With spring break out of the way, NECC is on a fast track to the end of the semester and the graduating class of 2016 may be faced with the grueling task of preparing themselves for job interviews.
A college degree and a new pair of shoes is great place to start, but sometimes you have to be the cutest puppy in the basket to be chosen from an endless sea of prospects. I don’t mean that you have to have perfect skin or be physically fit, but you’re going to need charm and it definitely won’t hurt to brush up on your social skills. And for goodness’ sake, SMILE!
I know that a genuine smile can be difficult to conjure up nowadays, especially with all that is going on in the world and your own personal obstacles, but a smile, no matter how big or small, can be contagious and can leave a great first impression on a potential employer. A firm handshake and lots of eye contact will get you even further toward that second interview.
Believe it or not, the person who reads your resume will probably do a background check on you and more than likely try to snoop around in your Facebook posts and pictures. So, you may want to reconsider some of those spring break selfies you uploaded. If you have friends that insist on repeatedly tagging you in a “keg-stand” photo from two years ago, it may be time to clean up your “friends list” or explain to them that you are trying to land a job and would appreciate their cooperation in maintaining a new level of professionalism.
Being connected is a great way to keep in touch with family, friends and co-workers. Additionally, email and social media is user friendly even for those who are extremely shy or tend to experience social anxiety. However, the keyboard can be a dangerous tool that can ultimately hurt you and your career. Many times, we are quick to type things we would never say to someone’s face and we have to ask ourselves: has social media completely abolished social grace?
I remember getting ready for my very first job interview and my mother saying, ”Remember, if you don’t have anything nice to say… don’t say anything at all.” I guess a more current rule of thumb would be to never email anything that you wouldn’t want your boss to read.
Although it seems normal to see an electronic device in the hands of, well, pretty much everyone on the planet, leaving your phone in the car will impress the interviewer and help you focus on your surroundings, especially if you know that you have a hard time resisting the urge to text or surf the Web.
Not to be confused with “FaceTime” the app, the art of face-to-face conversation is one that is truly becoming lost. Nevertheless, it is a requirement in much of the corporate world. A modern interview is not simply a collection of closed-ended questions that can be answered with a monotone “yup” or “nope” but a series of verbal essay questions. So, don’t be surprised if the interviewer says “tell me about a time that you went above and beyond the call of duty at your previous job.”
For more sample interview questions, you can visit www.best-job-interview.com.
Employees who possess interpersonal skills are primed and ready to be promoted to leadership positions, which will lead to financial growth and a successful future.
Isn’t that why you came to college in the first place?
All posts by Observer Staff
HC Media internship opportunities continue
HC Media continues to work with NECC internship program
Cassie Ellson is a twenty-year-old Art major at NECC. She took the Video Field Production class at HC Media, after which she remembered they had talked about the internship positions that would be opening in the next semester. Lance Hidy, graphic design professor, was coming around to the art classes and trying to recruit people for the internship program.
“I thought, why not?” she said.
Ellson is doing the Italy trip this semester and since she doesn’t have classes during the week, which is partly why she decided it would be the best time to do an internship.
She plans on transferring somewhere to pursue film and animation after NECC.
She edits footage to create shows, helps out when they do shows in the studio with setting up cameras and putting the set together for the show.
“I’m listening to music for the radio right now to make sure there aren’t any swear words,” she said. “I kinda love it. Everyone is wicked cool here and it’s just fun. Even when I’m just sitting there staring at the computer, I’m enjoying myself.”
Her goals included to get better at editing, working with the cameras and to improve her communication skills with others.
The first show, which was about 45 minutes long, took her a couple of days to edit completely as she got more familiar with the Adobe Premiere software. The second show she edited was about four hours, but she was able to complete it in one day. As she got more experience, she was able to work more efficiently in shorter amounts of time.
She was able to work in the control room on a live shoot one day where she had to be in control of switching between shots, which she said was stressful.
“I was afraid I was going to hit the wrong thing,” she said.
She did similar work at Salem High School in New Hampshire, where she took a two-year course in TV Production and got to do a little bit of everything.
Ellson is in the internship class that focuses on art, while Columbo is in the class focusing on journalism.
“Everyone except me is focusing more on photography, but it’s still really helpful,” she said. The class is helping her to put together her portfolio and resume for future employers. They helped her to remove unnecessary information from her resume and to also make sure she has all the crucial information that she needs to have on it.
“I definitely recommend doing the internship program. It’s valuable,” she said.
Carly Columbo is a twenty-year-old Communications major with a focus in journalism.
She wants to transfer once she graduates and continue to pursue communications, although there is such a broad range of jobs in communications that she wants to explore every avenue of it before making a decision. She is primarily interested in journalism and public relations.
She also took the Video Field Production class. After the class was over, she was able to work well with the Adobe Premier software efficiently and was offered an internship from Matt Belfiore, Director of Operations at HC Media.
“I really liked editing videos, so of course I accepted,” she said.
In the beginning, she was working on editing videos for The Haverhill Journal, which she expects to continue doing throughout her internship. She also helps the employees at the station by editing videos that they have on their list of things to do so that the work gets done more quickly.
“Matt says that the interns are the glue that fill in all the little holes to put everything together,” she said.
She also got to go out and help with a shoot with camera equipment once for the Boys & Girls Club’s 110th anniversary.
“I do a little bit of everything. Mostly editing, though,” she said. “One of my goals is in the process of being reached, which was just to become more familiar with the software and to learn new functions I can do with videos to improve the quality of the sound or the picture. I am slowly but surely getting better at that.”
Another one of her goals was to become more familiar with the camera equipment which she was able to do by getting to go out and get real experience using it.
“I really like the laid-back atmosphere. Everybody is working so hard and being diligent but the atmosphere is not stressful. Everyone is really comfortable and friendly with each other. It makes working there something I look forward to,” she said. “I enjoy putting the headphones on and zoning out while editing videos. It’s something you can indulge yourself in and get into.”
She said that she loves it because she’s exploring her own major and actually feels like she has a job that is relevant to building a future career. The employees at the station are very willing to help and are approachable which has helped her with any problems she had.
“You get your own desk so you have a space to put your things. If you’re looking for somewhere to really grow in this field but also have a fun time and be in a relaxed environment, this is the internship for you,” she said.
Chris Bowden, producer and videographer at the station, is one of the employees who actively helps the interns on projects.
“Cassie and Carly didn’t have much to adjust to,” he said. “They came in with decent experience from taking the NECC Field Production class and so they were able to hit the ground running. The majority of their workload has been editing, and they’ve been stellar at it.”
NECC Students volunteer at Lazarus House
When spring break comes, students at NECC are looking for something productive to do. One of the ways they can do that is through the school’s Safe Spring Break activities. This year NECC offered students the opportunity to work in different shelters around the Merrimack Valley.
Karla Marte, a Business Transfer student, and Ray Florent, an Elementary Education major, joined seven other students and staff at the Lazarus House in Lawrence. They spent the day there cleaning the facilities and helping out with cooking.
Florent said, “There were nine of us who attended. We cleaned the place from top to bottom and organized all the food and supplies that they had on hand.”
Lots of cleaning and cooking was part of the plan for the students helping out. They were serving meatballs that day and had their work cut out for them — there were a lot of people to feed that day.
“We had to make about fifteen pounds of meatballs, and it turned out to be about two hundred,” said Florent. “I have never made that many meatballs in my life.”
Marte was assigned a number of different jobs around Lazarus House, including vacuuming stairs, rooms and area rugs. She was also a big part in making the meatballs, which was her main project to work on. She loved every minute of it, except having to wear a hairnet for the first time.
“The hair net is just a funny memory that Ray and I had, along with him unplugging the vacuum on me,” said Marte. “We were there to help out with serious work, but you can always have fun doing it at the same time.”
Alba Diaz, a Business Transfer student, did not take part in the event, but knows both Florent and Marte and feels like that people sometimes take having food to eat for granted. She, for one, is comfortable in her living situation and does not have to worry about things to eat.
Diaz said, “We take buying food for granted. Sometimes we don’t realize or even think how other people might be living.”
Even though the students went there only to help out people who need a little extra help at this moment in their life, the students did receive something in return: they had a great feeling inside of them for what they did.
Marte said, “It was a really nice experience. It’s rewarding to do something for others without expecting anything in return. I wish we had group trips to volunteer like this more often.”
Florent said, “I have volunteered at different places before and it always feels good to help out. I think students who have never done this or are afraid to should really step outside of their comfort zone and give it a try.”
Body shaming
Kim Kardashian came under fire earlier this month when she tweeted a nude, yet censored, photo of herself with the caption, “When you’re like, ‘I have nothing to wear,’ LOL.” Women are sounding off, NECC students included.
Singer-actress Bette Midler responded to Kardashian by tweeting a challenge out to her: “Put your selfie to work … for a good cause! Donate, RT, I’ll match (your money) 2-1,” with a link to her charity.
Another celebrity who commented on Kardashian’s post was up-and-coming actress Chloe Moretz. Moretz said that Kardashian should be teaching young girls that they have more to offer than just their bodies.
“I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women,” said Moretz to Kardashian over Twitter.
Jess Palmer, NECC alumna and advocate for body positivity, had a similar reaction.
“I think she’s a horrible influence for young women … She represents that beauty and outer appearances are what matter,” she said. Palmer added that she doesn’t see Kardashian’s representation of herself as authentic, suggesting the photo was probably Photoshopped.
On the other hand, Tarah MacGregor, a Liberal Arts major, said, “As much as I dislike (Kardashian), I was impressed. It took guts to do what she did in a society that objectifies her body daily, but reacts with disgust when she shares her body on her terms.”
This was a sentiment shared by many, and supporters of Kardashian have also taken their turn to speak out against the phenomenon known as “slut shaming.” According to Wikipedia, slut shaming is defined as “a form of social stigma applied to people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate traditional expectations for sexual behaviors.”
Actress Bella Thorne tweeted, “I think every woman should be allowed to make their own choices with their own bodies… and it’s not our place to tell them what they can and can’t do with their body.”
Slut shaming, body positivity and the over-sexualization of women’s bodies have been controversial, hot-button issues in the last few years with the rise of movements such as Free the Nipple, which holds the position that society should stop sexualizing women’s nipples and demonizing them for breastfeeding in public; The Selfie Movement, which is a new take on the selfie being a symbol for “self-love,” not “self-centered”; and the #365FeministSelfie project, started by a professor in Chicago, which encourages people to embrace their faces every day no matter what they look like.
“Slut shaming isn’t chill ever,” said actress Abigail Breslin to those speaking out against Kardashian. “Anybody who tries to say how a woman chooses to display their own body is wrong, is severely misinformed and misguided.”
MacGregor said woman-on-woman shaming is the worst kind. “I don’t know a single woman who has not experienced body shaming. The fact that we know the emotional toll this takes on us and use it as a weapon against each other is deplorable.”
As a self-proclaimed “healthy, plus-size woman living in a size-zero world,” MacGregor makes it a point to endorse body positivity. She sees the “body-shaming” celebrities as doing more harm than Kardashian’s initial post.
Melanie Peicott, third-year liberal arts major, elaborated on this point. “We are told to love ourselves and have confidence, but we can’t love ourselves too much because then we’re seen as conceited.”
Palmer turns to social media to give a voice to those who struggle with their own self image. She said, “It’s hard when you find yourself looking at someone and automatically judging them … It’s almost automatic these days.”
After all was said and done, two Kardashian supporters tweeted pictures of white roses and handwritten messages that she had sent them as a sign of gratitude.
One message, sent to Ariel Winter, said among the thanks, “Women supporting other women is so powerful.”
Emily Ratajkowski received a letter that ended with a quote from Emma Goldman, “Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.”
MacGregor, Palmer and Peicott all agreed that society’s standards of women are harmful. Women are being shamed for hiding their bodies, being proud of their bodies and the size, color, condition and age of their bodies.
“Women have all the power to make the world better if we worked together, loved ourselves, and loved each other more,” said Peicott.
Election update
America started this race with 16 republicans and five democrats. Twenty-six primary elections are now in the books (Editor’s Note: March 22 results not available at the time of production), here’s an update and an overview of what’s to come.
Who’s Left?
Democrats
Lincoln Chafee
Hillary Clinton
Martin O’Malley
Bernie Sanders
Jim Webb
Republicans
Jeb Bush
Ben Carson
Chris Christie
Ted Cruz
Carly Fiorina
Lindsey Graham
Mike Huckabee
Bobby Jindal
John Kasich
George Pataki
Rand Paul
Rick Perry
Marco Rubio
Rick Santorum
Donald Trump
Scott Walker
What’s Next?
March 26
Alaska – 16 delegates
Hawaii – 25 delegates
Washington – 101 delegates
April 5
Wisconsin – 86 delegates
April 9
Wyoming – 14 delegates
April 19
New York – 247 delegates
April 26
Connecticut – 55 delegates
Delaware – 21 delegates
Maryland – 95 delegates
Pennsylvania – 189 delegates
Rhode Island – 24 delegates
May 3
Indiana – 81 delegates
May 10
West Virginia – 29 delegates
May 17
Kentucky – 55 delegates
Oregon – 61 delegates
June 7
California – 475 delegates
Montana – 21 delegates
New Jersey – 126 delegates
New Mexico – 34 delegates
North Dakota – 18 delegates
South Dakota – 20 delegates
June 14
Washington, D.C. – 20 delegates
Party Conventions
The Democratic National Convention will be held in Philadelphia from July 25 to 28.
The Republican National Convention will be held in Cleveland from July 18 to 21.
During each party’s convention, delegates of the respective party will gather to select their party’s presidential candidate and running mate.
Movie Review: Eddie The Eagle
★★★ (out of four stars)
Sports movies are kind of a weird phenomenon, aren’t they? With a few notable exceptions, most of them follow one thoroughly predictable sort of formula or another — in the case of “Eddie the Eagle,” it’s the “misfit underdog is trained by washed-up former star” story. And yet, in spite of the genre’s limitations, audiences nearly always find enough to enjoy among the proceedings. Case in point: there wasn’t a single element in “Eddie” that I didn’t see coming at least a mile away, and yet I found myself smiling and laughing pretty much nonstop (save for the low points in the plot). That’s probably because of the goodwill the film builds up over the course of its running time: with superior character performances, quintessentially British humor and a touch as light as air.
The film is a fictionalized retelling of its namesake’s life story — Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards (Taron Egerton), who shocked the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics by completing his first-ever 90 meter ski jump at the event. That might sound like a strange accomplishment to be remembered by at first blush, and indeed Eddie’s story is by no means a typical tale of victory. This is a real-life “Rocky,” where it’s not about winning — it’s about a ludicrously inexperienced newcomer defying all expectations and going the distance, proving the naysayers wrong.
And boy, does Eddie have a lot of naysayers. They begin and end with his blue-collar father, who works as a plasterer and suggests that his son — who struggles with physical disabilities as a young child, only to be physically unspectacular once he overcomes them — do the same. But Eddie has his heart set on becoming an Olympian, having irked his dad countless times before by attempting to leave for the Olympics as a child, and by experimenting with all sorts of sports in the backyard (sometimes to the detriment of nearby windows). Just when his father has finally had it and delivered a crushing blow to his motivation — “You’ll never be an Olympian!” — he spies a ski slope near the plastering job site his father took him to.
“You were right, Dad. I’m not going to the Olympics,” he says. “I’m going to the Winter Olympics!”
Cue the montage of Eddie earning all manner of trophies in his new sport of choice, downhill skiing. Unfortunately, when it comes time to choose the member of his squad that will go to the Calgary competition in ‘88, the snooty British Olympic Association inform him — in essentially the same manner as his father — that he has no place there.
The unflappable Eddie won’t take no for an answer, of course, and sets out to find an Olympic sport so devoid of competition that they’ll have no choice but to let him in. His search doesn’t take long, and he’s soon off to practice ski jumping with absolutely no experience.
Watching the film, I became keenly aware of the way the human brain processes cliches, and how that can be detrimental to our ability to learn important lessons.ons. If the average person in our society had a nickel (hey, I can use cliches too!) for every time they were told to believe in themselves, never give up and/or be proud of who they are … well, let’s just say we wouldn’t have quite so many economic problems. But I’ve reviewed two films in the last two weeks now with characters who simply wouldn’t give up in the face of overwhelming obstacles — last week’s superb “Zootopia” featured a bunny who was told she couldn’t be a cop — and I have to say, despite being a hackneyed lesson, I think it’s an important lesson to learn.
We’ve all known an Eddie Edwards at some point in our lives; those people that seem like they have no chance of success, but pull everybody around them in with their infectious enthusiasm and dedication. In this film, Eddie gets a lot of people on his team by doing just that: his mother, the PR lady for the British Olympic Association and most importantly, Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman) — a character I’ve neglected to mention so far because he was made up for the movie.
Peary is the old, washed-up ski jumper that trains Eddie to jump, and Jackman plays him just right — even when he’s going through the motions of refusing to help Eddie, as is required by Screenwriting 101, we can tell by the twinkle in his eye that he’s already caught the bug. And while the character may be fictional, I can see why he was written in; Jackman’s support — through humor and the occasional motivational speech — is crucial to the success of this version of the story, and his own little arc (involving a beef with his old coach, played by a sleepwalking Christopher Walken) adds some heft to his character, as well.
As a final note, you may anticipate that ski jumping is perhaps not the most exciting sport in the history of the Olympics, nor a particularly exciting one to watch on film. I dare you to watch the whole movie through and tell me the final skiing sequence — a ludicrously over-the-top bit complete with zooming, exaggerated reaction shots, slow motion and goofy green screen — is not one of the most hilarious and enjoyable stretches of sports film you’ve ever seen. Like Eddie himself, the film may not be perfect — far from it, in fact — but it pulls you along by the sheer magnitude of its spirit.
Holiday 2015 Movie Reviews: Hunger Games, The Night Before & More
The holiday movie season is here, and that means a flood of great (and not-so-great) film entertainment for your viewing pleasure. I’ve done my best to sort the tripe from the treasure, hand-picking one film each from four different genres — action/adventure, animation, comedy and drama — to check out on your days off.
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2”
Action/Adventure
This fourth entry in the “Hunger Games” series sees Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) take the war for Panem to the Capitol itself, gaining an opportunity to confront the diabolical President Snow (Donald Sutherland) at last.
The higher focus on action does mean we see less of our favorite characters, like unflappable Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and clever Plutarch Heavensbee (the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman), but the greater focus on Katniss and brainwashed beau Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) allow Lawrence and Hutcherson to turn out their deepest and most affecting performances as these beloved characters.
Perhaps best of all, this unflinchingly grim, mature portrait of war — and its willingness to venture into tense political territory — doesn’t pull punches for the sake of its target audience, a thing to be savored in this era of diminishing returns.
“The Good Dinosaur”
Animation
It’s not even in the same stratosphere as “Inside Out,” which came out earlier this year, but director Peter Sohn’s contribution to the Pixar catalog is a good-natured and gorgeous little Western.
The story reverses the roles of human and beast, following young Apatosaurus Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) and caveboy Spot (Jack Bright) as they attempt to find their way back to the mountain where Arlo’s family lives. Along the way, they find ways to bridge the communication gap between species (Spot, as part of the role reversal, is the one lacking language) in the movie’s best tearjerker of a scene, and discover they have more in common than they might have otherwise thought.
The movie’s thin plot and intermittent exchanges of dialogue might make this a bit of a slog for adults in the audience, but at least they’ll have plenty of eye candy to look at in the meantime — Pixar renders their most stunning, lifelike scenery yet here.
“The Night Before”
Comedy
HHH
You’ve got to hand it to him: Seth Rogen may have played the chubby, druggy slacker-dude a few too many times in his career, but he hasn’t exhausted the laughs he can get with his lovable loser character. This time around, he’s Isaac Greenberg, the oafish BFF to two other goofballs by the names of Ethan Miller (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Chris Roberts (Anthony Mackie).
Ethan lost his parents in a car accident fourteen years ago, so to cheer him up, his friends created an annual Christmas tradition of silly slackerdom: Chinese food. Intentionally bad karaoke. The piano at FAO Schwarz made famous in Tom Hanks’ “Big.” But now, with Roberts taking care of a superstar career in the NFL and Greenberg with a baby on the way, it may be time for Ethan to face the music: his friends are growing up.
Oh, all right, so the premise is unoriginal and the quality of the jokes is uneven, but there are too many belly laughs here for anyone to care. One particular sequence, involving a series of explicit photos sent to Rogen via text message, had me seeing stars and gasping for air.
“Creed”
Drama
Who’d have guessed that this de facto “Rocky VII” could be not only good, but the best in the series since John G. Avildsen’s 1976 original? Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) quits his white collar job just after getting a promotion, and his mother senses the reason why: he’s going to fight. She knows this obsession with violence well, because she’s the widow of the late Apollo Creed — Rocky’s rival-turned-pal who died in the ring with Ivan Drago in the absurdly schlocky “Rocky IV.”
But the movie spares us flashbacks and plays it straight, which allows us to believe in the characters — for the most part, anyway. Although we’re never quite convinced of Johnson’s (later Creed’s) motivation, his camaraderie with Stallone’s iconic boxer — who, naturally, trains him to take on his father’s legacy — is surprisingly poignant, and the relationship he nurtures with quirky singer-songwriter Bianca is a worthy match for Rocky’s decades-old romance with Adrian. Yeah, “Pretty” Ricky Conlan isn’t up there with the original Creed, Mr. T’s Clubber Lang and Drago as a great over-the-top villain, but this is one movie that can survive on the virtues of its heroes alone.
Knights wrap up December games
In December the NECC Knights played 5 games, 4 away and 1 home. They played Roxbury, Bunker Hill, Springfield Tech, Southern Maine CC and Gateway (Conn).
On Dec. 1 at Roxbury, the Knights won 83-79. Roxbury outscored the Knights in the second half, 44-36, but that was not enough to reel in the “W.” Knights player Kevin Brito scored the most for NECC with 18 points. Matt Jameson and Bryan Morales were close behind, both with 13 points.
Roxbury did top the Knights in 3-point field goal percentage, with 30 percent compared to NECC’s 27 percent. They also beat the Knights free throw percentage and made more rebounds than the Knights.
After Roxbury, the team traveled to Bunker Hill and was handed their only loss in December and their first road loss of the season. Bunker Hill defeated the Knights 122-102.
The high scoring game saw Knights, Morales score 22 points, Dominic Dar with 19, and Jonathan Paulino scored 14 points.
On the other side of the court, Bunker Hill players Fredens Deneus and David Stewart scored 21 and 22 points respectively and both made 4 out of 5 of their free throw attempts.
NECC then traveled to Springfield Tech and won 99-64. Jameson and Matt Lynch shined in this game. Jameson scored 16 points and Lynch had his best game of the season, scoring 15 points and made 3 out of 5 of his 3-point attempts. Each team recorded 38 rebounds.
When NECC came home after their 3 games on the road, they faced Southern Maine Community College in one of the most exciting games of the season. The Knights won the really close game 81-76.
The Knights and Southern Maine traded the lead multiple times in the second half. Morales was once again the star for NECC, he scored 25 points and made 7 out the 14 3-point attempts. Dar scored 19 points.
In the final game of December, the Knights traveled to Gateway (Conn.) and capped off the month with a close 80-72 win. The game was in Gateway’s hands after the first half, up on NECC 35-25. This didn’t stop the Knights though, who scored 55 points in the 2nd half to get the win. Morales scored 21 points and made 100% of his free throws.
The Knights play 10 games in January, 6 home and 4 away.
Knights win at home vs Southern Maine
On Dec. 10, the Knights basketball team took on Southern Maine Community College at home. It was their only home game in December.
The night started with the national anthem as usual, but some things were different than previous home games. Going into the game, NECC had a 9-4 record. They had become an exciting team to watch and people started to notice. The stands were more full than any home game so far this season.
Another thing that was different was that during the anthem, the Knights put their arms around each others’ backs and swayed back and forth together, a sign of togetherness and brotherhood.
Bryan Morales started the game for NECC by scoring a 3-pointer, and went on to score even more points that, by the end of the game, would total 25 — the team high for the night.
8 minutes and 30 seconds into the game, #10 on Southern Maine CC got hit in the nose by an elbow and took the rest of the first half off because of the injury.
At the end of the first half the score was 39-30, NECC leading.
The Knights led the whole game up until there was 10 minutes and 30 seconds left in the game when they finally got the lead and went up on NECC 57-56. The Knights went back and forth with the lead for the last 5 minutes up until NECC pulled off a beautiful breakaway-turned-into-a-layup play that all but sealed the game.
The Knights won 81-76.
The Knights leading scorers were Morales with 25 points, Dominic Dar with 19, and Jonathan Paulino with 13. NECC scored 11-16 free throw attempts.
Lynch helps Knights in big season
The Knights basketball team is off to an undeniably hot start. Since NECC is located in Massachusetts, most of the team is from the same state. There is one player, though, that is from the neighboring state of New Hampshire.
Matt Lynch, a Business Administration major from Plaistow, N.H., is in his second year at NECC and playing in his second season for the basketball team. He had not played any organized basketball in Mass. until last season.
“I played Varsity Basketball at Timberlane Regional High School. My senior year (I helped) the Owls bring home their first win of the season versus Keene after starting 0 and 17 … we also put an end to the historic 81 game Division I losing streak,” Lynch said.
With the 11-4 start that the Knights have worked up to, some might call the great record surprising or even attribute it to luck. That’s not what the Knights believe: they expect to win every game on the schedule.
“Not one player on this team is surprised by our hot start. We’re surprised we’ve even lost. Every game we have at least three or four guys step up to make plays and contribute to our winning success,” Lynch said.
“All 12 of us are playing this game to add another basketball banner to our gymnasium.”
After the first couple weeks of the season, the team had to adapt when Assistant Coach Joe Tardif stepped into the head coaching position. Since Tardif took over, the team has not lost a step and have garnered a winning record in his time so far.
“Coach Tardif has handled the head coach position exceedingly well and continues to be a role model and great influence in all of our lives on and off court,” Lynch said.
Under Tardif, Lynch might have played his best game of the season on the road against Springfield Tech. He hit three 3-pointers, shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, scored 15 points and recorded 5 assists and 2 rebounds. This, all while coming off the bench.
“My ultimate goal for school and basketball is to graduate from NECC on the dean’s list and win a championship with my teammates,” Lynch said.
Lynch is also entertaining the idea of transferring to a four-year university at the end of the school year. He says he will be going to Salem State University to play basketball for the Vikings.
Lynch may be moving on after the year but he has only good things to say about NECC and the Knights.
“My basketball shining moment has been here at NECC developing skills, mental toughness and building character and values which I’ve acquired from the coaching staff. It was a tough transition into my freshman year from playing basketball for a public New Hampshire high school, to understanding, learning and training for the extremely fast-paced game style we run here at NECC. Now, as a sophomore, I realize it was worth every damn second.”
