Sports

Local players had solid years despite late-season woes

In a traditional college football game that has been played for over 100 years, the Wolverines of the University of Michigan and the Buckeyes of Ohio State University wage a gridiron war. 

Hats off to the boys soccer team at Boston International High School and head coach Edmar Varela, following a strong run in Division 5 of the Boston City League.

Professional athletes have joined forces to put the issue of raising the maximum age of juveniles to 21 in front of the country.

The coaches had glum looks on their faces as they approached players of the Mattapan Patriots 14U football team earlier this fall. But as they got closer, their faces turned to smiles as they delivered good news: The 14U team had been invited to play at the American Youth Football National Championships in Naples, Florida in December.

Of the many wishes I have asked from my God on my birthday, one special one goes out for Jacob Theodore Cofield. Jacob, the son of Charlie and Sheila Cofield, is the star big man on this year’s Catholic Memorial High School basketball team.

During the recent National League baseball playoff series between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, the despicable throat-slashing gesture entered our national conscience again.

This story starts on June 8, 1959, in Meridian, Mississippi. Michael Douglas O’Neal was the fourth child and second male baby born to Onita and Rev. Eddie S. O’Neal. I write this story with thanks to both parents for the man they produced, but in great honor to Mother O’Neal, who raised Michael to be the man he is today — a Black man of distinction for every season.

On a rare 78-degree October Saturday, now-19th-ranked Harvard welcomed the Dartmouth Big Green to Harvard Stadium for the Crimson’s annual Fall Fest and Homecoming game.

“It has been a long journey to achieve this goal, but I saw it coming as early as last year,” said second-year head coach William Harvey, encapsulating his Madison Park Lady Cardinal volleyball team’s triumph over Snowden High School in the recent Boston City Championship game. 

I first met Tommy Amaker, Harvard’s men’s basketball coach, while he was a player at Duke University in the 1980s. He and backcourt mate Johnny Dawkins drove Duke’s rise to national prominence under a young coach named Mike Krzyzewski.

Young athletes ran through basketball drills and plays, while veteran Black coaches and athletic directors shared their battle scars — and lessons learned — about overcoming racial, cultural and other barriers in high school and college sports.