Varsity Insider

Many Winooski High School boys soccer players are refugees. Some are so poor they can’t afford to buy own their own soccer cleats.  Enosburg remedied the situation this week.

A few days before Friday’s Division III quarterfinal between Enosburg and Winooski, Enosburg athletic director Chris Brigham dropped off 20 pairs of cleats to Winooski coach Cory Payson.  Talk about sportsmanship.

Here’s how the kind act came to fruition. During casual chitchat after the teams’ regular-season meeting earlier this month, Payson told Brigham about the hardship some of his players faced. That inspired Brigham to orchestrate a “shoe drive” to help Winooski, a Mountain Division rival.

“I’ve heard that other times and it’s kind of fizzled,” Payson said, “but I got an email yesterday saying ‘I’ve got 20 pairs of cleats; I’m dropping them off.’”

Very classy.

Payson said some of his players were wearing the cleats during Friday’s penalty kick shootout win over Enosburg, which booked Winooski’s first trip to the semifinals in the history of the program. He said he’ll make sure some of the donations reach the town’s recreational youth soccer program to help other kids in need.

Heavily recruited by college basketball coaches the last two years, Joe O’Shea spent a lot of time weighing his options.

The Burlington High School senior ended the suspense this week, revealing that he will play at Holy Cross.  The 6-foot-4 guard informed HC first-year coach Sean Kearney of his decision Friday and will join Crusaders for the 2010-11 season. O’Shea confirmed the commitment in a phone interview this afternoon.

O’Shea said he also considered offers from the University of Vermont, Yale and Brown.

More in Sunday’s Free Press print and online editions.

Eight more athletes will be added to the Cathedral/Rice Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday. This year’s honorees with the year they graduated:

Michael LeFebvre, 1966 — football, track and baseball
Gregory P. Clairmont, 1975 — baseball
Robert Waterman, 1977 — football, hockey, baseball and track
Michael Rozzi, 1978 — golf and hockey
Kristin Gladu Cieplicki, 1983 — basketball
Sara LaWare, 1998 — soccer and basketball
Kyle LaVigne, 1999 — soccer, baseball and basketball
Jamie Merchant, 1999 — soccer, basketball and baseball.

The induction dinner is scheduled for 6 p.m., Saturday at the Burlington Waterfront Courtyard Marriott.

Below are the football games the Free Press staffers are forecasting this week. Read Friday’s print edition — or return here — to see our picks. And don’t be shy about giving yours. Just click the “leave a comment” button.

Brattleboro at BFA-St. Albans

Fair Haven at Middlebury

Mount Abraham at Winooski

South Burlington at Milton

Montpelier at Woodstock

Colchester at Burr and Burton

Oxbow at Springfield

U-32 at Lyndon

Rutland at St. Johnsbury

CVU at Rice Memorial

Burlington at Spaulding

North Country vs. Mount Mansfield

BFA-Fairfax at Mill River

Essex at Mount St. Joseph

St. Lawrence at Norwich University

Castleton State College at Utica

Washington at New York  Giants

Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots

The Vermont Principal’s Association scrapped timeouts in high school soccer after a 1-year trial, VPA Director of Student of Activities Bob Johnson confirmed this morning.

“The majority of  the feedback we received about timeouts in soccer was, how can I put it politely, negative,” Johnson said.

The VPA soccer rules committee decided to give timeouts a try last season, a controversial decision that enraged the sport’s purists. The reason for implementing timeouts: If play on the pitch got chippy, coaches could use them on restarts to pause the game and simmer their players’ tempers. However, the decision boiled the blood of many area coaches, who argued — sometimes whined — that timeouts ripped the sport’s fabric.

“There was no formal evaluation,” Johnson said, “but based on the feedback we received, the rules committee decided to get rid of timeouts.”

Can you fault the VPA for giving timeouts a 1-year trial, for thinking outside the box in an attempt to promote sportsmanship? Or was it just a bad idea from the beginning?

Back by popular demand: The Free Press Fearless Football Forecast, where our crack sports staff tries to predict the winners of the high school football schedule. The annual feature will kick off in Friday’s edition. We know, there will be some head scratching; everyone thinks they can do better. Now is your chance. Feel free to critique our picks on this blog, or make your own and see how you stack up.

The week-one schedule:

Friday night (all games at 7 p.m.)

Middlebury at Colchester
North Country at Montpelier
Woodstock at U-32
Mount Mansfield at Essex
BFA at Hattford
Burlington at Brattleboro
South Burlington at Rutland
Spaulding at Mount Anthony
Champlain Valley at Burr and Burton
Mill River at Fair Haven
Bellows Falls at Moriah, N.Y.

Saturday (all games at 1 p.m.)

Lyndon at Rice
Milton at Fairfax
Mount St. Joseph at St. Johnsbury
Springfield at Poultney
Mount Abraham at Otter Valley
Oxbow at Windsor
Norwich University at Western New England
Anna Maria at Castleton State