The entire Ellenville community should take pride in the job done by the good people who put on another successful Blueberry Festival last Saturday. Despite some morning rain, the day turned out nice as thousands of people found their way to Canal Street. Another example of what our community is capable of doing, and sometime soon people from outside our area will again realize what a beautiful area we live in. Shame that none of the area's major daily newspapers saw fit to cover the event……….Always enjoy running into former Ellenville Blue Devils athletes and I didn't have to go too far when I saw Donnie Langlois in the Lighthouse Deli last week. Langlois was a slashing running back with great speed who toiled behind Blue Devils stars Ray Younger Jr. and Mark Logan during his playing days. Langlois ran straight up and with his thin frame was taken lightly by some opposing defensive players who tended to concentrate on Younger and Logan. Those players often realized the error of their ways as soon as Langlois broke a tackle and was racing down the sideline for a touchdown. When I ran into him, Langlois was wearing a different uniform, that of the Ellenville Police Department. I coached Langlois when he was a player on our back-to-back undefeated junior high teams. Always a quiet and respectful young man, Langlois makes it an honor when he calls you "Coach," and it is as much an honor when you get to call him "Officer"……….It appears that the Ellenville Blue Devils football team will have a difficult time repeating as Section 9 champions after losing a good portion of their starting team to graduation. The thinking here is that the Blue Devils will be in every game if they can find a quarterback who can hand the football off to a running back and that running back can run behind offensive linemen A.J. Borriello and Donald Corso. And we don't care if the other team knows that is what we are going to do……….It is always an emotional time when your kid heads off to college. The feeling is very similar when kids you used to coach head off to college. This past week several members of the Ellenville H.S. Class of 2009 stopped by to say goodbye. It will be a long time before the Blue Devils see another group with as much "class" as this one. There were no truly great individual athletes in the class of 2009 but there were a lot of hard-working, dedicated athletes, and they will represent us well when they arrive at their chosen colleges or universities — kids like Sebastian Constable (Air Force Academy), Matt Rogers (Cortland), Sam Pozorski (R.P.I.), Jesse Warner and Adam Wenig (Buffalo State), and Tim Campbell (Binghamton). Most won't play college sports but they certainly did themselves proud when they were at Ellenville. This group proves that average athletes who work hard, are disciplined, and believe in the team concept can achieve great things. They are great models for future Ellenville athletes……….Haven't heard from my good friends Jim Pidel and Bob Edelman in a while, but I caught the two talking on Pidel's Sunday Morning Java show on WELV last week. Edelman, a former Ellenville teacher and basketball coach was commenting on my recent article about the vacant varsity girls' basketball job, saying, "It's not that easy to find a qualified coach." To which I respond — other schools do it, so why can't we? Pidel offered that "there are plenty of qualified" people in the district who could take the job. If Pidel is correct, then why have both the boys' and girls' basketball programs been so bad for so long?……….Former N.Y. Giants receiver Plaxico Burress will soon begin serving a two year sentence for possession of a handgun. Who cares? One has to wonder though if Burress were not a wealthy, spoiled professional athlete with a lousy attitude if he would have gotten this sentence. There are probably hundreds of criminals running around N.Y.C. who have committed the same crime and are doing no time because their name isn't Plaxico Burress. Petty criminals don't make the front page of the N.Y. Post. That doesn't excuse Burress from being an idiot……….Far be it for me to point this out to all my friends who are loyal fans of the New York Metropolitans that the Yankees just took another series from the hated Boston Red Sox while the Mets were having a late-inning rally snuffed out by an unassisted triple play. Ouch!……….And for any of the people out there who say that Derek Jeter simply is not that good a player (he can't range to his left, he doesn't hit enough home runs, he's an average fielder, etc.) check out his statistics. The Yankees captain has numbers that match up against any shortstop of any era………..Former Michigan State All-American wide receiver and Detroit Lions first round pick Charles Rogers is attempting a comeback in the N.F.L. When he was drafted, Rogers had tremendous skills and blazing speed and was expected to be an N.F.L. star but was out of the league within three years because of repeated drug abuse. Rogers, who was recently released from prison appeared on television in a miserable attempt to show N.F.L. teams he was a rehabilitated man and worthy of another chance. Rogers, who has also been in trouble for physically abusing the mother of one of his seven children (by four different women), admitted that he smoked marijuana every day for the three years he was in professional football. When the reporter asked Rogers if he was an addict, Rogers paused before answering, "Yeah, if that's what will get me another shot in the N.F.L." You can bet that some N.F.L. team will take a chance on this loser……….Saw Ellenville Assistant Superintendent of Schools Ron Chiasson at the Blueberry Festival. Chiasson, one of the most positive people you will ever meet, was an outstanding high school coach before becoming a school administrator. Wonder if Chiasson is interested in coaching the girls' basketball team?……….Nice article on Ellenville teacher Tim Lukaszweski and his family in last Sunday's Kingston Freeman………until next time!