Good morning!
They’ll be flying through the air with snow on their skis at Harris Hill in Brattleboro this weekend. The forecast calls for the proverbial kitchen sink, and to better inform you how it will affect the ski jumping your humble servant called the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association in Park City, Utah. 

Whoever answered did not identify himself and was anxious to get off the phone.

“Can a snowstorm impact a ski jumping competition?” I asked.

“Possibly,” he answered.

And that was that.

The Pepsi Challenge and U.S. Cup begins today at noon; the Fred Harris Memorial Tournament will start Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Competitors have arrived from Steamboat Springs, Norway and Slovenia, others from the Northwood School of Lake Placid and Ford Sayre Ski Club of northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Most of the locals who use the 103-year-old ski jump are members of the Harris Hill Nordic Team.

The jump (and hill) are named for Fred Henry Harris, a Brattleboro native and Dartmouth grad who was born in 1887 and founded the Dartmouth Outing Club his junior year. The club was composed of several classmates and the clubhouse was his dorm room in Fayerweather Hall.

Every ski jumper’s goal, wrote the New York Times, “is to fly off a ramp at 50 mph and defy gravity as long as possible.”

Legend has it that ski jumping began in 1809 when a Norwegian lieutenant named Olaf Rye jumped 9.5 meters, or 31 feet, surviving the jump but not the battle. He was killed in action during the First Schleswig War.

The furthest anyone has jumped at Harris Hill is 104 meters (341 feet), set in 2017 by Blaz Pavic, a medical student at the University of Maribor in Slovenia.

The gates open both days at 10 a.m. and the opening ceremonies start at 11:45. Ticket prices are reasonable considering what things cost today, $25 for adults and $15 for children ages six through 12.

****

The Dave Petrin Memorial hockey game is today at 4 p.m. at Collins-Moylan Arena. Petrin was a pharmacist at the Franklin County Hospital and died long before his time. The money from today’s alumni game will go into the GHS scholarship fund that was established in his name. 

****

St. John’s 10-game win streak ended Wednesday when Tyler Perkins hit a three-pointer with eight seconds left to give Villanova a 73-71 win at sold out Finneran Pavilion. Wooga Poplar was Villanova’s high scorer with 22 points, nothing extraordinary but I had to get that name in there.

The loss dropped the No. 9 Johnnies to 21-3 under coach Rick Pitino. “They play old school, old fashioned basketball,” said WFAN’s Joe Benigno. “They play bigtime defense, they crash the boards like crazy and they don’t shoot threes. They wear you down with the way they play defense and attack the glass.”

Shades of Jack Leaman, who coached Pitino at UMass from 1971-74.

****

The Red Sox over/under jumped two games up to 87.5 after they signed Alex Bregman. Some fans would’ve been happy giving the second base job to Kristian Campbell, but the BOB’s Jim Diamond argued that relying on a rookie prospect over a proven big leaguer is a huge gamble: “Will Middlebrooks came up, he crushed it and he flamed out. That’s what a lot of these bigtime prospects do. You go up there, you figure it out, you hit good pitching and then you can’t adjust and you’re out of the league in three years.”

Middlebrooks went from .288 his rookie year in 2012 to .227 the following season to .191 and was traded to San Diego for Ryan Hanigan.

****

Tonight will almost certainly be the last chance for hockey fans to see BC’s Ryan Leonard play at the Mullins Center. Leonard was taken 8th overall by the Caps in the ’23 draft and they’ll need him for the playoffs in two months.

Cale Makar’s last UMass game was on April 13, 2019, a 3-0 loss to Minnesota-Duluth at the Frozen Four in Buffalo. Two days later he played 21 shifts and scored his first NHL goal against his hometown Calgary Flames in the playoffs.

****

Hot Stove: The AL East will be decided by pitching and the Yankees starting rotation of Max Fried, Gerritt Cole, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt was a combined 55-36 in 2024, while the Red Sox rotation of Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello, Walker Buehler plus Lucas Giolito’s record from 2023 was a combined 47-67. … The Orioles are shortening the distance from home plate to the left field fence to anywhere from nine to 20 feet closer depending on where the ball’s hit, good news for Tyler O’Neill who signed a three-year deal for $49.5 million after making just $5.85 million and hitting 31 HRs for the Red Sox last season. … The Birds have also added a catcher, former Yankee Gary Sanchez, to back up Adley Rutschman who’s missed just 22 games in two years. … The Yankees’ new play-by-play voice Dave Sims told the Post’s Steve Serby, “I’m following John Sterling, and I’m going to be Dave Sims.”

****

SQUIBBERS: UNC football coach Bill Belichick was seen roaming the corridors at St. Sebastian’s School in Needham. Although it’s not considered a football factory, the school’s website reports that 36 players have gone on to play on college gridiron teams since 2015. … Belichick told Peyton Manning that during Super Bowl practices he’d send the team to the locker room for 37 minutes to have them get used to the long halftimes. “Usually halftime is 13 minutes,” said Belichick. “It’s easy to burn out a lot of energy with tension and anxiety by sitting and waiting.” …  The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame has announced its nominees. You take Mariah Carey, I’ll take Chubby Checker. … Tickets for the 2025 Hockey East Men’s championship on March 20-21 at the TD Garden start at $33 for the balcony up to $58 for the lower bowl, not including Ticketmaster’s junk fees.… Our man in Providence, Paul White, reports “Former Friar captain and local Rhode Island kid Parker Ford scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game for the Jets against the Bruins on Jan. 31.” … Could’ve done without Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg yelling at each other in that meaningless Super Bowl ad that was probably underwritten by USAID. … The Chiefs weren’t nearly as intense against the Eagles as they were against the 49ers. Remember Travis Kelce shoving Andy Reid? … Times like this are when I miss Sports Illustrated’s weekly lineup of football writers that included Dr. Z and Dan Jenkins. … On a recent College Hockey News podcast, Maine coach Ben Barr summed up life in Hockey East: “Every game’s a coin flip.” …  Taylor Makar has 13 goals including five game-winners for the Black Bears. As Bob Lobel would say, Why can’t we get players like that? …. Chris Russo on the Super Bowl halftime show: “I did not watch a second of it. I was too busy getting my pajamas on.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com