number they matched against Seattle and Weber State earlier in the year.
“What I really liked about today was, with the guards we had on the floor a lot, they did a good job of creating shots for each other,” Barnes said. “And I thought this was the first time (Williams) actually got some one, two-step 3-point shots that were created for her. And I just wanted her to have the confidence to take them. I mean, she did that. So I thought she did a really good job.”
With Rolf taking some of the ballhandling load, Jada Williams had her most efficient game since Dec. 16 against Weber State. Arizona’s sophomore point guard had 15 points on 5-for-13 shooting. She hit three of six 3-point shots. She tied Montaya Dew for the team high with four assists. She added three rebounds and one steal while only turning the ball over once.
When Arizona Wildcats head coach Adia Barnes was asked if fans would see more minutes for the younger players who did well in the second half of the blowout loss to Utah, her answer was quick and to the point.
“The main reason is the way we want to play, the mentality we want, body language and attitude and cohesiveness we want, and that’s the standard,” Barnes said. “And I think Sky did a really good job of responding in a positive way. I thought she was so much more coachable today. I thought her body language was so much better. But those are things that affect your team. These are always teaching moments. And I think I always look at the bigger picture. It’s not just about basketball. It’s about life. So it’s our job as coaches to teach these things that are going to help our players for their lives and long term. I’m proud of the way that she responded. I’m proud of the way that the team responded because it’s not easy. And she could have hung her head, not played hard, and she actually played awesome offense and defense. I thought in every way she was great. She was great on the bench. So that’s the expectation I have for her, that she’s capable of doing.”
College Sports
Mulligan like an MVP for P-Bruins
Staff Writer | Standard-Times As Hartford Wolf Pack coach John Paddock scouts key members of the Providence Bruins during their Calder Cup semifinal playoff series, he’d be smart to write down the name Tom Mulligan. A 25-year-old New Bedford native who played defense on his high school hockey team, Mulligan set a record this year […]
As Hartford Wolf Pack coach John Paddock scouts key members of the Providence Bruins during their Calder Cup semifinal playoff series, he’d be smart to write down the name Tom Mulligan.
A 25-year-old New Bedford native who played defense on his high school hockey team, Mulligan set a record this year for assists, but not with his hockey stick. He carries bandages, tape and surgical scissors on his belt.
Mulligan, you see, is the P-Bruins athletic trainer.
“We were thinking about giving him the team MVP,” assistant coach Bill Armstrong said after a recent practice.
“We couldn’t do it, but if anybody deserved an MVP it would be him,” agreed head coach Peter Laviolette. “Tommy’s done a great job, phenomenal.”
When a player misses a game with an injury, the statistician marks it down as one man-game lost for the team.
During last year’s dream season that ended with an AHL championship, Providence lost 76 man-games. This season the P-Bruins exceeded that total by the end of November.
An AHL record 70 players have skated for the P-Bruins this season, and the total of man-games lost climbed throughout the winter like the price on the gas pump.
The P-Bruins current total of man-games lost due to injury alone is around 400. Combine that with suspensions and all the recalls by the similarly-battered Boston Bruins and the total for man-games lost exceeds 830.
“You learn by doing,”‘ Mulligan said.
“If you learn by doing,” Laviolette said, “he should be a genius in the field of medicine by now.”
Mulligan didn’t feel too smart on the final weekend of the regular season when newcomer Mike Sylvia was knocked unconscious during a game at Springfield, Mass. Along with the standard how-many-fingers question, Mulligan asked Sylvia “What’s my name?”
“Then it dawned on me – wait a second,” Mulligan told himself. “He probably doesn’t know my name. I just met him yesterday.”
During the season Mulligan spends seven days a week in the bowels of the Providence Civic Center. On game days he arrives at 8 a.m. and doesn’t go home until 11 p.m. Even on non-practice days, players stroll in for injury rehabilitation and to get their aching muscles massaged.
With hockey players’ ever-growing fear of concussions, the trainer has to be a good listener. Gone are the days when a player gets knocked cold and argues his way back onto the ice in 10 minutes.
“Some guys make a big deal out of the littler things, and some guys don’t pay attention to some things that they should,” Mulligan said. “That’s half the battle, the psychological issue.”
“Tommy’s good with people, that’s one of his strengths outside of being knowledgeable in what he does,” Laviolette said. “He’s a good person and he’s a good communicator. People like Tommy, they respect him. He’s a young kid taking care of guys who are 31, 32 years old.”
“We have a great atmosphere here in the locker room and Tommy’s a big part of it.”
Mulligan’s work load intensified even more this season when the man-games lost spread off the ice.
“We even lost our equipment manager (Vinny Ferraiuolo),” he said. Ferraiuolo had to assist in Boston after its equipment manager, Peter Henderson, was sidelined with an illness.
That left Mulligan with a college intern and half the work of the equipment manager, including sewing holes in hockey socks and new name tags onto jerseys for players being recalled from Greenville, S.C. (ECHL) or signed to tryout contracts.
“They stay here as late or later than we do,” Laviolette said of Mulligan and Ferraiuolo.
After graduating Quinnipiac College in 1997 with a degree in physical therapy, Mulligan interned with the Boston Bruins under fellow Quinnipiac alumnus Tim Trahant and there he fulfilled a life-long dream of meeting Ray Bourque.
“I grew up living and dying by the Bruins,” he said. “When I started in Boston, I had never really met a professional athlete.”
Mulligan was at the Bruins practice facility in Wilmington when Rob DiMaio and other players came into the trainer’s room and introduced themselves.
“He was talking to me like a regular person. It didn’t really faze me, then all of a sudden Ray walks in and I just stood there and froze,” Mulligan said. “He walked out. About five minutes later he comes back in. He walks over to me, taps me on the shoulder, goes ‘Hey, you the new kid?’ I went ‘hum-a-da-hum-a-da…’
“Since I was 5-years-old, he was my idol. For me now, if I see him and say ‘Hey Ray, how ya doing?’ He’d say ‘Tom, how are ya?’ That’s amazing to me.”
Mulligan is glad he joined the P-Bruins when there was ample opportunity to learn the many administrative duties the trainer must perform, including detailed documentation of all treatment for legal purposes.
He realized very early how different this season was going to be.
“In training camp,” he said. “Keith McCambridge had one of his hamstring tendons skated over.” And rookie winger Jeff Zehr came to camp with a recurring knee injury that still threatens his career.
Providence’s season was barely a month old when tough-guy winger Aaron Downey was accidentally stabbed in the groin by teammate Johnathan Aitken’s stick.
Unless they repeat as Calder Cup champions, the gore on the ice that night will be the signature moment of the P-Bruins’ season.
“We were going to sandwich (the defenseman), we were going to knock him off the puck,” said Downey, who crashed together with Aitken and sustained a horrific injury. He thought he had a painful charley horse until blood began squirting out of his leg onto the ice.
“I was going towards Aitken and he wasn’t moving,” Mulligan recalled. “As I maybe got to the faceoff circle I saw this streak of blood… I tried to go underneath (Downey’s hockey pants), I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. I went to his main artery in the groin area and our doctor (Jack Bevivino) came out there. He used his belt as a tourniquet.”
“‘m fortunate that the great doctor in the stands, Jack Bevivino, did what he did,” Downey said. “I’m just fortunate there’s great help here, that’s for sure.”
“Seventy-plus players in and out of the line-up, plus Tommy’s had his hands full all year. We broke the transactions record this year.”
An athletic trainer in the AHL earns anywhere between $25,000 and $40,000 and from $40,000 and $110,000 in the NHL, depending on experience and on which end of the organization is signing the paychecks. Mulligan is signed with Providence.
He hopes in the future for a healthier squad and the lighter schedule that comes with it.
In the meantime, his fianc?e Kellie Charbonneau has been patient. She wasn’t a hockey fan when they met.
“She is now,” Mulligan said. “She’s unbelievably supportive, she knows I love this.”
College Sports
US scores 5 goals in middle period to rout Kazakhstan and advance at ice hockey worlds
HERNING, Denmark — After a goalless opening period, the United States proceeded to secure its place in the quarterfinals of the ice hockey world championship with a 6-1 rout of Kazakhstan on Sunday. The Americans are tied with the Czech Republic on 14 points in Group B, trailing leader Switzerland on 16. The U.S. completes […]
HERNING, Denmark — After a goalless opening period, the United States proceeded to secure its place in the quarterfinals of the ice hockey world championship with a 6-1 rout of Kazakhstan on Sunday.
The Americans are tied with the Czech Republic on 14 points in Group B, trailing leader Switzerland on 16. The U.S. completes its group stage on Tuesday against the Czechs, who have two more games to play.
“I thought we were ready to play out of the gate,” U.S. head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We need to continue to build and get ready for what will be a big challenge on Tuesday against the Czechs.”
Despite an unproductive first period in Herning, the U.S. jumped to a commanding five-goal lead in the second.
Frank Nazar broke the deadlock 6:58 into the period with a shot from the left circle above the glove of Sergei Kudryavtsev. The forward added two assists later in the game.
Defenseman Jackson Lacombe wristed a shot from the blue line through heavy traffic to double the lead with 8:14 to go in the second period.
The next two goals came in the span of 58 seconds.
Forward Tage Thompson scored his fifth at the tournament — after receiving a pass from defenseman Zeev Buium — to make it 3-0 with 6:00 left. Matty Beniers increased the advantage to four from the left circle before Michael Kesselring scored with a high shot from a tight angle from the boards 56 seconds before the end of the period.
U.S. defensive star Zach Werenski skated toward the goal before beating backup goalie Maxim Pavlenko who came on at the beginning of the final period.
Goaltender Jeremy Swayman made 16 saves for the U.S.
Switzerland demolished Hungary 10-0 and will play its last Group B game against Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
In Stockholm, a 5-1 victory over Slovakia lifted Latvia to fourth place in Group A.
Also in Stockholm, Austria beat Slovenia 3-2 in a shootout to keep alive its hopes of reaching the quarterfinals for the first time. Austria is tied in fifth with Slovakia in Group A.
The top four teams from each group will advance.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
College Sports
Luzerne County proposes employee discount for community college classes
Luzerne County government workers would receive a discount on Luzerne County Community College courses through a program under consideration. County Manager Romilda Crocamo said during last week’s council work session the program would help attract and retain employees. Under the proposal, the college and county would each pay 25% of a course. The employee […]
Luzerne County government workers would receive a discount on Luzerne County Community College courses through a program under consideration.
County Manager Romilda Crocamo said during last week’s council work session the program would help attract and retain employees.
Under the proposal, the college and county would each pay 25% of a course. The employee would be responsible for the remaining 50% and any required class materials and fees.
College Vice President of Finance Erin Herman told council the average three-credit class would cost an employee approximately $225, while the college and county would each pay $112.50.
County Budget/Finance Division Head Mary Roselle said classes must be approved by an employee’s manager. Most county departments have budgeted funds for education and training that could cover the expense, she said.
Councilman Harry Haas said he supports the initiative, describing the community college as the “best deal in town.” Council’s strategic initiatives committee had discussed the need for such partnerships to build staff, he said.
Councilwoman Brittany Stephenson highly praised the initiative and said it is a “tangible” way to bolster the county workforce.
Council must approve the program at a future meeting for it to take effect.
Study commission
The county’s government study commission will meet at 6 p.m. Monday in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
The seven-citizen commission is drafting a revised county home rule charter for voters to consider adopting in November.
Agenda topics include continued discussion about the structure and powers of the county election board.
Under the plan, which has not been finalized, the commission would recommend keeping a five-citizen election board but mandating that it has more power, including authority to hire the election director and prepare the annual budget request to county council.
A link to attend the meeting remotely will be posted under council’s online meeting section (scroll down) at luzernecounty.org.
Transportation matches
Council approved two annual county allocations for public transportation last week.
Hazleton Public Transit received a $229,778 county match required for the agency to obtain $2.8 million in state funding. The county Transportation Authority received an $871,609 allocation necessary for its $8.7 million in state operating assistance funds.
Pittston lease
Magisterial District Court 11-01-04 will remain in Pittston City Hall because council approved a lease for two more years.
The county court administration requested the lease renewal, which will cost $3,708 per month for approximately 2,000 square feet on the building’s second floor, or a total of $89,000 over the two-year period, the agenda said.
Correctional services
County council presented a proclamation to the county’s correctional services division last week to commemorate “National Correctional Officers and Employees Week.”
It acknowledged their “difficult and often dangerous assignment of ensuring the custody, safety and well-being” of county inmates.
“These corrections professionals consistently place themselves in danger to protect individuals whom society has generally cast aside,” it said.
Correctional Services Division Head James Wilbur said approximately 400,000 correctional officer hours are required annually to meet minimum staffing levels at the county prison on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre and nearby minimum offenders building on Reichard Street.
“These employees have dedicated their lives to keeping our communities safe,” Wilbur said.
Children, Youth and Families
The agency is collecting cleaning supplies for families in need this month as part of a spring cleaning campaign.
Requested items include spray and floor cleaning products and dish-washing sponges. Products can be dropped off at the county human services building at 111 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre.
Ethics commission
The county ethics commission is seeking proposals from qualified attorneys to provide legal services, according to a posting in the purchasing section at luzernecounty.org.
Under the council-adopted county ethics code, the commission must rely on a panel of outside attorneys to handle the initial stage of complaint investigations. On a rotating basis, the contracted attorneys are assigned cases and must determine within 60 days whether an investigation should be terminated, further investigated or result in the issuing of a formal complaint spelling out alleged code violations.
Due to ongoing recruitment challenges, the commission had only one outside attorney, Qiana Lehman, and she resigned last week.
County Controller Walter Griffith, who was named commission chairman last week, said he is determined to focus on a proposal to revamp the code to address concerns.
Griffith said code changes are necessary regardless of whether voters approve the revised home rule charter in November.
The county study commission’s proposal would require council to keep an ethics commission and code and mandate a council vote within nine months to either ratify or amend the existing ethics code.
The commission is composed of the county district attorney, manager, controller and two council-appointed citizens (one Democrat and one Republican).
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
College Sports
UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater Headed To NCAA Baseball Super Regionals
Story Links **UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater Sports Information Offices contributed to this recap. MADISON, Wis. –For the fourth consecutive season, two Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) baseball teams have reached the Super Regionals of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship after UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater emerged with regional titles on May 18. UW-Oshkosh […]
**UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater Sports Information Offices contributed to this recap.
MADISON, Wis.
–For the fourth consecutive season, two Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) baseball teams have reached the Super Regionals of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship after UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater emerged with regional titles on May 18.
UW-Oshkosh (34-14) won the St. Peter, Minn., Regional with a 10-2 victory over University of Chicago (Ill.). The Titans opened regional action with a 34-8 drubbing of UChicago that featured a cycle by Jake Surane and the second-most runs scored in program history. UW-Oshkosh also set a WIAC record with 31 hits in the contest. The Titans then beat Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) 15-10. In a rematch with UChicago, UW-Oshkosh fell 7-3 to force a winner-take-all regional title game. The Titans will face UW-Whitewater in a best-of-three Super Regional.
UW-Whitewater (42-5) claimed the Adrian, Mich., Regional with a 4-1 win over Adrian College (Mich.) and followed with a 4-3, 11-inning victory over Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) before the clinching win.
UW-La Crosse also represented the conference in regional action. The Eagles opened NCAA action with a 4-2 victory over Bethany Lutheran College (Minn.) and an 8-6 triumph over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Calif.). UW-La Crosse then dropped back-to-back games to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by scores of 11-2 and 6-2.
The Eagles completed the 2025 campaign with a 35-11 record and made their third consecutive NCAA appearance and ninth NCAA in program history.
In UW-Oshkosh’s regional-clinching victory over UChicago, the Maroons scored the first run of the game in the fourth inning with a groundout RBI and added another run in the fifth when on a solo home run.
After a scoreless sixth inning, Carter Stebane had a run-scoring single to right field, while Jack McKellips brought in a pair of runs with a single up the middle to give the Titans a 3-2 lead.
In the eighth inning, Owen Housinger had a RBI single to leftfield and the Titans tacked on another run when McKellips was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Mason Kirchberg had a sacrifice fly to deep left field for a 6-2 advantage.
In the ninth inning, Zach Taylor had a sacrifice fly and Stebane ripped a three-run home run down the left field line for a 9-2 lead. Mason Kirchberg added a RBI double to make the score 10-2.
Connor Walters pitched a complete game for the Titans, allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out five. He improved to 6-4 on the season.
In UW-Whitewater’s regional-clinching win over Adrian, the Warhawks got on the board in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Dominik McVay.
Adrian tied the game in the third inning on their own sacrifice fly, but UW-Whitewater loaded the bases up in the bottom of the third, and had a two-run single from Danny Hopper followed by a run-scoring single from Sam Paden to give the Warhawks a 4-1 advantage.
Ben Lee pitched the first seven innings and scattered five hits, while striking out four and allowing one unearned run. He improved to 5-1 on the season.
Ethan Wickman pitched 1.2 innings and struck out two, while Jack Hagen got the call on the mound for the final out and recorded his third save of the year.
# # # # #
College Sports
Matt Brown, paralyzed 15 years ago, is finding his groove
The answer surprised even Brown himself. “While the answer is always yes, it would be harder to hit that reset button than most people think,” Matt Brown said. “Because I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now.” Fifteen years after he was paralyzed after crashing into the boards while playing hockey for Norwood […]
The answer surprised even Brown himself.
“While the answer is always yes, it would be harder to hit that reset button than most people think,” Matt Brown said. “Because I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now.”
Fifteen years after he was paralyzed after crashing into the boards while playing hockey for Norwood High, Brown believes the accident that robbed him of so much has given him a perspective he never would have had if he hadn’t been paralyzed.
People spend years, sometimes a lifetime, trying to figure out their purpose. What were they put on this earth for?
From his wheelchair, Matt Brown can see higher and further than most. His purpose is, quite simply, to help others.
The Matt Brown Foundation was launched by Brown and his family in the middle of the pandemic.
“Not exactly the optimum time,” he concedes.
Five years later, the foundation is, like Brown himself, finding its groove. It has distributed some $300,000 in grants to people who are living with paralysis, paying for accessible vehicles, home modifications, essential equipment.
Besides donors, an annual golf tournament and the Falmouth Road Race are big fund-raising tools. This year, the foundation gained charity status with the Boston Marathon, allowing it to field runners, opening a new revenue source that Brown hopes will allow it to distribute even more grants to more people.
The grants change little things, changing lives. They renovated a bathroom for a guy on the South Shore who hadn’t been able to shower since his accident a year before. They bought a standing frame for a man so he could be vertical in his Quincy home.
Not long ago, Brown got a call from the folks at the Little Mustangs Preschool Academy in Norwood, about two miles from his house.
One of the students there, a 4-year-old boy, is paraplegic. When his classmates went out to recess, all the boy could do was watch them from his wheelchair, because the playground equipment wasn’t accessible to him.
Brown’s foundation paid for an adaptive swing, and on Tuesday, Brown watched as the boy called his parents over to push him in that swing for the first time.
The boy’s classmates made cards for Brown, thanking him in eight different languages.
“To see that little boy smile,” Brown said, “to see his parents smile, I can’t even explain what that feels like.”
He lives in the house he grew up in, with his parents, Mike and Sue. His parents met in the sixth grade. Sue’s maiden name is Brown, same as Mike’s, so they like to say Mike took her name when they got married.
Matt Brown would like to get a place of his own some day. But he can’t imagine leaving Norwood. The town, and its people, always had his back.
Next month, he’ll be the best man at the wedding of his childhood friend Austin Glaser, a Norwood police officer who was his roommate at Stonehill College. Brown has been working on his speech for ages, trying to get it down from a half-hour to five minutes.
He has also remained close to Tyler Piacentini, the Weymouth High player whose check sent Brown crashing headfirst into the boards at Pilgrim Skating Arena in Hingham in 2010. He never blamed Piacentini, saying it was “just two guys going for the puck.”
Last year, he did doughnuts in his wheelchair on the dance floor at Piacentini’s wedding in Nashville.
On Wednesday, Brown was sitting in his driveway. As he does three days a week, he had just spent more than two hours at the gym at Journey Forward, a nonprofit in Canton that helps those with spinal cord injuries.
He regularly works out there alongside his friends, hockey players who suffered similar spinal cord injuries: Jake Thibeault, who was paralyzed in 2021 while playing for Milton Academy; AJ Quetta, who was paralyzed in 2021 while playing for Bishop Feehan High; and Denna Laing, who was paralyzed in 2015 while playing for the Boston Pride in the National Women’s Hockey League.
“We almost have enough of us for a full line,” Brown deadpans.
Brown was mentored and inspired by Travis Roy, the Boston University player who was paralyzed on his first shift for the Terriers in 1995, whose own foundation raised millions and who died in 2020 at the age of 45.
“We’re all following in Travis’s tire tracks,” Brown said.
In the driveway, Brown’s friend Jack Doherty was talking about speeches he’s lining up for Brown. Doherty has his own story: He died on the ice, a cardiac arrest while playing in a men’s league in Weymouth in 2013. After being clinically dead for seven minutes, Doherty was brought back to life by first responders. He says Brown is one of the most inspirational speakers he’s ever heard.
“When he speaks,” Doherty said, “people want him to speak longer.”
Brown doesn’t want anyone to think he’s some super hero. He’s just a regular guy from Norwood, who’s been able to move on from a life-altering injury with the help of family and friends who never gave up on him, who always inspired him. And so he aspires to inspire others.
It could have gone the other way, he says.
“I could have closed the door, just stayed in my room, give in to that darkness,” he said. “But my friends and family kept me going.”
He turned to look at the house where he ran down the stairs on Christmas mornings. Where he put on his uniform for Little League games. Where he did his math homework.
“When one door closes, not all doors close,” he said. “I have to work hard to find those other doors. But I’ll never stop trying.”
He looked up and down his street and then he said it, his mantra, something that repeats in his head, and he lives by it.
“Never quit,” Matt Brown said. “Overcome. Keep going forward.”
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at kevin.cullen@globe.com.
College Sports
Men’s Lacrosse Punches Ticket to NCAA Final Four – Penn State
ANNAPOLIS, Md.- No. 7 Penn State men’s lacrosse earned a 14-12 comeback victory over the reigning back-to-back National Champions Notre Dame in the NCAA Quarterfinals. The Nittany Lions used a 8-0 scoring run over the last two quarters to rally back from a six-goal deficit midway through the third stanza. Penn State earns its third […]
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US scores 5 goals in middle period to rout Kazakhstan and advance at ice hockey worlds
Wildcats Finish WAC Championship with Men in 5th and the Women in 6th
Luzerne County proposes employee discount for community college classes
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has always dreamed in Mercurial. Now his initials are on the boots.
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This is poetry in motion.
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