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Rivers School girls' basketball head coach Bob Pipe told ESPN Boston this afternoon that junior guard Emilee Daley has commited to Boston College.

The 6-foot-2 Sharon resident is a two-time All-ISL team selection and New England All-Star, in addition to playing on two NEPSAC Class B championship squads.

It didn’t take Luke Fernandes long to get on the baseball radar screen, a result you could say of the radar gun.

Playing in a Perfect Game tournament in New Jersey for pro and college scouts, Fernandes clocked 93 on the radar gun, a pretty big deal when you consider he had yet to begin his sophomore year at Marshwood High School. Later that summer, playing at the Lynn Invitational in Lynn, Mass., Fernandes and his fastball caught the eye of a Boston College coach who happened to be at the tournament.

Two days later he visited the campus and talked to head coach Mike Gambino. He had yet to play his sophomore year yet was offered a 3-for-4 scholarship and made a verbal commitment to play for the Eagles. Now a senior at Marshwood, Fernandes expects to report to Chestnut Hill this fall, unless he receives a call from a Major League team looking to take him fairly high in the draft. He’s already filled out surveys for 10 professional teams.

“That will be a decision he has to make,” said Eric Fernandes, Luke’s father and high school coach. “We really believe in Coach Gambino at BC.”

Fernandes, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound, right-hander, experienced arm trouble last year and didn’t pitch because of weakness in his shoulder.

He came back through rehabilitation but then developed some elbow soreness. His dad had him on a 70 pitch count when he faced defending Class A state champion Cheverus a couple of weeks ago, but after a shaky start he settled down and pitched into the seventh inning, finishing with 101 pitches.

Marshwood and Fernandes won the game 6-3 after he fell behind 3-0 early but settled down and pitched hitless ball through the middle innings.

“The first inning I just had the wrong approach,” he said. “I wasn’t spotting fastballs and I wasn’t changing speeds effectively.”

Eric Fernandes said Luke’s best pitch is his slider.

“It can be devastating on a right-hander as well as burying on a lefty’s hands,” Eric Fernandes said.

Fernandes throws a two-seam fastball to create movement on his pitches. He worked with former Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley in a Stratham, N.H. for a few years to develop his repertoire.

“Luke and he gravitated toward each other,” Eric said. “Bob really got him command of that two-seamer.”

Luke plays shortstop, or sometimes first base to save his arm, and is capable of playing college ball as a position player as well as a pitcher. Boston College has agreed to take a look at him in the field as well as on the mound.

“There’s something to be said for going out and playing every day,” said Luke, who admitted he’s a pitcher at heart.

“(It’s) the one-on-one stuff with the hitter and having better stuff than he does,” he said.

Fernandes has also developed a changeup which remains a work in progress.

“The only three well-hit balls off him have been on changeups,” Eric said. “He left it up.”

The Hawks are 7-2 and in first place in the Class A West standings. In addition to Fernandes, they also pitch Jake Verrill, who is headed to West Point next fall to play football and possibly baseball. Troy Pappas, who is headed to Bates College, also pitches while catcher Matthew Bernier made the Under Armor tea that is headed to Florida.

Fernandes hasn’t accepted any offers to visit schools since committing to Boston College. He likes the idea of “just knowing I had a place to go.”

A four-year player on the basketball team, baseball is his first love and his been since he was young kid.

“Baseball for me has been kind of where I can go and leave everything else (behind),” he said. “Winning games and competing.”

A, SORT OF, LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
With an enrollment of just 110 students it’s sometimes difficult for Van Buren High School to fill out spring baseball and softball rosters.

The baseball team played with the minimum nine players in 2005 and 2006 and reached the Eastern Maine Class D final in 2006. They Crusaders didn’t have enough to field a team in 2009. This spring, the seasons of the baseball and softball teams were again in jeopardy.

The softball team, it turned out, didn’t have enough players for a varsity team, while the baseball team had just 11 players.

Boys aren’t allowed to play softball under Maine Prinicpals’ Association rules, but girls can play baseball. And three softball team members — senior Naomi Maldonado, sophomore Kayla Durette and freshman Amanda Sytulek — decided to join the baseball team. Maldonado, in fact, doubled and singled in the team’s opening day 13-3 loss to Wisdom.

“I wanted to play, I was pretty disappointed when they said there wasn’t going to be a softball team,” Maldonado told the Bangor Daily News. “I thought it was a good opportunity. I didn’t have to think long about doing it at all.”

The girls were accepted withouth protest by the boys on the team who prefer a full roster to none at all.

(Read full post)

Noble & Greenough junior forward Chris Calnan has committed to Boston College for the 2013 season, head coach Brian Day confirmed to ESPN Boston.

The junior right wing joins a deep has 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points through 22 games.

Calnan was ranked 94th among North American skaters in the 2012 NHL Central Scouting Midterm rankings.

"Chris is an incredibly hard worker who works as hard off of the ice as he does on the ice to be the best player that he can be," Day said. "Watching him play it is easy to see how athletic he is. He is a big, strong, fast player who uses his size and his speed to his full advantage. He has an excellent shot and a willingness to work to get the puck in the dirty areas of the ice.

"As exciting as it is watching him grow as a player, it is equally exciting watching him grow as a leader.

Malden Catholic freshman defenseman Casey Fitzgerald has committed to Boston College, Lancers head coach John McLean confirmed to ESPN Boston Friday evening.

The North Reading resident has nine points (1-8-9) in 10 games for the defending Super 8 champions and has split time playing on the Lancers' first and second defensive pairings, along with the power play unit, in his first season.

"What he's done so far has been impressive," McLean said of Fitzgerald's time with the Lancers. "He's a high-IQ player with a great sense for the game and he sees the ice extremely well."

Fitzgerald is expected at the Heights for either the 2015-16, or 2016-17 season. His older brother, MC junior center Ryan, is committed to the Eagles for 2013. Casey and Ryan Fitzgerald are the sons of former Bruin and Austin Prep star Tom Fitzgerald.

"I'm sure the family will have a lot of fun watching them both at BC," McLean added.

Eagles head coach Jerry York was seen at MC's 2-2 tie against Catholic Conference rival BC High Wednesday night at UMass-Boston.

Is there any sports fan who hasn’t heard that cliché’ “picking up the slack?”

That’s exactly what Division I leader La Salle Academy did on October 28 when the Rams overcame the loss of quarterback Anthony Francis, who was sidelined with an ankle injury, and still throttled playoff contender Cranston West, 30-6.

Junior running back Josh Morris certainly picked up the slack in his teammate’s absence by scoring on touchdown runs of 22 and 51 yards in the first half as the Rams remained on top with a 6-0 record.

La Salle also received a lift from backup quarterback Jack Collins who came off the bench and scored on runs of two yards and one yard.

As a result, La Salle has outscored its six division opponents by a hefty margin of 234-86 and is in position to run the table which would enable coach Geoff Marcone’s team to clinch the division title and the top seed in the upcoming playoffs.

But as is frequently the case, the title and the No. 1 seed won’t be decided until Thanksgiving Day when the Rams play arch-rival East Providence (4-1) in the state’s longest-running series on that holiday.

The Townies ventured to Massachusetts last weekend and were blanked, 26-0, by Foxborough in a non-league game – due in large part to the fact they committed seven turnovers. But the previous weekend, East Providence moved into title contention by beating third-place Hendricken (4-2), 35-14, as quarterback Brandon Peters threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Victor Adewoski and ran for a pair of touchdowns.

Should East Providence and La Salle enter their Thanksgiving game still ranked 1-2 in the standings and if the Townies win which would force a tie, they would earn the No. 1 seed based on the first tiebreaker (record in head-to-head competition).

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It didn’t take all that long for Peabody girls’ soccer forward Hayley Dowd to capture the Tanners’ record as all-time leading goal scorer. The junior notched her 92nd career goal earlier this month in a 6-0 win over Salem, breaking Justine Hartigan’s career record in a little more than two seasons’ time.

The BC commit still has plenty of games ahead of her and the dynamic striker doesn’t plan on slowing down as the No. 6 Tanners look ahead to a deep postseason run.

We caught up with Dowd after a recent match in Swampscott to talk about her record, a recent trip to England and what the deal with this “Biddy” pride is all about.

Q: Did you know that you were closing on the school record?

A: “I knew I was close, but a couple people called from the local newspapers and they told me when it happened. They called me before I got to record asking about it. It’s great. It’s a great record to have.”

Q: Was it a goal to set the record this year?

A: “It’s a different year. We lost two of our best midfielders from last year and we have a couple of forwards who have taken on a different role. As long as the win the game, I don’t really think about scoring. I’m just happy that we’re coming out on top in a lot of these games.”

Q: How have your teammates helped you along in setting that record?

A: “They’ve been great. Especially in the last couple of years, I haven’t had to run after the ball, they’re able to win the ball and get it to me, which is great. I credit a lot of it to them because I wouldn’t have those goals without them. I think it starts with the defense. A person that’s stuck out in my mind has been Bianca Muscato. She stops everything that comes to her. One girl who used to play on the outside, Katie Brunelle, has stepped in great in the middle. She wins everything that comes her way and she works hard. Also, my other forward, Victoria Digiacomo, working with her has been great this year. We set up each other a lot, it’s been fun.”

Q: With those changes to the lineup, how do you feel the team is coming along?

A: “We had a little bit of rough start earlier in the season and we weren’t playing that well. But we’ve come together as a team more. We’re playing great as a team defensively and then the transition game to the forwards has been really good.”

Q: You played in England with your club team against some of the UK’s best club teams. What was that experience like?

A: “I play for Stars Mass and the league that I play in invited me and [Corey Persson] from Danvers to go and play. I’ve always wanted to go to a foreign country and England was a place that I really wanted to visit, so I really wanted to go there. We got to see a game over there, so that was cool. It’s just great that they’re men’s teams have women’s teams now. We went to Chelsea and they have like 30-plus fields at their facility, it was wicked nice -- unbelievable.”

Q: You made your commitment to BC last year. What went into making that decision?

A: “I thought at first that I wanted to go far away, California or someplace like that, but I started thinking about it and realized I wanted to be closer to home. My family comes to a lot of my games, my mom, my dad, my grandparents, so I thought it would be nice so that they can come and watch me. That made it pretty easy. It’s a half hour away from our house, so it’s far enough to stay away, but it’s close enough to come home. The success they’ve had definitely helps, too. There are three girls now from Massachusetts who play for Stars that are older than me that are there and two girls on my club team who are also going there, so it’s great.”

Q: What are the team goals for the rest of the season?

A: “Well, we wanted to make the tournament and we already qualified, so that’s good. We want to win the league and do well in the tournament. We had a bit of rough tournament last year, so hopefully we’ll get past the second round this year.”

Q: What’s the story behind these “Biddy” t-shirts everybody’s wearing? (Dowd was wearing a “Biddy Soccer” t-shirt at the time)

A: “We’re kind of crazy. That’s what we call ourselves. I don’t know when it started, but a couple years ago, it just kind of stuck. It comes from when people say Peabody, it’s the ‘Biddy’ at the end. So we just kind of cut it down and it becomes ‘Biddy.’ I know it’s crazy.”

Q: That makes sense.

A: “Yeah, kinda.”

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today on his recruiting blog with Dexter junior athlete Abner Logan, who is hitting up a handful of one-day camps next month in hopes of increasing his exposure.

UMass, Towson and Florida International have already offered the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Cambridge native. He told Brown he plans on visiting one-day camps next month at Boston College, UConn, Florida, NC State, Northwestern and Syracuse; he'll also take an unofficial visit to FIU following his trip to Florida camp.

"It's frustrating to see other guys ranked where I am who have 10 or 15 offers right now," Logan told Brown.

His head coach at Dexter, Casey Day, thinks it might be just a matter of patience for Logan, who is being recruited at either linebacker or running back, depending on the school.

"We knew the month of June is when he's going to get the majority of his offers," Day told Brown. "He's an excellent student and he's doing everything right. I think it's just a matter of time.

"I think he's definitely a kid who should have five to 10 offers right now, so he is a little frustrated. I'm not sure if it's his height [Logan is 6-foot-1, 225 pounds], the competition we play or what."

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today on his recruiting blog with two of Worcester Academy's football stars who led the Hilltoppers on the gridiron this past year, athlete Canaan Severin and quarterback Jon Pieterse.

Severin, a Marlborough native, told Brown that he is now up to 10 scholarship offers, having added Western Michigan and Syracuse to the stack. Boston College, Rutgers, Virginia, NC State, Iowa, Penn State, UConn and Villanova are the other schools offering for the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Severin, who repeated his sophomore year at Worcester Academy after transferring from Marlborough High. Maryland is also on the radar.

Coaches from Boston College, Connecticut, Penn State and Notre Dame also stopped by Worcester Academy's campus this week. Severin told Brown that Stanford was scheduled to visit today.

“I think I have to do a lot more research on the schools,” Severin told Brown. “One of the coaches gave me some good advice. He said, ‘You have to see a lot of schools before you know which ones you like and don’t like.’”

As for a decision, Severin says there is no rush.

“I probably won’t decide until after my senior season,” he told Brown. “I don’t want to rush anything. This is one of the biggest decisions of my life.”

Meanwhile, Pieterse told Brown that he will be pursuing a post-graduate season at Salisbury (Conn.) next year.

Pieterse -- who missed most of his junior year with a broken collarbone -- took an unofficial visit to Central Michigan earlier this month, and told Brown he plans to visit Purdue and Pitt as well.

“The bigger schools suggested I do a postgraduate year,” Pieterse told Brown.

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today with Tabor Academy junior linebacker Jason Sylva, who will end up staying at the Marion prep school after all.

A month and a half ago, the Plymouth native told Brown he was transferring and considering New Hampton (N.H.), Tilton (N.H.), Trinity-Pawling (N.Y.) and Cheshire Academy (Conn.).

"I do my school work, it's just really tough academically [at Tabor]," Sylva told Brown at the time. "I had a good season here, but I still don't have any offers. Some of those places have produced quite a few [FBS] players."

Now, he seems set on staying.

“I really considered leaving,” he told Brown. “I thought I would be someplace different next fall, but the coaches here helped me out with a few things. I’m commuting to school instead of living on campus, so I get to go home every night. Things are a lot better now. I’m hoping the next step is that first offer.”

The 6-foot-2, 224-pound Sylva plans on attending camps at UConn, Temple and Maryland this spring, and is still holding out hope for a scholarship offer from Boston College. In the meantime, the University of Utah has begun to reach out for his services.

“Utah is beginning to show a lot of interest and I’m going out there for a visit on June 18,” Sylva told Brown. “Their linebackers coach wants to work me out during a one-day and I got the impression they’re interested in offering. They told me coming out for a visit would be worth it. It’s a nice area and it might be something different. It might be something I’m interested in. That would be a huge offer.”

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today with New Hampton (N.H.) quarterback Jake Kiley, who is drawing interest locally from Boston College and UConn, primarily as a wide receiver or defensive back.

"I met with [BC assistant coach] Sean Devine briefly and they want me to go to a one-day camp," Kiley told Brown. "If I perform there I think I'll be OK. I think I'll be going to their first session [of summer camp]."

Kiley, who has been clocked as fast as 4.56 seconds in the 40, also told Brown that he thought he was close to getting an offer from UConn last season before head coach Randy Edsall bolted for the same position at Maryland.

"I think I'm still in the running for an offer from UConn," Kiley said. "I think I'll know by the time I attend a one-day camp there. I really feel like if I go to camp and do OK I'll be all set."

Kiley, whose father Ed is the head coach at the New Hampton, N.H. prep school, plans to attend camps at BC, UConn, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Duke and Penn State this summer.

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today with talented Billerica junior quarterback Nick LaSpada, who has some surprising top choices from what is expected to be a long line of suitors in a few short months.

LaSpada earned a spot on ESPNBoston's inaugural MIAA All-State Team last fall, after a season in which he accounted for more than 3,800 yards of offense and 40 touchdowns for an Indians team that sputtered to a 5-6 campaign after a hot start. And with it, his list of Division 1 interest has grown, from Notre Dame to the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.

Currently LaSpada, who wants to major in criminal justice, plans on attending camps at Boston College, Maryland and Harvard this summer. And perhaps to some peoples' surprise, it's the latter of that group where LaSpada says he is leaning towards right now.

"Harvard has been coming on strong lately," LaSpada told Brown. "I’m really interested in them. I’d definitely say Harvard is my top choice right now. They said [admission] shouldn’t be a problem as long as I have good SAT scores. I’m going to take those in May."

LaSpada -- who was the first sophomore in history to be named the state's Gatorade Player of the Year, in 2009 -- also told Brown that BC could move to the top of the list if they were to offer, as he prefers to stay close to home.

"They’re looking at me as a quarterback, but also talked about me playing slot or safety,” LaSpada told Brown. "They asked me if I have a preference and I told them I don’t."

ESPN's Adam Finkelstein checks in today on his recruiting blog with New Hampton junior forward Zach Auguste, who has been attracting the eye of a handful of Division 1 college coaches this week.

Most notably, Finkelstein writes, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett and his staff arrived on the New Hampton, N.H. campus last Friday at 6 a.m. to watch the 6-foot-9 Marlborough native work out. Auguste, who transferred to New Hampton last year from Marlborough (Mass.) High and repeated his junior year, currently holds six scholarship offers: Boston College, DePaul, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Penn State and Wake Forest.

"I haven't seen any campuses yet," Auguste told Finkelstein. "I'm going to wait until the fall to do anything but I'll have a decision before the season starts."

Auguste has seen his lanky, raw potential turn some heads in his first season with the Huskies, who advanced to the NEPSAC Class AAA Finals this season. As Finkelstein writes:

Auguste is a long and athletic forward who has started to turn raw potential into more consistent production within the last year. The latest in a long line of skilled big men to come through the Mass Rivals AAU program, he was groomed by coach Vin Pastore to follow in the footsteps of guys like Michigan's Evan Smotrycz and Wake Forest's Carson Desrosiers, who were big but nonetheless extremely skilled on the perimeter.

With that foundation already in place, Auguste arrived at the New Hampton School and began to add a low-post game under the tutelage of head coach Pete Hutchins, incorporating a jump hook into his arsenal and gaining valuable experience playing under the boards in arguably the most talent-laden league in the country.

Now, while he's still far from a finished product, Auguste shows signs of being a true mismatch forward, equally capable of scoring and rebounding in the paint as he is shooting or driving off pick-and-pop action on the perimeter.

And when you're his size and capable of doing all of those things, coaches are only all too happy to wake up early to see you work out.

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school basketball talent, be sure to check out Finkelstein's ESPN blog as well as his New England Recruiting Report.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today with Duxbury junior wide receiver Don Webber, who is taking visits to three Division 1 schools in Virginia this week.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Webber -- who reportedly runs a 40-yard dash in 4.44 seconds -- is set to visit Richmond, Virginia and William & Mary this week. He told Brown he was at Boston College's spring game last weekend, and says he will "definitely" be attending camps at BC, Brown and Harvard.

This past fall, Webber set a school receiving record with 52 catches for 921 yards and 10 touchdowns, for an average of 17.7 yards per catch, as the Green Dragons went 13-0 and captured the Division 2A Super Bowl title. He could be in for an even bigger season this fall.

"He has size and speed that you don't see too often," Duxbury head coach Dave Maimaron told Brown. "Great pair of hands and he's getting better at his route running. I know he has some interest in Cal and that he's sent stuff to Northwestern. He's just looking for a school that offers a good education.

"He's getting a lot of Ivy League interest, but a lot of [FBS] schools are starting to show interest as well. He's getting mail from all the Top 20 schools in the country. I think he's gonna have a tough decision to make."

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today on his recruiting blog with Buckingham, Browne & Nichols offensive lineman Dan Connaughton, who took in UConn's spring game this past Saturday.

Connaughton, a 6-foot-3, 275-pound junior, currently holds an offer from Bryant and has been hearing regularly from the Huskies as well as Boston College, Maryland and BYU. Connaughton, a Lincoln resident who is the cousin of St. John's Prep two-sport star Pat Connaughton, told Brown that BYU is coming on Wednesday to watch him work out.

"Right now I have no idea where I want to go. I'm hoping to play [FBS] football and I'm keeping all my options open," Dan Connaughton told Brown.

He also told Brown he plans on attending one-day camps at BC, UConn and Maryland.

"Coaches have told me they like my technique and the way I use my hands," he said. "I'd definitely like to get my decision done before my senior season, but if it happens after my senior year starts that's really not a big deal."

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

Sudbury resident Carolyn Swords was selected last night in the second round of the WNBA Draft, going 15th overall to the Chicago Sky.

The 6-foot-6 Swords -- who led Lincoln-Sudbury to a Division 2 state title in 2007, before enduring an All-American career at Boston College -- was one of 15 players on hand for the presentation at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn.

ESPN's Mechelle Voepel, blogging the event, had the following to say of Swords:

Don't discount the Sky's second-round picks, Boston College's Carolyn Swords and Tennessee's Angie Bjorklund. Swords is 6-6 and shot 72.2 percent from the field this season, 67.7 percent for her career. True, that's not against the physicality of WNBA defenses, but some players couldn't shoot that well against no defense.