The "New" Network Debuts

Hard to believe, but The Network may be even better than last year.

The 2013-'14 Hendricken athletic year was, as one would expect, very successful. We captured state championships in cross country, football (a record fourth consecutive) Unified volleyball, basketball (an unbelievable ride) wrestling, and baseball. We also came pretty close in hockey and swimming, and our lacrosse team even made it to the state semi-finals.

For a school that comes to expect excellence from its young men in all endeavors - faith, family, academics, and self-discipline, in addition to athletics - this can sometimes strike us as par for the course. Sometimes, it's easy to become jaded.

As most of us already know, however, our students and athletes do a pretty good job of not taking their school for granted. Always "dared to be great", as Mr. Brennan annually says to students during our orientation week, complacency never seems to be an issue in either our classrooms and/or on our athletic fields.

So....2014-'15 begins.

The Network, fresh off a 30,000+ click performance and outstanding reviews from last year, plans to hit the ground running this year. Returning are veterans Stone Freeman, Cam Brennan, Johnathan Feeny, Remy Morris, Max Zweiner, and the irrepressible Dylan "DT" Barron. Last year's success has drawn more interest to The Hawks Sports Network here in the school, and this year, as a result of more students wanting to participate, Mr. Brennan has set aside an entire homeroom so that the greater demands can be met - and greater demands there will be, as the new site requires a lot more daily maintanence than the old one. The Network veterans will even begin the year with some new equipment and new jackets.

In addition to our live coverage of Hawks' sports, The Network also produces sports talk shows, similar to sports radio. Last year our efforts in this regard led us to Patriot Place at Gillette Stadium, where the Network crew put on a sports talk show and were accompanied by Boston sports personality Pete Shepard, himself a 1985 graduate of Hendricken. We'll be opening this year with our second annual show live from Hawks' football training camp, where our guys will begin laying the foundation for the defense of their four consecutive state championships. Hopefully, we'll get a good crowd down there and kick off the Hawks' sports season in style.

Several of our signature moments from last year were in events along these lines: in addition to opening last year live from Hawks' football practice and traveling up to Gillette Stadium, we also produced a live pre-game show for the Division I SuperBowl from Cranston Stadium, and we even broadcast live, for the very first time, from the Hendricken Sports Awards in May.

And lastly, Coach Gomes is planning on taking our basketball team to the prestigious Walt Disney Classic in Orlando, Florida, during the Christmas break. There is an entire page here on The Network site dedicated to the necessary fundraising in order to make this trip a reality, and the initial plan is for The Hawks Sports Network to travel with the team. The fundraising will also help to defray the cost of the additional passengers and will also allow us to broadcast live to everyone back here in Hawk Nation all of the games in which our guys compete in the tournament.

So, strap yourselves in, everyone - it's gonna be a great year.....and The Network is gonna bring it to you LIVE.