As a sportswriter, there are a couple of noteworthy age milestones.

1. When the players are younger than you. I cover colleges so with the exception of Troy Lauchman and I think Jackie Jaquan Rogers, that's always been the case.

2. The coaches are younger than you. Derek Kellogg is technically older than me, but by less than a year, so I'm feeling a bit old.

All that aside, I went into yesterday's press conference feeling like it was a good hire and left it feeling more so. I was legitimately impressed with how Kellogg carried himself. He seemed a little nervous at first and then had to lean because the podium's microphone seemed to be still set up for the more diminutive Travis Ford.

But he came across genuine. His jokes got the laughs he was looking for and his lines that were designed to inspire that fans seemed to hit their mark as well.

It was a subtle moment, but one that I thought reassured the crowd a little bit. After three years of listening to a coach drawl, when Kellogg said "Almah matah" shamelessly leaving his Rs behind, I happened to be turned around to look at the crowd and several people smiled instantly. This was a New England guy.

Anyway I'm optimistic. There'll be some multimedia stuff (player audio etc.) posted at the link below in a little while.

http://www.gazettenet.com/beta/category/sports

...one day til I work again...