The 23rd Annual Alumni Weekend was, once again, a huge success. Beginning on a brisk early morning at Brookmeadow Country Club in lovely Canton, MA, Alumni weekend was in full swing, with the reunions of past teammates and plenty of Coach Casey stories being shared.
Before giving a recap on the weekend, we must first give special thanks once again to the tournament sponsor Atlantic Asphalt for their generous donation to the baseball program and for allowing the tournament to be such a huge success. Without their lead, and the generous support of the Tufts family, the tournament and weekend itself would not be the same.
As mentioned above, the golf tournament got off to its normal brisk start. Shortly after a moment of silence for Bill Downing, the horn went off and golf balls began flying around the course. After a couple rough holes, many of the former Jumbo Alums began settling into their golf game as the weather began to break. For the first time in a while, the Alumni Golf Tournament was presented with a beautiful New England Spring day, enjoying blue skies and temps in the high 50’s-low 60’s. Also another first, 2012 graduate and former Jumbo captain Matt Collins, won the longest drive and closest to the pin contest. The winning team of the tournament was compromised of John Casey, Bob Kenny, Bill King, and Pat Fernan. The team draw is still under investigation by Coach Clarke, after numerous inquiries about the tournament scoring. Leading the protest is Froggy from the Pub who thinks the tournament was rigged to keep winnings in the family. Coming up short, but finishing in 2nd was the foursome made up of Jay Civetti, Dan Rigol, Peter Clay, and Robert Kenny Sr. Receiving the prize for posting the third best score was the foursome compromised of Campbell, Taft, Bishop, and Tibbets.
Following tradition, the true warriors of the golf tournament made the trek to Matt Kelly’s Pub for the 20th hole. Coach Clarke once again held down the fort, supplying pizza and beverages to all of those who attended. The music was flowing and the darts were flying. It sure was an enjoyable way to end a great day.
As Saturday morning came, Jumbo Alums began trickling into the old ballpark at Huskins for a competitive game against the 2013 squad. After taking in several fluids during a rough batting practice, the Alumni team lead by captain Steve Lapham, erupted with excitement and joy to be back on the field they had made so many memories on. With the first pitch, friendships were soon put on the back burner and the Alum showed they were taking this seriously. Taking an early 1-0 lead into the late innings, the Alumni were thriving behind great pitching and defense. A Pat Fernan homer was the only score until the 2013 Jumbos broke onto the scoreboard. Trailing 4-1 in the last inning, the Alums showed one last glimpse of fight, putting up a 2 spot on back to back doubles by Ian Goldberg and Kevin Casey. Casey’s was a generous double after pin pointing long time bat boy Tony LaRose out in right field and placing the ball one step to his left where it was clearly out of his range. Despite a tough 4-3 loss, the Alumni and 2013 team were able to share many laughs and stories around some hot dogs and Powerades after the game. Soon after, the 2013 team loaded up the team bus and headed up the Middlebury for its final weekend.
A special thanks to all those who made it out and help contributed to another successful Alumni weekend. For all of those who could not attend, we hope you will be able to make it back out for next year. We promise the 24th Annual Alumni weekend will be just as good as the 23rd. Stay in touch and enjoy the summer!