Dear Sylvania AdVantage Readers,
I hope that you are all well and safe. This is your chance to be Nancy Drew or Colombo or the Hardy
Boys. This is a Two Minute Murder Mystery. You need to correctly decide who did it and why, and lastly how was it done. Hope you will enjoy and have fun with this.

It was a cloudy gray October Thursday. It was football practice as usual for the Carolina Blue Mud Cats. They were 7-2 for the season and if they win Friday night they tie for the League Championship. So Friday is a big day for the Mud Cats. The Blue Mud Cat, a panther with long claws that could climb trees, rocks, navigate through mud, served as a great school mascot.
The Head Coach of the the Blue Mud Cats was Freddy Boom Boom Cantini. Freddy was called Boom Boom because before he got into coaching he worked in a rock quarry. There was a lot of dynamiting and a lot of explosions. Because of that job Coach Freddy said he lost a good deal of hearing in his right ear. Boom Boom said he did not mind, however, because he could not hear the fans when they were yelling at him.
Coach Cantini had coached for over twenty -five years and during that time had made many friends and a lot of enemies, like Principal John Standard at Mud Cat High School. His son Blue was a wide receiver that never got off of the bench.
Yes, Blue’s parents named him after the football mascot, to say they were into football was an understatement. Well poor Blue never got into a game, ever. One day Principal Standard called Coach Cantini into his office and asked why Blue never played. Coach said Blue couldn’t catch a football if it had handles on it and that was the end of the conversation. Principal Standard never got over that and neither did Blue.
The Thursday practice did not go well. Five things happened, starting when QB Mick Mason did not play well and Coach Cantini got on him. Mick did not appreciate Coach always yelling at him. Mick was an All league QB and yet he and the Coach never got along, they were never on the same page.
In Mick’s mind he could not stand the fact that it seemed to him like Coach blew that whistle on every play as loudly as he could right next to Mick. Mick didn’t care for the Coach but he really hated that whistle.
The second thing that happened was when back-up QB Tom West walked off of the practice field and into the locker room because he felt he was not getting enough opportunity in practice. West and Coach Cantini barely spoke to one another.
The third thing that happened at the Thursday practice was Offensive Coordinator Cole Kelly got into an all out shouting match with Coach Cantini after practice because he also felt the back up QB Tom West should get more opportunities. Cole also was sick and tired of Boom Boom always taking all the credit for the offensive success because Cole actually called all the plays. But Boom Boom always took the credit.
Then when Coach was headed to his car after practice he was intercepted by the Head Cheerleader Coach Sarah Macklemore. She confronted Coach about her cheerleaders. She wanted them to be able to cheer closer to the Blue Mud Cat Bench. Coach Cantini told her as far as he was concerned, he did not even want them on the field. Sarah was livid. She vowed to do anything she could to get rid of Cantini from Mud Cat High School.
By the time Coach Cantini got home Thursday night he had had it but he had one more Thursday surprise left. His wife June told him she wanted a divorce and she wanted the house and the car and all their savings. She was sick of the football life.
Suffice it to say, Thursday was a bad day for Coach. But he showed up to school on Friday trying to put all his troubles, which were many, behind him and win the big game. The team and coaches had their pre-game meal of spaghetti, which was cooked by the cheerleaders.
The Friday night lights at Mud Cat Stadium were turned on. The Cats took the field. Coach Cantini was watching his team warm up, blowing his whistle, moving the team through their warm up drills.
However, Coach was not feeling that good. He did something he had never done before. He went and talked with the team trainer, Left Toe Lou. Left Toe had been a trainer for the Cats for 30 years. He was known as Left Toe because one summer he was cutting his grass in sandals and, well you can figure out the rest. But, he knew his craft. He took one look at Boom Boom and knew he was not right.
Left Toe called the Doc over and the Doc called an ambulance for Coach. The Cats won the big game and Offensive Coordinator Cole Kelly called a great game.
Coach Cantini never made it. The hospital report on Coach Cantini was that he was poisoned.
Who did it?
Why did they do it and how did they do it?
Who killed Coach?

Find the answer on Page 18A of the Sylvania AdVantage!

Tom Cole is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Taylor Automotive Family and teaches broadcasting at St. John’s Jesuit and Adrian College.