Admirals aren’t the only hockey team in area
When it’s steamy outside, why not remind area fans that a sport on ice is alive and well in Hampton Roads, even beyond the Norfolk Admirals?
The Hampton Roads Junior Whalers recently re-signed numerous players for their upcoming U.S. Premier Hockey League season.
Among them are forwards Brayden Taylor of Virginia Beach and Ryan Hughes of Norfolk, who played last season for the Whalers’ Elite team.
Taylor had 16 points in 45 games and Hughes had eight points in 37 games.
The USPHL said more than 3,100 of its alumni competed in college hockey last season, and the Whalers are producing their share.
In April, defenseman Nolan Cavanagh committed to play for Division III Lebanon Valley. His brother, Regan, now competes for Utica, another D-III team. They’re sons of Patrick Cavanagh, the CEO of the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals and chairman of the Whalers. He runs Chilled Ponds Ice Sports Complex in Chesapeake, the home of the Whalers.
Nolan Cavanagh played 119 games in three seasons with the Whalers’ Premier team.
Last month, the Junior Whalers named Bobby Davis their Elite head coach and Premier assistant to head coach Colten Teubert.
Davis played pro hockey, much of it overseas, before coaching in various leagues, including the USPHL. Teubert, a 2008 draft pick of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, played briefly for the Edmonton Oilers in 2011-12 before competing for five seasons in Germany.
New racing book: Award-winning former Daily Press motorsports writer Al Pearce and Mike Hembree are set to release a book called “50 First Victories” on Aug. 1. It will describe the initial wins of some of NASCAR’s bestknown drivers. Octane Press is publishing it.
Big week for VSGA: Three Virginia State Golf Association championships are up soon. Though they aren’t in Hampton Roads, some players from the 757 will compete.
The Super Senior Stroke Play will be Monday and Tuesday at Lake Chesdin Golf Club in Chesterfield; the Women’s Stroke Play will be Tuesday through Thursday at Mount Vernon Country Club in Alexandria; and the Junior Match Play will be Tuesday through Friday at Willow Oaks Country Club in Richmond.
Beware: One of the most puzzling things of this sports season was the decision by the Lawn Tennis Association, which governs tennis in Great Britain, to exclude Russian and Belarussian players from LTA events such as Wimbledon.
I worry it sets a foolish, if not dangerous, precedent. If athletes were excluded simply because their countries’ governments committed atrocities, we would have about as many sports events as we did in late March 2020, when the world was gripped in pandemic fear. We don’t ever want to go back there.
Sports and politics are a combustible mix.
What’s coming up
The Peninsula Pilots have one of their busiest home weeks of the Coastal Plain League season at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton. They are the hosts for 7 p.m. games Sunday against Martinsville, Tuesday against Morehead City, Wednesday versus Tri-City and Friday against Asheboro.
Tuesday: A Premier Collegiate League baseball tripleheader is on the schedule for Lakewood Park in Norfolk, with all six teams in action. The Suffolk Voyagers face the Virginia Beach Sea Dogs at 1 p.m., followed by the Tarboro River Bandits against the Norfolk Redbirds at 4 and the Edenton Steamers versus the Greenbrier Knights at 7.
Saturday: Lionsbridge FC plays a 7 p.m. game against Ashland Town FC at TowneBank Stadium in Newport News. The Lions are 8-0-2 heading into Sunday’s 7 p.m. home match against Partizan Richmond . ...
Langley Speedway plans racing in six divisions, including Late Models, in Hampton.