The weather has shown some signs of breaking and we just have to hope that Old Man Winter will finally call it a year and go away for another eight months or so……….It would be nice if the United States government would do something worthwhile and provide a stimulus package for any Yankees or Mets fans who can't afford the outrageously expensive tickets to home games this season. You have to imagine that most loyal Bombers and Amazins fans can't afford the five or six hundred bucks it will cost you to get two ducats anywhere close to the playing field. With both teams opening new stadiums next month and the cost of better tickets artificially inflated, there will be more demand (and higher prices) for the bleacher and upper deck seats. The best thing the average fan can do is watch New York baseball via High Definition Television………. It's always good to see the high school sports teams take the field in the spring, and this spring should offer some excitement for Blue Devils fans. The Ellenville varsity baseball team returns some veteran players and will look to make some noise in the Mid-Hudson Athletic League. While the team will face perennial powers in Saugerties, Rondout Valley, and Wallkill, the Blue Devils should fare well within their division against the likes of Highland, Pine Plains, and Millbrook. Ellenville will again play neighbor Tri-Valley in the annual game at Cooperstown which is scheduled for Friday, May 22 at 1:30. The game, which is played at Doubleday Field, is always a good excuse to call in sick for the day and go support the team. Ellenville has won the last two games in the series against the Bears, and Coach Merrill Conner should be in a position to make it three in a row as the Blue Devils bring back some senior leadership in people like Sebastian Constable and Jesse Warner. Look for the team to show some improvement this season……….Ellenville varsity boys track and field coach Phil Althouse feels the Blue Devils can finally take the next step and win the Section 9 – Class B title this season. Althouse points to the depth the Blue Devils will bring to the track this year as a reason for optimism……….It's tough for me to get too excited about the World Baseball Classic. Let's just admit that a lot of other countries have caught up to us in baseball and we are not a lock to win the tournament every time it is held. Although I would feel a lot better about our chances if we could magically put nine Derek Jeters on the field every game. Look at all the nonsense you see in the world of sports today with idiots like Terrell Owens and Alex Rodriquez and you can appreciate the total class that is Derek Jeter. So if we lose the World Baseball Classic, who really cares? Now basketball, that's a whole different story. We own basketball……….It's March Madness time and it's a wonderful thing to see the entire American workforce sneaking off in the middle of the day to catch ESPN because Middle Tennessee State just upset a # 3 seed……….As teachers and coaches we are expected to be at our best at all times. Well, I had to apologize to my students last Friday because I was a little tired. It wasn't my fault. Seems the Syracuse Orangemen and the University of Connecticut Huskies couldn't decide who should win their Big East Tournament basketball game until they had played six overtime periods. It is not in me as a sports fan to watch a game and not see the end. So after Syracuse and Connecticut ended regulation tied, I decided to stay up. At the end of the first overtime period I figured we would have a winner with one more five minute stanza. At the end of the second O.T., the announcer mentioned that only once before had a Big East tournament game gone three overtimes. At the end of the fourth extra session, I admitted that it was likely I wouldn't get that Global Studies quiz I had planned to type done. After five overtimes, I imagined that this game could wind up being memorialized in song like the Twelve Days of Christmas. My mind started to run wild with possible scenarios — like how I could tell my grandkids I was saw Syracuse and Connecticut play 21 overtime periods with the final score being 247-246. In the sixth overtime period, just as reality and fantasy were fighting for control of my mind, the Syracuse Orangemen won the war of attrition and upset the Huskies to win one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever seen. The game ended just after 1:20 a.m., and who says that is not an appropriate bed time for a school night?..........I have taken Ellenville Schools Superintendent Lisa Wiles to task many times here in my column for what I perceived to be an inadequate effort on her part in producing a worthy athletic program at Ellenville High School. Truth be told, that is the only negative I can find in the Blue Devils C.E.O. Anyone that knows Wiles personally knows that she is a thorough and competent professional. Late in the winter season, my daughter took a spill in the gymnasium during basketball practice, cutting her head in a fall that produced a lot of blood and which required a couple of stitches. This was no major accident, but when an adolescent female (surrounded by a team full of other adolescent females) sees a lot of blood, well let's just say there can be some commotion. Ellenville varsity girls' basketball coach Tom Nolan is a professional and I trust my daughter is in good hands when Coach Nolan is in charge. Standard operating procedure dictates that my daughter's trip to the emergency room required parental notification. I was at a school function and my wife could not be reached. So Lisa Wiles made certain that my daughter got to the emergency room and followed the situation until my wife was reached. It is not common for a school superintendent to get that involved in an everyday incident, but if you know Lisa Wiles, then you know she would do the same for any of her Ellenville student athletes. The fact that Wiles is prudent in putting together a fiscally responsible school budget year after year is a bonus. Thank you, Mrs. Wiles……….Finally, you can walk the streets of Ellenville for many years and never find a guy as nice as Ed Brush. "Brushy" was a member of the Fire Department, the Elks Lodge, and the Sons of VFW. I first met Ed Brush when he was an assistant coach in the Ellenville Little League. As League President, I got to observe firsthand the conversations, coaching, and dialogues that often took place between coaches and players. Adults can sometimes forget the pressure and stress that an 11-year old can experience in just putting on a baseball uniform and performing in front of screaming parents, friends and relatives — especially an 11-year that might not be athletically gifted. This was never lost on Brushy. Ed Brush would sit in the dugout, pop a piece of gum into his mouth, and ask that 11-year the most innocuous, mundane question about something that was totally unrelated to baseball. The kid would get so caught up in answering the question that he would momentarily forget the task at hand, relax, and go about the business of just being an 11-year old, having fun, and playing baseball. And as the kid would leave the dugout to bat or take the field, Brushy would flash that ever present smile of his, scoping out his next unsuspecting victim, a kid who didn't yet realize that he was only a half inning away from gaining another life lesson, compliments of Coach Brush. I don't claim to have been very close to Ed Brush, but if you knew Ed Brush then you were his friend. Ed Brush took his own life last week at 46 years of age. Some have questioned if it is really necessary that a newspaper print that a person took his own life. I don't know. But I do pose this: if the one person who was always smiling, if the one guy who always brought happiness to those around him, if the man who never complained or seemed down can take his own life at such a young age — then maybe we need to take a closer look. And if even for the next few weeks we can be a little quicker with a kind word or a helping hand, or take the time to ask a friend if everything is okay, then maybe we take something from this tragedy. Ed Brush would have smiled at that.

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