Major honor for Maloney
Former Central Catholic star and current Penn State catcher Matt Maloney of Windham was named Big Ten baseball Player of the Week last week. It was the first Big Ten honor for Maloney, who was making his Nittany Lions debut.
Maloney went a combined 5 for 8 with a home run and 11 RBIs in three games — a victory over Monmouth and two wins over Army. He drove in three of the four runs in one of the Army wins.
The ex-Raider, a junior, transferred to Penn State after playing two years at Dayton.
Dom doubles up
Pelham multi-sport superstar Dom Herring hit a rare milestone this week
The senior became one of the few athletes in modern area history to reach 1,000 career points in basketball, and rush for 1,000 yards in a season on the football field. He became the first Pelham athlete to accomplish the feat.
Herrling rushed for 1,001 yards on 88 carries (area-high 11.3 yards per rush) and led area with 22 touchdowns in the fall.
Better yet — Herrling has won five state titles, four in football and last winter in basketball, and has a strong shot at another basketball crown this season.
Central Catholic and Pats
Cody Tippett, the New England Patriots’ new special teams coaching assistant and quality control coach, has a local connection. He faced Central Catholic in the 2015 Division 1 football state championship game, as a star for Xaverian Brothers. He scored two touchdowns in the Xaverian win.
Tippett is also the son of Patriots legend and NFL Hall of Famer Andre Tippett.
Tournament time
The MIAA announced that it will release its initial state tournament brackets on Saturday, with boys and girls hockey being released at 10 a.m. and boys and girls hoops released at 1 p.m. More detailed brackets with dates, times and locations will subsequently be updated.
Captains Corner
We at The Eagle-Tribune still want to honor the area’s high school captains as part of our Captains Corner series. Coaches — or parents or the athletes themselves — who would like their captains featured are welcome to submit a photo to dwillis@eagletribune.com. Photos should have all captains featured and ideally in uniform.
One Final Thought
As Michael Muldoon used to say, “If you can bring a smile to someone’s face today, just do it!
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