The Beacon bump

Comedy Central fans, and more directly, members of Colbert Nation are well aware of “The Colbert Bump.” Host Stephen Colbert will take credit for any success that a guest on his show has after their appearance on The Report.

This week we will take a look back on some previous articles that were featured in this space to see if there is any reason to suspect that there could be such a thing as a “Beacon Bump.”

Bill Els:
The Lenox resident was featured when he was named assistant coach of Lacrosse at Connecticut College in Norwich. Els has also been the director of lacrosse at the Greylock Sports Camp in Becket for the last 3 years. His Camels are presently 12-3 and have reached the semi-finals of NESCAC tournament. The fact that Bill continues to commute to his job from Lenox, has had a great season and his car has not blown up tells me the “Beacon Bump” has been effective.

Need more proof?

Josh Hillman:
A Beacon two-part feature announced his being named only the fourth head professional ever at Taconic Golf Club. He was also named to succeed the very successful Rick Pohle as Williams College Men’s Golf Coach.

His team recently won its first NESCAC Championship since 2008 and has received an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships in Destin, Fla. Williams junior Cody Semmelrock was medallist (73-70), while Mt. Greylock High School grad Dylan Dethiera had 72-79 in the team’s two-stroke victory over Trinity.

Josh credits Coach Pohle for getting the team focused during the fall season and he is proud to be a part of their success.

Thomas Villetto:
We have covered his very successful golf career at Lenox High School, and now he has switched to a new endeavor, tennis. He is presently playing at no. 2 on the Millionaire team and has hit the ground running. We remind the long-hitting Villeto that he must keep the tennis ball within the white lines.

Dick Young, late New York sportswriter, once said of tennis: “Any sport that penalizes you for hitting a ball too far is not a sport.” Young was a cranky old fool and very old school.

Trevor Gliwski:
The former director of the Golf Academy at Tiburon Resort in Naples, Fla., and North Adams native traded his hours on the golf course for classroom hours to complete his insurance courses and begin his new career in southern Florida.

Always a dedicated young man, he will go on to a successful second career and maybe now he will be playing some customer golf. We must advise Trevor to consider toning down his competitive juices and let the client win on occasion; it is good for business.

Mike Martin:
The first-year head hoop coach at Brown took a 2-14 team from a year ago and made them more than competitive in the Ivy League. The Bears 8-8 league finish got the attention of Harvard’s Tommy Amaker and the other coaches. Watch out for Brown next season.

Chris Polidoro:
The Beacon covered Chris and his Pittsfield High School golf team in this space, and now Chris has blossomed out to continue his career in golf instruction. Polidoro recently became a registered PGA apprentice, a Callaway Golf staff member and a certified Callaway club fitter. He is back at the Cranwell Resort and Spa to work with golfers of all abilities and looks forward to a busy summer.

Danielle Lapierre:
The St. Joseph junior golfer took her lumps in the county championship last fall while competing against the boys. We were impressed with her attitude and ability and knew she would be heard from in the future. Now she is doing clinics with LPGA Hall of Famers Dottie Pepper and Kay McMahon. The “bump” worked for her.

***

Always looking for the local angle, we look to Kentucky Derby day on NBC. Before and after the race prior to the Derby, The Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, if you were paying attention, you saw North Adams native Kelly Wheeler tending to 2012 Horse of the Year, Wise Dan.

Wise Dan took advantage of “The Wheeler Bump” and won his sixth straight race. Kelly took her Midway College degree in Equine Management and is now working for trainer Charley Lopresti and the Phipps family in Kentucky.

Posted by Dick Syriac on May 9, 2013. Filed under Berkshire Sports Guy,Columns,Opinion,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry