Gymnasts to get High 5 on TV Friday
Two weeks after winning the state championship, the Andover High School’s boys gymnastics team will be featured on TV. Coach Steve Sirois said sports reporter Mike Lynch of Channel 5 visited the school on Tuesday, Feb. 26. The team will be featured in Lynch’s “High Five” program, which salutes high school sports teams, tomorrow, Friday, March 1, during the 6 p.m. news broadcast, Sirois said.
As of June 30, boys gymnastics is no longer a varsity sport at seven high schools around the state, including AHS. The MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) voted to eliminate the sport in January (see Townsman, Feb. 21, Jan. 31).
— Judy Wakefield
Andover boys play father, son in PA play
Two Andover residents have key roles in the Phillips Academy Department of Theatre and Dance’s production of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs.
As the central character living in a crowded, lower middle-class walk up, fictional character Eugene Morris Jerome humorously walks the audience through his experiences and hardship with puberty, sexual awakening and a search for his identity. The character of Eugene is played by Adam Brody ‘14 of Andover. Eugene’s father, Stanley, is played by Hemang Kaul ‘13, also of Andover.
Brighton Beach Memoirs will be performed in Tang Theatre on the Phillips Academy campus, tomorrow, Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $5 and tickets can be reserved by calling the Phillips Academy box office at 978-749-4433. For more information visit andover.edu.
Free concert
On Sunday, March 3, at 3 p.m. the Phillips Academy Concert Bands and ensembles under the direction of Vincent Monaco and Derek Jacoby will perform a program featuring the music of J. P. Sousa, Holst, Copland, Colgrass, Story, Respichi and King. The concert, free of charge and open to the public, will take place in Cochran Chapel on Chapel Avenue.
Raytheon could feel pinch of cuts
Andover government might not be decimated by the possible forced cuts of “sequestration,” but Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski said he is worried about the impact of the cuts on some of the big military contractors in town.
“The only thing I’m concerned about is the effect on the defense budget,” he said. “If they cut 10 percent on defense, [some] of our largest taxpayers [are] Raytheon and Dynamics Research Corp. I can’t imagine they would cut current contracts, but any hits to defense is important for us to know.”
A Raytheon statement urging action in D.C. states, ““Raytheon is well known for its high quality technology and innovation. These attributes, coupled with a continuous drive for efficiencies and affordability, represent what our country needs for lowering costs and achieving fiscal goals, rather than further deep, indiscriminate budget cuts,”
Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, one of Andover’s two U.S. Congress members, said cuts to the defense budget would be massive. She noted that sequestration calls for $500 billion in military cuts and another $500 billion in cuts to non-defense, non-discretionary, like education, energy and the environment. Social Security, Medicaid, veterans benefits and military pay are not affected.
“It’s not looking particularly hopeful,” she said earlier this week. “We haven’t had a single vote on this in the new session.”
— Bill Kirk
Eggs and say cheese
Andover Public Schools will recognize National School Breakfast Week, March 4 to 8 increase awareness of the school breakfast program .
Using the theme of “Be a Star,” cafeterias will celebrate with special menus, decorations and activities to encourage students to eat healthy before they head to class. The cafeterias will offer taste tests of new breakfast items on Tuesday and milk mustache photos on Thursday at all elementary and middle schools.
