OK, so, here, as promised, the positive stuff about the recently held high school basketball tournament:

OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE

So many singers of the National Anthem are not up to it. Biggest sin is, when they get to the line, “And the rockets’ red glare… The bombs bursting in air…”, they give up, and their voice goes DOWN on the phrase “rockets’ red glare.” The kid who sang it Feb. 20 at the Civic Center knocked it dead. Well done.

NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST

Joe Russo, Portland High School boys coach, handles himself well on the sidelines. He has won state titles, and tons of basketball games. Yet, he does not take on the “psycho” persona that so many coaches do. It’s all weird. Ditto South Portland boys coach Phil Conley. No coincidence that their teams were Nos. 1 and 2.

YOU OK?

What a nice trend it is to see at least one player on most teams, sometimes more than one, offer to help up not only teammates who get knocked to the floor during games, but also help opponents to their feet. Count on this personality trait making them successful in life;

IT’S THE SHOES, SPIKE!

Drives me crazy to see so many college basketball teams that feature players who do NOT all wear the same style or even color sneaker. Isn’t this a team? I have seen photos from D-Day battles. I’m pretty sure the soldiers from The Greatest Generation did not each have different boots on from other soldiers. (College men teams are the worst). Kudos to Catherine McAuley team – all in green and gold!

“THE FIRST RULE OF KNIFE FIGHTING”

A Texas judge once commented on a nai?ve candidate who got beat in a particularly bare-knuckled political campaign: “He forgot the first rule of knife fighting – there are no rules in knife fighting.” Former Westbrook College coach Jimmy Graffam had a version of this in high school hoops: “Basketball, well played, is a track meet, and a WWF brawl.” He was kidding…kind of. Portland-Deering, and Falmouth-South Portland games were enjoyable supersonic slugfests.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

If the voice over the PA system at the Civic Center sounded familiar, it was because it was; Peter Gribbin has been doing hoop playoff basketball games since l966. Good work, young man!

YA? AND YOUR MOTHER!

I’m not sure if this is good or not, but it WAS highly amusing a couple students were trash talking about the All Academic Teams that are chosen in each sports season in Maine. Apparently, a player has to have a GPA of 94 or higher to be considered, and there is a controversy about whether one must have a “straight up” GPA of 94 or if it can be the result of having your grades “weighted” – basically grading on the curve, giving you a few extra points in those classes which, for various reasons, are universally considered to be really, really hard. “At our school, we do the work without training wheels on,” said one student who did not like “weighted” grades.

Responded the kid from the other school: “But you are in a tricycle race; we ride mountain bikes up mountains.” Touche!

OK, that is it for another year. Over and out. Congratulations to the winners. Chin up, to the losers.

Dan Warren is a Scarborough trial lawyer who can be reached by private Facebook message at the Jones & Warren Attorneys at Law page, or by e mail at jonesandwarren@gmail.com.

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