The high school fall sports season will begin shortly. Teams have been practicing in preparation for this year’s campaign.

Leading off The Stamford Times fall sports previews is girls swimming. The Westhill/Stamford co-op swim team only lost one senior to graduation so it has a great deal of depth to work with. Veteran coach Rick Lewis said if his swimmers can step up in the big meets, it can make noise in the postseason.

Capping its summer season in tremendous fashion was the Stamford 15-year-old All-Star baseball team, which went 2-3 in the Babe Ruth World Series in Bryant, Ark., and finished fifth overall in the competition. Stamford finished 13-3 this summer and captured district, state and New England Regional championships.

There’s several photos of Stamford, taken by Phil DelMazio, playing in the World Series.

Stamford’s Boris Said won his first Nationwide Series race last Sunday by taking the NAPA Auto Parts 200 in Montreal. He edged Max Papis .12 of a second, the closest finish ever at the famed Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve course.

Mike Ballo Jr. of Stamford has achieved a lot in his young golf career and he will soon be taking the next step and turn pro later this year.

The North Stamford Express baseball team made some noise at the Cooperstown Dreams Park 12-year-old Tournament Aug. 21-27 in Cooperstown, N.Y. The Express placed in the top 15 out of 102 teams.

Karen Jewell’s Stamford Sailing Scene is also included in this week’s edition.

To get a look at the Sept. 5 edition, click here.

The Hour Publishing Co., publisher of The Stamford Times newspaper, in an effort to expand its already solid local sports coverage of the city, has reorganized its sports staff in order to help it do an even better job heading into the new high school sports season.

John Nash, who was the paper’s sports editor from November 2007 until January of 2010, has returned to that position, overseeing the weekly output of the paper.

Steve Geoghegan, who acted as sports editor from January until this fall, is going to be shifted to Stamford’s sports beat writer.

Geoghegan will be getting out of the office more and covering the city with his 13 years of experience, 10 of which has been spent as a staff writer and copy editor for The Hour sports department.

Correspondent Joe Ryan will continue in his role of helping cover the city, as well, giving The Stamford Times a three-pronged approach in giving readers as much sports news as possible through its weekly printed publication, website and sports blog.

Jim Hanley, The Hour’s sports paginator, will be handling the weekly layout duties of the weekly newspaper’s sports section, as well, freeing up the rest of the staff to increase its coverage.

“The sports scene in the city of Stamford is big enough that it’s not just a one-man job,” said Nash. “The changes we’ve enacted are going to allow us to get more people out onto the sidelines, covering the events and bringing more stories to the people who want to read them. Stamford is a sports-minded city and we’re always looking for ways to give those sports fans better coverage.”

The Stamford Times website can be found at www.thestamfordtimes.com.

The Stamford Board of Representatives will be honoring the New England Regional and Connecticut State champion Stamford 15-year-old All-Star team, which is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Babe Ruth World Series, on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at the Government Center at 8 p.m.

The Stamford 15-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team will be honored at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, for winning this year’s New England Regional championship.

“I think it’s a great thing Babe Ruth Baseball and the Boston Red Sox do,” Stamford manager John Calo said.

Stamford will be recognized on the field before Boston’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, Sept. 18.

The only question I have is what is the City of Stamford doing to recognize the accomplishments of these fine young men?

Boris Said celebrates his victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010, in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

MONTREAL (AP) — Boris Said, a former Stamford resident and graduate of Westhill High School, has won the Nationwide race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, edging Max Papis by a nose on a green-white-checkered finish.
Papis passed Said entering the final chicane for a split second, but Said never lost momentum and sped back by and outraced Papis to the line.
Jacques Villeneuve was third, followed by series points leader Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard.
Robby Gordon had the lead when the race restarted for the final time, but ran out of fuel. Marcos Ambrose and Carl Edwards combined to lead much of the race, but both dropped out with mechanical problems.

Click here to read The Stamford Times story on Said’s victory.

The Stamford 15-year-old All-Star team had a nice run in the Babe Ruth Baseball World Series in Monticello, Ark. Get a recap of all the games, with the exception of Wednesday’s loss to Bryant, Ark., which knocked Stamford out of the tournament.

Marc Powers, the No. 1 singles player at Yale and a Stamford resident, got to experience the Pilot Pen for the second straight year. He played singles  and doubles, teaming with Fairfield’s Nolan Paige, a fellow member of the Stamford Indoor Tennis Academy.

Stamford’s Mike Ballo Jr. recently graduated St. John’s but he still has been keeping busy on the golf course this summer and has enjoyed a lot of success.

The Shippan Stormers 14-and-under tennis team recently won the New England Sectional title to qualify for a berth in the National Championships.

To see what’s in this week’s edition, click here.

Former King standout Kevin Pierre-Louis of the Boston College football team has been rated the top defensive newcomer by Rivals.com.

Here’s the link: http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1110453&PT=4&PR=2

MONTICELLO, Ark. – The Stamford 15-year-old All-Star team’s run in the Babe Ruth World Series has unfortunately come to an end.

Stamford suffered a hard-fought 2-1 loss to Bryant, Ark., in eight innings in the first round of the single-elimination playoffs on Wednesday at Burlington Field.

The Stamford 15s took their friends and family on quite a ride this season, capturing district, state and New England Regional championships. They also overcame their fair share of obstacles in the World Series, bouncing back from an 0-2 record by sweeping a doubleheader on Tuesday to earn the No. 3 seed in their pool to make the playoffs.

“It was a tremendous season by these guys,” Stamford manager John Calo said. “To go from 1-2 in the districts last year to 13-3 this year and among the top six teams in the country is unbelievable.”

See Thursday’s The Stamford Times website for a full recap.

MONTICELLO, Ark. – Phil DelMazio continues to work hard at the Babe Ruth 15-year-old World Series.

DelMazio has four new videos of the Stamford 15s in the World Series.

To view them, enter PhilDel44 in the search bar or click on the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhTdCThRblY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuaJf2F3COA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejTIJIti83A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnAOpEwb6aY

MONTICELLO, Ark. – The Stamford 15-year-old All-Star team has overcome several obstacles to advance to the playoffs of the Babe Ruth Baseball World Series.

After starting its final pool play game two hours behind schedule in a game originally slated for Sunday but was postponed due to weather, Stamford came through with a 10-3 victory over the host team Monticello late on Tuesday night to gain a berth in the single-elimination playoff round starting Wednesday. It was Stamford’s second straight win on Tuesday following a 6-4 win over Torrance, Calif., earlier in the day.

Stamford, which also has had to deal with several injuries to key players, earned the No. 3 seed in its pool and will play Bryant, Ark., the No. 2 seed in the other pool, on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Burlington Field.