Thanksgiving: The Springfield Reporter

An open letter to The Springfield Reporter in Springfield, Vermont

11/18/08

For starters, I want to publicly give thanks to Barb Parker for giving me what seems like a lifetime subscription to my home town weekly newspaper, The Springfield Reporter. After I read it, I pass it on to my Mom out here in California. So it is a Vermont gift that keeps on giving. The Reporter is like a time machine that takes me back to my days at Elm Hill, Park Street, Riverside, the Plazoo and Cosmos Green. Every week I secretly treasure my little read with the local home town news. News, I may add, that exists only in newsprint form. Trees and ink required, no website. Out of Google's reach and not a slave to the search engine. Old School.

I still remember the thrill of reading my name in print in the paper for the very first time when Red Forbush wrote a brief blurb about our freshman basketball campaign in 1976. So, it was with delight I read the recent screaming headline "CHAMPS! Cosmos Earn First State Football Title in 61 Years" and the 58 point explosion over Windsor in the championship game. To put that in perspective, I'm pretty sure our punchless '79 team didn't score 58 points over the course of our entire season. Congratulations to Coach Mike (do they still call him Hondo?) Hatt and his dominant '08 Cosmos team! 61 years. That's not exactly Curse of the Bambino territory, but it's only off by a generation. Certainly longer than most any of us can remember.

But reading the Reporter saddens me at times, too. A couple weeks ago I was so sorry to read the obituary of Phyllis Wyman. My sincerest condolences and sympathy go out to Richie, Jeff Sherry and Mike and your extended families. My thoughts and prayers are with you. To me Phyllis was the quiet matriarch of a Springfield sporting dynasty that is now in it's third generation. Bless her and her family.

In closing, I want to thank Coach Richie Wyman publicly, too. I know the timing is way off, but I want to do it now, while I'm thinking of you and we're both still around. It may not seem like much, but thanks for not cutting me from the varsity basketball squad my junior year at SHS. You didn't have to keep me around at the end of the bench, but you and Chip let me ride the pine that season. In hindsight, I know that the SHS hoops practice was the 'family' group that I needed to belong to, especially then. It was a completely unstructured and difficult time in my home life, and I can only wonder what would have become of me if I'd had all that time after school to myself... Today, I still find joy in playing hoops, but still can't finish with my left, and am still a notorious streak shooter, and have become infatuated with this new thing they call a 'three'. So, thanks for including me. It's not just who starts and plays and wins those games that matters. In the long run, I think whoever gets to suit up and practice every day is quite blessed, as well. Even those of us lost in those six decades between Cosmos gridiron greatness, who never came close to winning anything like a Vermont State Championship.

With gratitude and a heavy heart that will always bleed Green 'n White.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Take care,
--Scott Harrison;
SHS '79