January 4, 2025 – Northfield, Vermont
Norwich vs Plymouth State
Men’s Basketball
My daughter turned two a week before this game. Her party was a nice family brunch. A lovely time was had by all, and the food was great. Now that my daughter starts year three I consider myself an expert in having raised a child to the age of two. With that, I have some notes to share.
Take your kid places
It sounds so simple but get them out of the house. Take them with you. By the time Claire was six months old she’d been to pro wrestling shows and hockey games and summer fairs and dinners at busy restaurants. Your kid is more robust than you think and can handle more than just staying at home in the crib.
Sure, do I get to watch a full hockey game with her or be actively engaged with the company for the full dinner? No. But I get my adult time and my kid time, and she gets more and more comfortable in different situations. Why wouldn’t I do that?
Let ’em run
Within reason, obviously, but as long as I know where the exit doors of a building are, and I can see her, and there’s little crowd then she can go pretty much anywhere. Late nights at the grocery store are great for that.
A local grocery is open until midnight every night. Sometimes its 8 p.m. or even later and she needs to burn off some energy so its off to the grocery store. Lots of aisles and room to run and explore. And it’s a ton of fun even if she ALWAYS finds a way to the whipped cream and empties the shelf out.
I listened to a great podcast featuring the comic Jimmy Carr. While they were talking about the difference in kids of today and when he was growing up he said something that will stick with me forever:
“How much independence should you give a child? As much as they can handle.”
And that’s how I live. Claire gets as much freedom as she can handle. That line only ends when she is in distress or, and this is totally just a hypothetical, she gets a good head of steam and gets lost for 20 seconds in the racks at Kohl’s as my wife and I try to triangulate her laugh.
Feed her foods. All of them
I wasn’t the best at this. It was regularly pasta, cheese, some chicken, and snacks because it was easy. My mom was right when she was babysitting a few weeks ago: watching her grow up is hard and I need to grow with her to meet her needs.
And more complex foods means she’s getting more complex herself. I’m not good with change, and my mom giving it to me straight was needed. And as I write this I gave her her first crabcake, which she took a few bites of and didn’t outright reject it. She’s really taken to soups. Give her a spoon and a cup of soup and she’ll have it. It’s a nice thing to see. More new foods, more new textures. Onward.
Kids shows are not created equal
Cocomelon can burn in the pits of hell. Caillou should be shoved down a well. Most of everything designed for kids on YouTube is absolute shit meant to create good, loyal consumers more than anything else.
Good kids TV is just good television. Bluey, of course, is tops at that. It’s a parenting show disguised as a kids show and wonderfully produced. I’ve dug up some of my old standbys from my youth like The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons which have all been taken well. And CatDog was well received too.
YouTube isn’t all bad. Hey Bear is great, especially for really young kids. Ms. Rachel is an absolute delight and everything she does is for the kids and presented in a way that isn’t sensory overload.
Be an influence in what they see and take in now because one day soon you won’t have much say and good media habits will be so important as media proliferates deeper and deeper into all things all the time.
You learn who your friends are
We live about an hour or so away from the towns my wife and I grew up in by the Mass/NH line. It’s been incredibly enlightening to see who makes a stink about driving to see us and the little one. Don’t tell me it’s too much when you regularly go 2+ hours each way to your lake house multiple times in the summer.
I’m not asking people to make us their top priority; just don’t piss on my leg and tell me its raining. And Claire is growing up fast. She’s our priority, not helping you save $1.75 on gas.
It’s definitely a bummer when it’s someone you thought you were close with but it’s always for the best. Time is the only real thing. Give time to those that give it to you.
Wait….to buy stuff
Yes, lots of things are needed when expecting a newborn. Once they’re out of that stage you can wait a bit and see what’s really needed. We never used our bottle warmer but use our bottle parts box in the dishwasher every day. We didn’t, and still don’t, buy many toys. Give her a piece of junk mail and a few crayons to color with and she’s GOOD.
We’ve gladly taken hand me downs from family and friends. A coworker gave us her playkitchen that her son outgrew. It fit perfectly into a spot of dead space in our living room and is used every day. It’s great.
It takes a village, and that includes toys. Speaking of toys….
Set toy boundaries.
No, aunt Beth. I really do not care that you thought this toy was cute. It has no off button, plays three “songs” in row before taking a break, and annoys the dog. Stop getting them.
I’m going to start giving them back going forward and dealing with the consequences as they come. Our home is our castle, our safe place. We’re not letting cheap, screeching electronics ruin that. And you shouldn’t either.
Relish the time together
Corny? Yes. True? Absolutely. These are my good, old days. This is the time I will always wax nostalgically about. Politics are shit? Economy is all over the place? There is no politics to the two-year old. There’s just mom, dad, Bella, and the small constellation of people in her life. It’s beautiful. It can be cherished every day.
I’ve made my world smaller over the last decade because the “big picture” things are so removed from my day to day in most ways and, in many cases, pumped up media creations designed to outrage you, depress you, and make you be a good viewing statistic for their metrics.
Us humans evolved to exist and comprehend communities of a few hundred people at most. We weren’t, and still aren’t, built to have all world’s anguish thrust upon us or even know things going on in places as far away as California or Singapore. Time zones were invented with the trains. We’re meant to thrive and collaborate in small villages.
I rebel. I am a dad. I try to keep my daughter from drawing on walls when we’re in public. I take her to the playground to go and down on all the ladders and slides. I hold her tight on the couch as we watch the Keepy Uppy episode of Bluey for the 15th time. That’s real. That’s what matters. That’s what I invest in. That’s my village.
America’s First Private Military College
Norwich sits in one of the valleys of Central Vermont in the tiny town of Northfield. Founded in 1819, it is, indeed, America’s first private military college although not every student at the school of 2,100 undergrads is in the military program.
The school was initially located in the town of Norwich, 45 miles south of the current campus, before moving to Middletown, CT in 1825 in an attempt to turn the contract to become the US Naval Academy that eventually went to Annapolis.
Four years later, Norwich was back at its original site and remained there for decades including through the American Civil War. Four Medal of Honor recipients in the war were Norwich grads.
A fire in 1866 burnt down the majority of the school. Northfield then welcomed Norwich into the town, and the school reopened with 19 students that year, where it has remained ever since.
Norwich is recognized by the Department of Defense as the birthplace of the ROTC program. Women were welcomed into the college in 1974, and civilians were welcomed in 1993.
And even on a blisteringly cold afternoon it was a beautiful place to be.
Hockey
When it comes to sports, hockey is king in Northfield, and that’s exemplified by the palace that is Kreitzberg Arena.
Opened in 1998, the 2,300-seat building is one of the best not just in D3 but in all of New England.
The men’s team has four national titles, the women have two. All the trophies proudly on display in the adjoining Doyle Hall.
The games have all the trappings of big-time hockey from the merchandise stand to accoutrement showcasing past successes. There’s even a sign showing how long it takes to walk a mile in the arena.
The Cadets lost to Hamilton 4-1 but much fun was had at a night at the rink after an afternoon of hoops.
Before we eat, how about a moment with Bella?
The Chili Story
Doyle Hall not only houses the championship trophies, but it acts as a connecting structure between the arena and Andrews Hall, the main athletics building on campus.
And down in that space is an incredibly varied concession stand.
The menu is furnished by one of the few restaurants in the small town of 5,900. And I mean small because when you come off the highway one of the “point of interest” signs points you toward the local Subway shop.
Anyway, that bowl of chili called my name. So, as one does, I walked up to the woman behind the counter and asked for a bowl.
“You really don’t want that.”
Um…uh…yeah, I do. I would like to exchange money for chili.
“It’s realllly vinegary.”
Um….ok. I still want the chili please.
“I’m not gonna charge you for it. I’d feel bad doing that.”
At this point I was losing my goddamn mind. If food had spoiled they’d take it off the menu, right? What was so bad about this chili? Did someone pour a whole bottle of apple cider vinegar into it? Was this just a stereotype in real life of an older small-town woman not being able to handle spice or acid? I WAS SO CONFUSED.
After talking with one of the younger workers at the stand in hushed tones I received my chili.
Thick. Flavorful. Unctuous. Meaty. It was…good? Really good? I couldn’t trust my taste buds after everything that had happened. Was it actually this good? I got an extra spoon and told my friend Sean he needed to try a scoop because I was losing my mind.
And he said yeah, maybe it’s a bit vinegary, but it’s good. It was just a good bowl of chili. But it was missing crunch. So I went back in line to get a thing of the tortilla chips used for the nachos to turn the chili into a dip.
I put my chili down on the counter to get my wallet out. Now, at the other register, a different woman was serving me. She looked down at the chili, heaved a heavy sigh, and in a “bless your heart” tone of voice quietly said:
“You really got that???”
Yeah. And I want some chips. And I’m ready to start motherfucking everyone in here because I’m feeling gaslit by the whole state of Vermont.
Nachos were five bucks, which I’d have paid, but she didn’t want to charge me and only charged me $3 for a popcorn but it turned into a nearly five-minute saga to get this all done.
I had to write this as a memory for my future self. This shit happened. I almost broke mentally over a bowl of chili. And the chips were worth it, made it even better.
Beans belong in chili. I will be taking no further questions.
The Game
Upstairs from the rink is Andrews Hall.
Aligned with trophy cases, and with the athletics on the fame adorning one of the walls, this is the heart of Norwich Athletics.
Right when you walk the school’s motto meets you on the wall: I Will Try. Trying is all you can do.
The gym itself is quite small.
One quirk was that on every single entry door to the gym was a big, important sign:
Oops.
The game was one of the final non-conference matchups for both Plymouth State and Norwich before they went into league play.
Things started great. Norwich hit a few buckets to get things going, and then the fire alarm went off three minutes into the contest.
After a few moments of confusion the athletic director came in and told us all to stay, it was just the popcorn machine smoking downstairs. Six minutes later we were playing basketball. Thanks Ed.
And once we finally got in a rhythm, Norwich shoved Plymouth State into a locker.
What certainly didn’t hurt the Cadets was having Owen Liss wearing the maroon and gold. One of the top scorers in all of college basketball, Liss came into the game averaging a shade over 25 points a contest. He’d finish with 15 today.
While the Cadets did shove the visitors in a locker to start the afternoon, they forgot to throw away the key. And Plymouth found a way to sneak back into it.
The lead that had been as big as 16 kept slipping and slipping away for Norwich. In the final minute of the half the Panthers had clawed the gap down to just two points. There was just one problem for the visitors from New Hampshire: Kohlby Murray had the answers.
His three took Norwich into the half up five points.
The senior from Fair Haven, a small down on the VT/NY border, was honored before the game for having crossed the 1,000-point plateau in a recent game.
Whenever Plymouth had a question, Murray had an answer. Whether that was by himself, like above, or finding his mates, like below.
The Cadets were able to push the lead out in the second half thanks to plays like this from Liss.
However, the Panthers couldn’t be shaken off. The gap hovered in the 6-10 point range for the majority of the second half.
The Panthers ran a diverse offense that saw four players score a dozen or more points, led by a 17-point, 9-rebound performance from Kevin Henry.
This made for fun, pressing basketball that always felt kinetic and flowing.
Of course Kohlby Murray had the answer. He always did.
And the Cadets kept a step ahead of the visitors throughout.
That was important because guys like Torran Bosworth were stepping into shots with confidence and keeping the Panthers in the game.
The game down to a single possession the Cadets went back to Liss & Murray to right the ship.
Not sure why the volume dipped out at the end, but I think I got a phone call at that time.
And the league kept growing again for the Cadets. From three to five to 10 to 13.
With 1:15 to go the Cadets had pulled out a 15-point lead. All they had to do was break a few presses and hit some free throws. Easy.
Ok, so maybe not that easy. The Panthers kept pressing with precision, and the confident Norwich attack turtled.
Murray went to the line with just under 20 seconds left. And for the first time he didn’t have the answer. Plymouth converted.
But when push came to shove, the Cadets found a way to shove the game over the line.
Norwich 75, Plymouth State 71. Final.
Time of Game – 1:55:18
Player of the Game – Kohlby Murray (Norwich): 31 points
Admission Price: Free
That was a fun one. Consider me a fan of this Norwich team the rest of the season. It’s always fun to see how other teams throughout the region play basketball. It is by far one of my favorite joys of this project, getting to see these teams in far flung corners playing exciting versions of the sport.
The only thing left to ask is, were Murray’s shoes Stitch themed?
Thanks for reading, here’s one for the road…
Through the Curtain 
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