Former Belmont High Boys’ Swim Coach Charged With Taking Inappropriate Photos

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Photo: James Saidnawey during his time as head coach of Belmont High Boys Swim team

The coach who in 2018 led the Belmont High Boys Swimming and Diving team to its first Middlesex League regular season title in two decades was arrested last week in Eastham, Mass on charges that he took inappropriate photographs of teenage girls, according to a report in SwimSwam.

James Saidnawey, 29, has been charged with two counts of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity or sexual contact, Eastham police said in a statement. They also indicated that the investigation is ongoing and that additional charges may be filed.

Saidnawey was arraigned on Sept. 23 in Orleans District Court and was released on $1,000 bail. He is set to return to court on Nov. 23 for a pretrial hearing.

Police seized several electronic devices from Saidnawey’s home and interviewed multiple potential victims before making the arrest, according to the news report.

According to SwimSwam, Saidnawey was hired during the summer as a 4th grade teacher at Eastham Elementary School. Nauset Regional School District Superintendent Thomas Conrad reported that district officials knew about the investigation before classes started on Sept. 16, and while he participated in some staff meetings, Saidnawey never had any contact with students.

After his one year at Belmont High School, Saidnawey worked as a 5th grade teacher in Newton Public Schools and coached the Newton North High School girls swim team.

Public Access To HS Athletic Fields Restricted Beginning Sept. 21

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Photo: Harris Field in Belmont

Beginning Monday, Sept. 21, access to the Belmont High School Athletic Complex located on Concord Avenue – which includes Harris Field, the track and the fields west of the “Skip” Viglirolo ice skating rink – will be limited to Belmont High School Fall athletic teams and school authorized personnel during Belmont High practices and games, according to Belmont Athletic Director Jim Davis.

In accordance with guidelines set by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, the general public is asked to refrain from any use of the athletic fields and track area of the complex when Belmont High School teams are practicing and hosting games.  

Practices are scheduled for:

  • Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
  • Wednesdays: 12:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  

On Game Day Saturdays, the facility is scheduled for use from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for both games and practices.

Fall Sports: Modified Rules, Modified Fees As Seasons To Start By Month’s End

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Photo: Belmont High Field Hockey will be playing this fall

There will be a fall sports season for Belmont High School student athletes as the Belmont School Committee voted unanimously on Tuesday night, Sept. 8, to approve an agreement by the Middlesex League which Belmont is a member on rules and safety.

With each sport – field hockey, golf, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country – having to undergo a number of modifications to limit contact and potentially unhealthy actions on the field, the School Committee modified the participation fee each players pays.

“We are entering into a very unique school year, not only academically Burt for our student athletes,” said Jim Davis, Belmont’s athletic director, who told the committee the fee will be cut by $150 to $300 due in not small part to the major changes each sport will undo.

For example, heading the ball in soccer is disallowed, penalty corners will be discontinued in field hockey and cross country will likely be a timed race rather than the traditional group event. In addition, sport teams will be playing a third of the usually number of games in recent season and there will be no post-season tournament.

Davis said he, Belmont Superintendent John Phelan and the high school coaches reviewed the modifications and the potential impact on each sport “and that’s why we are moving forward with the ask this evening to bring those sports … back into our school and allowing our student athletes the opportunity to compare in those activities.”

While the cut in the fees will reduce revenue from athletic activities to an estimated $86,000, expenses due to less games and personnel will fall to $98,000 for the fall sports season. Phelan said that an $11,000 deficit would have been seen as reasonable when the district was initially forecasting the impact on the bottom line.

The Middlesex agreement – which is following guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the high school’s governing body the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association – is providing guidelines on pre-workout and pre-contest screening, social distancing in practices, and protocols for equipment use, hydration and the cleaning of gym bags.

There are also measures to increase physical distancing – keeping players six feet apart for the majority of games and practices – and incorporating protective equipment to reduce the spread of respiratory particles.

Under the agreement approved, fall sports in the Middlesex League will start Monday Sept. 21. Golf will kick off the season during the week of Sept. 28.

Sports will have three teams – varsity, junior varsity and freshmen – limited to 25 participants. Due to restrictions on the number of students on buses, away games will be restricted to 22 players. There will be three varsity and two sub-varsity practices each week.

Field hockey and boys and girls soccer will play 10 games on Saturdays through October and November including Columbus Day and Veteran Day. Belmont teams will play the five opponents in the Middlesex Liberty division on back to back Saturdays, home and away. The season for these sports will start Oct. 3. Games postponed will not be rescheduled.

Cross country will have five dual meets over this time.

Spectators will be limited to one per player who will be provided a season badge. Face masks will be mandatory at each contest.

The School Committee is continuing to discuss if athletes will be reimbursed their participation fee if a sports season is cancelled due to health concerns including a spike in COVID-19 infection rates. That debate will be voted before the season begins next week.

Belmont Playing Modified Soccer, Field Hockey, XC This Fall; Volleyball, Swim, Football Move To ‘Floating’ Season

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Photo: There will be a fall sports season at Belmont High School.

There will be Belmont High student/athletes playing this fall at Harris Field and on the links this fall as the athletic directors of the Middlesex League have approved their schools playing boys and girls soccer, field hockey, boys golf and boys and girls cross country, according to Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan who announced the decision at Wednesday, Sept. 2 School Committee marathon meeting.

But volleyball and swimming will be moving with football and competitive cheer to the newly created “floating” season that starts during the final weeks of February and ending in April.

School superintendents and athletic directors that represent Middlesex League schools approved a league-wide response to move forward with a fall season. It has been reported that Belmont will compete twice against teams in the league’s Liberty Division – Arlington, Winchester, Reading, Lexington, and Woburn – which will end for this year the annual competition against cross border rivals Watertown.

The decision by the Middlesex League comes as other athletic conferences such as the Mayflower and South Coast leagues on the South Shore and the nearby Northeastern Conference have canceled their fall schedule and moved it to the floating season, with the hope that the modifications would be suspended with changes in the severity of COVID-19.

While Belmont will be playing this fall, some of the sports will look quite different. Field hockey will now be played seven-against-seven – under normal conditions, there are 11 on each team – while penalty corners which are an important part of the game have been banned.

Soccer will see corner kicks and sideline throw-ins ended, reduced to free kicks that can not be sent into the goalie’s area. Defensive walls that help goalies to protect against free kicks have been suspended. But the most significant ban will be the end of heading the ball.

Cross country will likely be a timed event where each participant starts a certain length of time – usually 30 seconds – from the next runner.

Will Belmont High Be Playing Sports In 2020? Here’s The Q&As

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Photo: Belmont High Football will be delayed until 2021.

It’ll be Thanksgiving without the turkey this year.

The annual Belmont vs Watertown Turkey Day football rivalry, which would be marking its centennial contest in 2020, will have to wait until sometime next year to settle its annual grudge match after the state and the athletic governing body for high school athletics decided the quintessential fall sport is deemed too high risk to play while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague the US.

The postponement of the football season statewide was just one of several outcomes with the release of a joint sports guidance for the 2020-2021 school year from the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE), the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) .

The blueprint for the resumption of high school sports – which took months to hammer out between the state agencies and the governing body of athletics in secondary education – was approved by the MIAA on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

With several questions remaining, here are the answers for sports in the new school year:

Q: So will sports be played this fall and the rest of the year?

Yes, the guidance has identified the sports deemed safe to play – either low or moderate risk – and the few which would be “practice only” activities.

The most striking element to come out of the recommendations is the creation of a fourth “season” dubbed Fall II or the Floating season to be played in late winter and into early spring. It was created to allow sports deemed too risky to be played at the beginning of the season and those school districts which has high community infection rates or which decide to pass on the first fall season a chance to compete when there is clearer evidence on the risk factors in participating in the sport.

Here is the list of sports and the time of year they will be played:

Sept 18 – Nov. 20, Fall Sports: Boys and Girls Soccer, Fall Gymnastics, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Girls Volleyball, Swim & Dive, Golf and Dance.

Nov. 30 – Feb. 21, Winter Sports: Boys and Girls Basketball, Boys and Girls Hockey, Wrestling, Winter Gymnastics, Boys and Girls Indoor Track & Field; Alpine Ski, Nordic Ski, Winter Cheer, Dance, Swim & Dive

Feb. 22 – April 25, Fall Sports II (“Floating Season”): Football, Fall Cheer, Unified Basketball, sports not played in fall season because of remote learning model or a decision made to wait until the spring.

April 26 – July 3, Spring Sports– Baseball, Softball, Boys and Girls Lacrosse, Boys and Girls Tennis; Boys Volleyball; Boys, Girls and Unified Outdoor Track & Field, Boys and Girls Rugby, Sailing, Girls’ Golf, and Crew.

Q: So are these dates for each season set in stone?

No. The start and finish dates are flexible due to circumstances such as moving sports between seasons. The date for the spring season ending could extend to mid-July.

Q: What else was approved by the MIAA?

The , there will be no state championship to contend in the fall; only league titles will be on the line. Out of season coaching will be allowed for the entire year and students can play in all four seasons. Also “Captain practices” – in which senior players hold un-sponsored training sessions during the off-season – are being discouraged by the MIAA.

Q: Are districts that choose to begin the school year remotely effected by the new guidance?

Under the DESE guidelines accepted by the MIAA, districts such as Belmont which starts the school year in a remote only setup are currently prohibited along with districts in communities with high COVID-19 rates from playing any sports – whether they are considered low risk such as cross country or moderate risk like soccer and field hockey – until late February when a newly created “floating season” begins.

Q: So, no sports for Belmont athletes until after the winter break?

Not all is lost for the fall and winter athletes as the new rules gives the district an “out”; remote learning districts can get back into competition if they gain the approval of their School Committee. In addition, in his weekly memo to the community on Thursday, Aug. 20, Belmont Superintendent John Phelan noted that “Belmont is able to participate in these sports with our given Phased Plan with a remote start in Phase One.”

Q: So with the general guidance approved, what’s next?

A: With health and safety for the students and coaches paramount, the next issue is how to play each sport under the guidelines set forth by the EED and DESE. And this is all about the MIAA modifying the sports to meet these state goals.

Q: What are modifications?

The modification is just that, altering the rules of the game to either eliminate or significantly reduce encounters that pose an opportunity for the Coronavirus to be transmitted. These changes are becoming a point of contention for both student and coaches.

While some sports will see little change – swimming in a pool with lane markers follows most of the social distancing; cross country will likely use a staggered start – others, such as football, are played in close quarters with constant contact as an integral part of the game.

For many sports, the changes are still being developed while other youth sports associations have already issued new rules. Take, fore instance, soccer. The Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association has just released its modified rules to comply with EEA guidance. There are changes that will effect some of the sports’ bedrock skills include:

  • No heading the ball
  • Shoulder tackles are prohibited
  • Slide tackles within 6 feet of a player are not allowed.
  • Throw-ins and corner kicks will be replaced with a “kick-in” which can not be played directly into the opponents’ penalty area.
  • A restart after a foul will require all players to stay 6 feet from each other and the opposition to stay 10 yards from the ball.
  • The “defensive wall” is suspended.

By Monday, Aug. 25, the MIAA will identify and put the modification guidance in place for each sport, which will be reviewed by each school district, said Phelan.

Q: So will the schools decide after Aug. 24 whether to play in the fall?

A: Well, yes but there is a caveat. Schools are joining their respective athletic leagues – for Belmont that’s the Middlesex League – to discuss the modifications and new rules with the idea of voting as a group on their future playing fall sports.

“The superintendents and athletic directors in the Middlesex League are meeting on Monday, Aug. 24, to discuss these latest guidelines,” said Phelan.

Q: Why would a league or school decide not to play in the fall and wait until the floating year?

A: Simply, there will be sports in which coaches and athletes believe the changes to the rules alters the play to such an extent that student athletes are forced to learn essentially a new sport. Since the MIAA will not decide whether the modifications will be used in the floating or spring season, leagues may take their chances that the development of effective therapeutic or a vaccine which will move the sport to a return to pre-COVID rules.

In addition, by working together on their positions to participate or not, the leagues will secure a schedule of traditional opponents and not have to seek teams to play possibly in far flung locations.

Jim Davis, the district’s athletic director, said that he “will be speaking with Phelan to talk through the District’s options.”

“[It’s a] [w]ork in progress,” said Davis.

A Running Fundraiser To Aid The Fight For Racial Equality

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Photo: Logo for the fundraiser.

For James Fitzpatrick, a captain on the Belmont High School track team, the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbreys, and Breonna Taylor have made it abundantly clear things need to change in our country.  

To help aid in this movement, the Belmont High School Track Team will attempt to run 500 miles in one week in order to raise funds for Black Lives Matter Boston. The challenge will begin this week.

The site for the fundraiser is here.

“I came up with the idea to create a fundraiser after hearing about all of the terrible instances of white supremacy and police brutality towards African-Americans in recent weeks,” said Fitzgerald.

“I think that as a White American right now, it is super important to be an ally for the Black community so I read a lot of articles about ways in which White people can help in this fight,” he said.

One of the most impactful is through donating to organizations that are actively working to fight for equality in America and Black Lives Matter Boston is just one of these organizations.  

“They have three main principles: working to end police brutality against African-Americans, empowering young Black people so that they can grow up to make change, and also creating change from inside the Black community.  They are also a local group so I felt like raising money for them would be directly impactful,” Fitzgerald said.

“I am hopeful that we see a changed America in the future,” he said.

Please consider donating and helping us to help others in the best way we can right now.

Undefeated: Belmont High Spring Season Coaches Praise Teams, Seniors [Video]

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Photo: A baseball playoff game between Belmont and Masco in 2019.

With Belmont High School students being forced to stay home and learn remotely for the remainder of the school year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, gone was the hope of hundreds of athletes participating in sports, from seniors in their final campaign to first-year students about to experience high school athletics for the first time.

In its way of saluting those teams and especially the seniors, Belmont Athletic Director James Davis and the head coaches of each of sports teams produced a video as both a pep talk and a thank you to those who could not participate in the spring season.

Belmont Hockey Sees Epic Playoff Run End As State Finals Cancelled, Named Co-Champs

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Photo: Belmont High Head Ice Hockey Coach Fred Allard

In the locker room after a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 victory over St. John’s (Shrewsbury) in the Division 1 North finals last Monday, Belmont High Head Coach Fred Allard ended his postgame talk to the players proclaiming “Practice tomorrow at 3!”

“What that meant was our season is still going on and we still get to be together,” Allard said in an empty White Field House on Thursday afternoon, March 12, with the North trophy and title banner on a nearby table.

It also signified the team had punched its ticket to the TD Garden this Sunday to play for the program’s first ever state championship title.

But the the season-long goal of just having the opportunity of skating to the Belmont student section with a state championship trophy in hand would end with an email.

Two hour previous, after hard practice at the “Skip”, the starkness of the outside world entered the hockey sphere when, due to the growing threat of a global pandemic, the MIAA announced it had cancelled the Division 1 state finals against Walpole.

The consolation for the Marauders was being declared co-champions with the Rebels. But it wasn’t much solace for the Belmont players to share a title that they couldn’t play for.

“We had just gotten off the ice so everyone was in the room,” said Allard. The squad’s reaction to the announcement was heartbreaking.

“These guys were more crushed than past teams who lost to St. John’s Prep four years ago and to Waltham (losing in overtime in the North semifinals in 2018). And they were just announced as co champs of the state!” said Allard. “That’s how all in they were because it’s such a special experience.”

“It was emotional and they were devastated. We talked our way through it. We shared some memories, we reminisced on what we accomplished and hopefully the healing process of the initial pain is starting to wear off.”

As late as Thursday morning, Allard still believed the team would be on a bus Sunday heading to the Garden in Boston’s North End.

“I was thinking we got practice on Friday and Saturday and hopefully the dust will settle and we’ll get this [game] in,” he said.

On Tuesday, the powers that be were hell bent on playing the six state finals on Sunday, but all that changed Wednesday when the Coronavirus was accelerating through all segments of society including sports. In just a day, professional sports leagues announced the cancellation or suspension of their seasons.

“That’s when the [MIAA] were obviously becoming more concerned for the safety of the kids, which was the right thing,” said Allard.

By early Thursday afternoon, the NCAA cancelled their winter championships including the entire “March Madness” basketball tournament, the Boston Marathon was looking for an autumn date to the run the race and states were prohibiting large gatherings.

“Our hope was that the worse case would be playing the finals at [six] separate sites and not just at the Garden,” Allard said.

“The kids worked so hard to get to this point. They just wanted to play.”

Belmont Spring Sports Halted Tentatively ‘Til March 30; First Games April 9

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Photo: Three-time state champions Girls’ Rugby, one of the spring teams whose season has been

The first day of practice for spring sports has tentatively been delayed until March 30, according to Belmont Athletic Director James Davis.

The decision by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association as a response to the spreading pandemic Coronavirus could be revisited prior to March 30 if conditions of the virus change.

“The past couple of weeks has certainly provided our member schools with challenges related to the outbreak of COVID-19,” said Davis in a press release dated March 12.

Up until the 30th, out of season coaching is not allowed during this period. The first games of the season can commence 11 days after the first practice, the earliest on April 9.

Sports include boys’ and girls’ tennis, boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, baseball, softball, boys’ and girls’ outdoor track and field and the boys’ and girls’ rugby, both defending Division 1 state champions.

To The Garden! Belmont Heads To State Finals After Taking D1 North Crown, 3-2, Over St. John’s (S)

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Photo: The Division 1 North champs, Belmont High School

The Marauders have conquered the North and the State is ready for the taking after Belmont High Ice Hockey scored twice in the final seven minutes of the third period to win the Division 1 North final, 3-2, over St. John’s (Shrewsbury) Monday night, March 9, in a come-from-behind thriller at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell.

Junior Ben Fici’s snap shot from beyond the left faceoff circle that rocketed by Pioneers goalie Dan Laursen glove with a minute and 25 seconds remaining proved to be the game winner, securing Belmont’s first ever Sectional crown.

Fici’s heroics followed a stunning shorthanded goal by senior assistant captain Marco Santagati who gathered a Matt Brody pass behind the defense, deeked Laursen to the left and buried a backhander at the 6:21 mark to tie the game at 2-2. Santagati’s goal came a little more than a minute after St. John’s retook the lead through the Pioneer’s Griffin Burns at 7:50.

“Tonight we got a power play (goal), we got a short handed goal, these kids just find different ways to win,” said Belmont Head coach Fred Allard outside a rakus locker room. “You just can’t count these kids out. They’ve just got a will that exceeds anything else. It’s remarkable.”

Belmont (14-5-5) will meet Walpole High (13-8-5), in the state championship game on Sunday, March 15, at the TD Garden in Boston. The Rebels are the surprise survivors of the South Sectionals, a 12th seed which, like Belmont, won its four playoff games by a single goal.

Belmont and Walpole are seeking its first state boys’ hockey championship. Belmont was the favorite in its only visit to the finals 65 years ago in 1955 only to be upset by Winchester which was coached by long-time Belmont resident Francis Finigan.

But a trip to the Garden was far from certain after the first 15 minutes as Belmont stumbled out of the gate giving up a goal after only 52 seconds on the Pioneers’ first shot on goal, a Matt Myers wrister from the slot that slide just inside the right post by Belmont’s senior goalie Nico Carere.

For the remainder of the period it appeared St. John’s was ready to skate the at times tentative Belmont players out of the building as they outshot Belmont 11-1. But Carere quickly returned to his steady form that he’s showcasted throughout the tournament, keeping a clean sheet for nearly two and a half periods.

“Nico’s our backbone. He’s the one that keeps us in everything. He did it again in another kind of sloppy first period,” said Allard.

In the locker room between periods, which Allard recalled being “pretty bad,” the team was pressed to return to the basics.

“We gotta focus on what we can do. Let’s get sticks on pucks, let’s get pucks in deep because we’re a good cycling team down low. Once we have control of the puck, once we get ourselves in that mode, we’re tough and we wear out defense, and that’s when we can put pucks on net,” said Allard.

Belmont came out the gate upping the intensity emphasized by senior co-captain Justin Rocha who producing a picture perfect shoulder-to-chest check in the first two minutes. The hit herald Belmont’s aggressive puck pursuit that bottled up St. John’s in its end, leading to turnovers as the Marauders’ shots total began adding up.

Belmont leveled the contest close to midway in the second when Matt Brody roofed a Laursen rebound deep in the slot at 8:08 in the second, sending the nearby Belmont student section into a frenzy. By the end of period, the Marauders outshot the Pioneers 17-6.

The pivotal third saw both teams pressed the action, with the Pioneers sending two forwards deep into the zone while Belmont looked for to pressure the puck carrier to attempt to jump on the transition.

After falling behind 2-1 and then picked up a penalty 49 second later with less than seven minutes in the game, Allard said he felt his team would not crack under the pressure.

“I think the fact that we’re battle tested, especially this year with the games we’ve had in the playoffs [four one goal wins] is just been a sign that we knew we could come back,” said Allard.

After taking the lead and St. John’s pulling its goalie, it was up to Carero to keep the door shut,

“Nico has just been locked in because he wants [a state championship],” said Allard. “He’s a very competitive, highly driven kid.”

After the game, Allard recalled the last season, Belmont missed the playoffs after finishing last in the Middlesex League.

“The player all say that we should have been better than that. But they didn’t get lazy, they worked just even harder to put ourselves in a position to have this moment right now. And today it worked out,” he said.

“I’ve been the speechless. These kids are just unbelievable.”