Marauders in the Middle: Second Year of Chenery Football Underway

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Photo: Head Coach James MacIsaac with some of the players at Chenery Middle School.

The grass on the Chenery Middle School playing field was green and freshly mowed on Monday, Aug. 24, greeting 40 7th and 8th graders who “are going to learn football,” said James MacIsaac, the head coach of the Chenery Middle School team.

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While the squad is a member of the Eastern Middlesex Middle School Football League, “I like to think of this as a 12-week football camp,” said MacIsaac who is running the program for the second year.

“It’s a great league because we don’t have playoffs or championships; it’s all about learning the game, being drilled in the fundamentals,” said MacIsaac, who is also Belmont’s assistant police chief.

Now in its second year after being dormant for nearly four decades, all but three of last year’s 7th graders have returned, “which says a lot about how we treat the players and how much they enjoy being part of this team,” said MacIsaac, a lifelong resident, as he put the players through their paces around the field.

The team will have three home games scheduled including one at Belmont High School’s Harris Field “which will be special. They love playing there, with the turf field and stands filled. It’s great fun.”

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Tearin’ Up the Wenner Floor! Installation of New Court Underway

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Photo: Crew from American Sport Floors preparing for a new surface at Belmont High School’s Wenner Field House.

When former athletes heard that the basketball courts at Belmont High School’s Wenner Field House was being torn out, former players began coming to see the crew taking the surface out with requests.

They wanted their own section as a keepsake.

OK, the slippery, threadbare vinyl surface was deemed by Belmont players and opponents alike as the worst court in the Middlesex League. But Ryan, the supervisor of the crew from Rockland-based American Sport Floors, said students and alum were asking for floor samples as souvenirs, especially the painted section around the free-throw line. 

As of Tuesday, July 28, the only recognizable section remaining of the former court was the Marauders logo that once stood at center court, cut out to be saved as a memento.  

Since last week, Ryan and his workers have been physically peeling off the nearly three-decade old vinyl surface as part of a private/public partnership financing the installation of a new textured and padded synthetic surface at Belmont High School.

As the workers heap strips of the former floor in piles, Ryan points to places on the bare cement foundation.

“You can see where the glue never took hold,” he said.

“There was nothing holding the old surface in place since it was laid,” said Ryan.

Led by Belmont Savings Bank, Belmont Youth Basketball and Belmont Boosters, the removal and installing of the new varsity volleyball/basketball court began with the official groundbreaking held this past Monday, July 20.

At the event, Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan and Belmont High Principal Dan Richards were thankful and appreciative of all the donors and especially for the additional time and effort put in by the original committee made up of John Carson, Paula Christofori, Jon Baldi, Chris Messer and David Ramsey.

The new stone grey and dark blue court – which will be inaugurated by Belmont High’s Volleyball team in September – is being financed with private funds, including a pair of $35,000 contributions, one from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation and the other from the Belmont Youth Basketball Association. An additional $5,000 was collected at a fundraiser held at Hopkinton Country Club.  

A $100,000 appropriation from the Capital Budget Committee was approved by Town Meeting to complete the adjacent JV court and the surrounding area in 2016.

 

Originally the focus was just the varsity court but a substantial contribution of $15,000 by the Belmont Boosters will allow the the surface surrounding the court, out to the inner track, to be completed.

According to American Sport Floors, the court should be installed and painted by the start of the new school year in late August/September.

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Those responsible for the new court at Wenner Field House: John Carson; Committee Member, Michael DiMarco; Belmont Savings, Jim Reynolds; Belmont Boosters President, David Ramsey; Committee Member, Chris Messer; Committee Member, Hal Tovin; Belmont Savings, Matt Cubstead; BYBA President, John Phelan; Superintendent of Schools, Dan Richards; Belmont High School principal. Absent from the organizing committee are Jon Baldi and Paula Christofori.

Belmont High’s Pitching Ace Bartels Commits to Penn State

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Photo: Cole Bartels. 

Belmont High School’s rising senior ace Cole Bartels has verbally committed to attend Division 1 Penn State University. 

The big, lanky right-hander, named the MVP of the Middlesex League and selected as a Boston Globe All-Scholastic this season, will be heading to State College, Penn. after his high school eligibility ends to pitch for the Nittany Lions in the Big 10 Conference.

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On the mound, Bartels had a sub-1.00 ERA as the Marauders’ number one pitcher. He also batted at nearly a .450 clip.

Bartels, who is a high honor roll student and a member of the varsity basketball team, joins a program rebuilding in a highly-competitive league which includes teams such as Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State and Maryland. He will be playing in the 5,406 seat Medlar Field, considered one of the best college facilities in the country. 

The earliest Bartels can submitted a national letter of intent to attend Penn State is Nov. 11. 

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Cardinal Ready: BHS Field Hockey’s Habelow Commits to Louisville

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Photo: AnnMarie Habelow.

From the first time AnnMarie Habelow stepped onto Harris Field in the late summer of 2013, spectators could quickly tell the Belmont High School field hockey player was something special. 

In the past two years, the raising junior has demonstrated a rare set of skills for an underclassman, playing as a forward in her freshman campaign or in the midfield last season in which number 13  helped lead the Marauders into the quarterfinals of the Division 1 North Sectionals. 

Just a junior, Habelow’s talents have brought her to the attention of many at the next level of the sport. And one team already wants her to be part of their future as Habelow signed a letter committing to play field hockey at the University of Louisville, beginning in the fall of 2017. 

Ranked 13th in Division 1 at the end of the 2014 season, the Cardinals play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the most competitive league in the nation with six teams in the top 13 spots in the final national poll, including number 1 North Carolina and two-time NCAA runner-up Syracuse.

The league also includes Boston College, which will allow family and friends to see Habelow play in the Boston area at least twice in her career.

Bulls-eye! BHS’s Bennett Medals at National Rifle and Pistol Championships

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Photo: Belmont High School’s Kevin Bennett at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s gun range at the USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol National Championships.

His fellow Belmont High School students know Kevin Bennett as the tall, affable, nice guy who helped keep score for the volleyball team last fall.

To his competitors on the shooting range in Massachusetts and across the country, the raising senior at BHS is moving closer to being a sure shot for a future national team.

And Bennett moved one big step closer to making his first national team last week at the 2015 USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol National Championships at Fort Benning, Georgia when the 17-year-old captured the bronze medal in the Junior Men’s Rapid Fire pistol, his first national individual medal, while earning a “High in Class” medal in the same event.

What made Bennett’s achievement all the more remarkable is that it was his first ever Rapid Fire match since the event is not offered competitively in Massachusetts. 

(from left) Silver medalist Glenn Zimmerman of Waterville, Ohio, gold medalist Tony Chung, of Diamond Bar, California, and bronze medalist Kevin Bennett of Belmont and Belmont High School.

Tony Chung, of Diamond Bar, California, earned the title in the junior competition – for men under 20 – followed by Glenn Zimmerman of Waterville, Ohio. Unlike the senior divisions, only the first two placements make the national junior team. 

Bennett also won a divisional gold medal for High J2 (15-17 age group) in Junior Sport Pistol.

The USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol National Championships is where the national federation selects athletes for competition at World Cup and Olympic shooting events.

Belmont High Alum Gibson Rows His Way to National Championship

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Photo: Peter Gibson (USRowing)

It’s been 20 years since a Belmont High School alumni – Patty Shea (’80) in field hockey in 1996 – strode behind the Stars and Stripes at the opening ceremony of a Summer Olympics. (Belmont High’s Emily Cook has been a member of four US Winter Olympic teams and competing in three as a freestyle skier.)

But that 20 year drought could come to end next year in Brazil as Peter Gibson, BHS class of 2009, is making his mark as one of the best lightweight sweep rowers in the country.

On Friday, June 26, Gibson joined team mates Andrew Weiland, Matthew O’Donoghue and 2012 Olympian Robin Prendes to finish first in the lightweight fours at the USRowing National Championships held at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.

Last month, the team – rowing out of the USRowing Training Center in Oklahoma City – finished first in qualifications to represent the US at the 2015 Pan American Games taking place in mid-July in Toronto.

Taking time away from the fours, Prendes and Gibson won gold in the lightweight pair in the 2015 Under 23 & Senior I World Championships Trials on Wednesday, June 24. They will represent the Stars and Stripes at the 2015 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Gibson is no stranger to world championships, having participated in the past two as a member of the lightweight eights, winning the bronze in 2013 and finishing fifth in 2014.

The son of Sarah Frisken and Ted Gibson, Gibson began rowing in 2008 at nearby Community Rowing, Inc., in Brighton. After graduating from BHS, Gibson entered Brown University where he rowed and earned a degree in computer science in 2013. 

If he does make next year’s Olympic team, he will upholding family tradition. His father rowed for Canada at the 1984 Olympic Games and his cousin, Duff Gibson, won a gold medal while competing for Canada in skeleton at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.

Cool and Dark: Belmont High’s New Court Design Unveiled

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Photo: The new basketball/volleyball court at Belmont High School will be ready for the volleyball season in September. 

Stone gray and midnight blue will color the new varsity court at the Wenner Field House as Belmont Athletic Director Jim Davis unveiled the new design to the School Committee at the final committee meeting of the school year on Monday, June 22 at the Chenery Middle School.

Replacing the long threadbare 20-year-old vinyl court will be a padded, modern synthetic court displaying the school’s mascot in the center circle and “Belmont” “Marauders” on either end. Construction will begin in late-July and be completed at the end of August.

The darkish color scheme will complement Belmont’s home “white” kits.

Along with the new court, the rims on the varsity court will be repaired or replaced.

The new court – which will be inaugurated with a game by Belmont High’s Volleyball team in September – was financed by a $100,000 appropriation from the Capital Budget Committee and private funds, chiefly from duel $35,000 contributions from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation and the Belmont Youth Basketball Association. An additional $5,000 was raised at a fundraiser at Hopkinton Country Club.

Originally the focus was just the varsity court but a substantial contribution of $15,000 by the Belmont Boosters will allow the the surface surrounding the court, out to the inner track, to be completed.

The adjacent junior variety court will be completed in the summer of 2016.

A Little Rain Equals Fast Times At Brendan’s Home Run 5K

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Photo: Nine-year-old Gillian Palmer runs across the finish line with David Palmer in 35 minutes and 50 seconds in the 14th annual Brendan’s Home Run 5K.

While the steady warm rain may have kept the total number of runners at the 14th annual Brandan’s Home Run 5K race down from previous years – 301 runners finished the race Sunday, June 21, as opposed to nearly 425 last year – it also helped those running the Father’s Day tradition set fast times.

Leading the way was the shirtless Zack Schwartz, a 26-year-old former Brandeis cross-country and track racer, who stormed over the 3.1 mile course in 14 minutes and 44 seconds, smashing the course record of 14:59 set by Ryan McCalmon in  2012. Also breaking the old record was Eric Speakman, the 24-year-old 2015 Stony Brook University graduate, who followed Schwartz by eight seconds.

“This is my best race by far,” said Schwartz, who works at MIT and “am trying to run as much as I can.”

The woman’s race nearly duplicated the men’s as 37-year-old Northbridge-resident Stephanie Reilly finished in 17:22, within five seconds of breaking the women’s record of 17:17 set in 2013 by the woman came in second in Monday’s race, Karen Roa, 24, who finished in 17:48.

Complete race results can be found here.

And while the race – sponsored by Belmont Savings Bank, Fitness Together, and Belmont Dental Group – featured those running in the front of the pack, those participating were enjoying the inclement weather leaving them drenched and dodging puddles as they race by themselves or with friends and family.

The real winner of Sunday’s race was The Brendan Grant Foundation, dedicated to enhancing youth development, and has been instrumental in the support of key initiatives that perpetuate the best core values of healthy parent-child relationships.

 

Lightweights? Hardly as Arlington-Belmont Crew Light Fours Score Second at Nationals

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Photo: The A-B Crew light fours which came in second in the Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Fla on June 14. 

They took four boats and two dozen high school rowers 1,400 miles to Sarasota, Florida to compete against 1,700 of the best young rowers at USRowing 2015 Youth National Championships held last weekend in the Sunshine State.

And the Arlington-Belmont Crew Club didn’t travel all that way last weekend without demonstrating its rowing prowess against some of the most established schools and clubs from across the country.

In only their second trip to the nationals, the club – in only its tenth year – returned home with some impressive silverware in their carry-on. 

In the finals held Sunday, June 14, the A-B crew’s Lightweight Varsity Boys Fours with cox win came in  second, signifying being the second best boat in the country, trailing only the Cincinnati Junior A’s as the quartet traveled the 2,000-meter course in 6 minutes and 43.1 seconds.  

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Arlington-Belmont Crew’s Lightweight Fours; (from left) Trevor Corning, Brendan Mooney, Coach Mark Grinberg, Andrea Abanto (cox), JD Tiffany and Eryk Dobrushkin.

The Mark Grinberg-coached boat included cox Andrea Abanto, Brendan Mooney, JD Tiffany, Eryk Dobrushkin and Belmont’s Trevor Corning.

In addition to the light fours, Arlington-Belmont crews made impressive showing against dozens of teams from across the country: 

  • Lightweight Varsity Girls Eights finished 11th (Ellie Cayer (cox), Catherine Tiffany, Callie Abouzeid, Sara Hamilton, Sarah Osborn, Abi Judge, Alena Jaeger, Lizzie Ferrante and Julia Blass),
  • Lightweight Varsity Boys Eights was 13th (Julian Green (cox), Dylan Ryan, Trevor Brown, Owen Niles, Tony Chen, Steven Chen, Anthony DiFranco, Devin Bemis and Adam Cronin) and
  • Heavyweight Varsity Boys Fours was 14th (Brenna Sorkin (cox), Alexander Gharibian, Liam Lanigan, Adrian Tanner and Max Halliday).

14th Brendan’s Home Run Set to Burn Up Streets on Father’s Day

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Photo: Dads and kids at Brendan’s Home Run.

Oh, sure. You can celebrate Father’s Day the old way by having an overpriced brunch in a crowded eatery. Or you could running a quick five kilometers with the kids and help Belmont’s own Brendan Grant Foundation. 

Belmont Savings Bank, Fitness Together Belmont and the Belmont Dental Group proudly present the 14th annual running of “Brendan’s Home RunTM” 5K Race & Walk will take place on Sunday, June 21, at 10 a.m. at the Belmont High School’s Harris Field.

The walk begins at 9:30 a.m., the race at 10 a.m. with youth races for kids a few minutes after the runners leave the field. 

With its collection of really fast runners at the head of the race and a flat, easy course for the less than fast folks, the race has become a must-do event in Belmont.

Register early as the road race will be capped at 500 entrants. Entry fee for the walk or run is $22 until June 18. On-site entry Father’s Day morning is $25. There is no charge for the 400 meter youth races.