Belmont Rugby in State Championship Finals in Worcester Saturday Afternoon

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Photo: Belmont High Rugby.

For the third consecutive year, the Belmont High School Rugby Club will be taking the pitch in Worcester today, Saturday, May 23, in the title game of the Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization’s sixth annual State High School Championships.

Belmont meets Boston College High School at the Commerce Bank General Foley Stadium, 305 Chandler St., Worcester, at 2:15 p.m. The undefeated Boston College High defeated Belmont at its Dorchester campus in April. 

A donation will be requested from adult and high school spectators for the championship matches.  There will be no charge for kids below high school or for players and coaches in the jamboree matches.

Parking is available across the street.

Follow the results of the game via the Belmontonian Facebook and Twitter feeds. 

Belmont Boys’ Tennis Rebuilding in Style

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Photo: The 2015 season Belmont High Boys’ Tennis team. 

It wasn’t a season the Belmont High School Boys’ Tennis had been hoping for.

After making the team tennis post season for the past four years, the Marauders was caught in the duel predicament of being in the midst of a rebuilding year – depending on athletes who come from other sports – while being in the league in which some of the best tennis players in the state happen to reside. 

And while the team did stride off the courts at the new Wilmington High School Wednesday, May 20, with a convincing 5-0 victory over the Wildcats, the hope for a fifth consecutive playoff invite didn’t materialize as the team finished the season at 6-10.

While there were a number of individual highlights in 2015 – senior Enrique Massidda came back from a set down to Concord-Carlise’s Cody Machen, 2-6, 6-0, 7-5, to win his first-round match in the North individual tennis tournament this month – Belmont still found it hard to find their game against the powerhouse squads including Lexington and Winchester which have players heading to Div. 1 college and university programs.

Leading Belmont was Massidda (who took up rowing with the Arlington-Belmont Crew club this past fall), senior Ben Lazenby who is best known for his play on the soccer pitch and basketball court,  second singles Caleb Harris, junior singles/doubles Grant Stievater who traded in his bat and glove for a racket this year, and this season’s captains, double specialists Cheng Qin and senior Amar Fernald.

On the doubles court, underclassmen sophomore Andrew Reppucci and frosh Jackson Luce – who were selected to compete in the individual doubles North playoffs – will bring a year’s worth of varsity experience to the courts next year, anchoring the team. 

The senior leadership showed up in the final match with the top-ranked and defending state champions Lexington held in Belmont on May 14, the Marauders made life a little more difficult then what the number 1 seed in this year’s tournament was expecting. Lazenby and Stievater extended rallies and won points to take five and four games respectively. Third singles Fernald lost 6-4 in both sets while second doubles Reppucci and Luce fought hard in a 6-1, 6-3 defeat. 

Not that the entire year was without its moments as Belmont was a solid mid-level squad, overpowering teams such as Stoneham, Watertown, Woburn (May 6), Wakefield (May 13) and Wilmington by identical 5-0 victories as the three singles matches and pair of doubles barely lost a game.

And not all highlights were strictly on the court. In a league where looking professional is the norm among the top teams, Stievater decided the Marauders should set the standard in high-quality apparel. 

“I came from the baseball team and they’re known for their gear so I thought if I’m playing tennis, you might as well go all out and get the best you can,” said Stievater.

Working with Gerry  Dickhaut, owner of Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center, Stievater organized the selection of the matching caps, sweatshirts, towels and even Belmont “B” socks to outfit the team at a price everyone agreed was a fair expense.

“[Dickhaut] gave us a discount and allowed us to get all the embroidery we wanted,” said Stievater.

“It feels nice to have something you do actually impact the team and have everyone like it. We really worked hard this year so it’s a nice little thing we get to do for ourselves,” he said. 

Chan Kicks Belmont Rugby into Third Consecutive State Finals in Epic Win

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Photo: Senior Captain Darren Chan leading Belmont Rugby off the field Monday.

The traits of a good captain lie in three “Cs”: they care about the success of the team through example and encouragement while being consistent in playing to the best of their ability at practice and in games.

Finally, they must be courageous when the game and season are on the line, to step up and lead their team.

With two-and-a-half-minutes remaining in the state semi-finals on Tuesday, May 19, and trailing 2014 State Champions Bishop Hendricken High School by two points, 21-19, Belmont High School Rugby’s senior captain Darren Chan demonstrated all the characteristics of leadership in one decision.

After a yellow-card penalty for an illegal and brutal tackle on senior center Campbell McCready (who had scored two of Belmont’s tries), Belmont had the opportunity to attempt a three-point penalty kick to take the lead.

But for Belmont High School Rugby Head Coach Greg Bruce, the decision was a tricky one: the ball was 30 meters out from the goal post, a distance made more difficult due to the acute angle coming from the right sideline. Go for the kick and the lead (a miss would seal the game for Hendricken) or take the ball and attempt to score a try in the waning moments.

Bruce brought over Chan and senior wing (and varsity soccer player) Luke Gallagher and asked if either one were comfortable making the attempt.

“[Bruce] asked me if I could make the kick. I put it on my shoulders and said ‘I could,'” said Chan.

“[Chan] just said, I got the kick. I got the kick,” said Bruce. “All that mattered is that he felt confident in himself, he stepped up and led from the front foot.”

After waiting for nearly 10 minutes as McCready was taken from the field and with the large, boisterous Belmont crowd suddenly hushed, Chan lined up the free kick and saw it sail just inside the left post.

Three points, and the win.

“It felts like last year’s state championship,” said Chan, referring to the 21-19 Hendricken victory over Belmont.

“That was one of the toughest games I’ve ever been a part of. It was a good battle. Every player played their heart out, and we did what we needed to go win this game,” said Chan, who was a member of the 2013 state championship squad.

“Don’t ever accuse Belmont of quitting. Ever,” said Bruce to the players in the after- game huddle

Chan’s clutch kick sealed an epic victory over Hendricken and sends Belmont Rugby to its third consecutive Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization state championships where the boys will meet first-time finalists Boston College High School, which defeated Xaverian Brothers High School in the other semi-finals, 43-17, on Tuesday.

The championship will take place at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 23, at Foley Stadium in Worcester.

Belmont’s (5-1) only loss this season was to the undefeated Eagles (8-0), 20-7, in April.

“It was a nail-biter to the end,” said Bruce after the game. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

“The game didn’t go the way we planned it,” the long-time head coach said. The team turned over the ball 20 times during the match” and usually you can’t win a game by doing that.”

“Our defense was phenomenal, but the problem is that we were playing defense way too much,” Bruce said.

The game begin with Belmont pushing forward for the first eight minutes of the 35 minute half as senior lock Nick Ryan and the red-head storm senior hooker Bryce Christian made a series of crushing tackles.

Yet this was not the same Hendricken team Belmont defeated April 1, 29-5 and using a turnover in Belmont’s zone, they punched in a quick try (worth 5 points) and the conversion kick (2 points) eight minutes into the match to lead 7-0.

“They have a strong core, and they like to ram it down your throat,” said Bruce.

But for the rest of the half, it was Belmont’s big men up front, seniors props Omar Escobar Jr. and Deshawn Frederick, who dictated play as they began wearing down Hendricken’s front line allowing Belmont to push the visitors backwards throughout the evening through the efforts of seniors Marco Perrone, Luke Perrotta and Peter Berens.

With Chan “quarterbacking” the team from the scrum half position, the team was rewarded when senior flyhalf Paul Campbell took the ball the final three meters to try at the 26-minute mark. Chan’s conversion tied the match. It appeared Belmont had a second try, but the ref determined that junior second row Lowell Haskett had dropped the ball crossing the goal line.

Hendricken appeared ready to break things open in the second half as they pulling off a pair of long runs. But during a rare attempt Hendricken made passing the ball to the wingers, McCready intercepted a back pass and scampered 50 meters by his lonesome for the try, to up Belmont’s lead to 14-7.

Then, in the fading evening light, the field’s lights went out as did the scoreboard. And so did Belmont’s energy as the visitors, with a pair of advantageous infringement calls against Belmont, allowed Hendricken to tie it up three minutes later.

McCready’s second try, helped by the wing play of senior Norman Kilavatitu, gave Belmont a 19-14 lead (the conversion, from an extreme angle, was missed). Yet, while both teams tired in the somewhat muggy conditions, Hendricken caught a break when Belmont turned over the ball for the final time and got a great side out deep in Belmont territory, scoring just after the lights came back on to go up 21-19 with just under four minutes to play.

Belmont was quickly able to retain the ball when McCready, being in a defenseless position after kicking the ball down the field, was flattened to the pitch by a Hendricken player. As medical attention was rendered, and he was taken off the field, Chan – who was the kicker for the football team – decided he would take the a shot at glory.

With players and coaches hugging each other after the final whistle, Bruce was asked about going back to the state championships for the third straight time.

“It feels pretty damn good,” he said.

 

Belmont Rugby Welcomes Back Rivals Bishop Hendricken in State Semifinals

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Photo: The earlier match with Bishop Hendricken.

Belmont High School Rugby Club will be seeking its third consecutive trip to the state championships as the squad hosts tonight, Tuesday, May 19, the team it battled in the past two finals and defeated earlier this year in a historic victory.

Bishop Hendricken High School‘s rugby club will take on Belmont in a rematch of an earlier scrum which Belmont dominated, 25-5, back on April 1. The earlier victory was the first regular season win over the school from Warwick, RI. which holds a 5-2 edge over Belmont. The other win was in the 2013 Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organzation State Championship in Devens.

The match, on the Harris Field pitch, will start at 7 p.m. 

If victorious, Belmont will meet the winner of the Boston College High School/St. John’s Prep match in Worcester on Saturday, May 23. 

Three Arlington-Belmont Crew Boats Heading to Rowing Nationals in June

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Photo: The Arlington-Belmont crew at the Head of the Charles. 

They might be considered “lightweight”, but there is nothing insubstantial about the Arlington-Belmont Crew, the rowing club with students from Belmont and Arlington high schools that began in 2005.

At this weekend’s 2015 USRowing Northeast Youth Championships held on the Merrimack River in Lowell, three A-B “lightweight” boats qualified and will be traveling to the USRowing Nationals in Florida next month.

The term lightweight refer to the weight of each rower not exceeding 150 lbs for men and 130 lbs for women.

The A-B men’s lightweight four (four rowers using one oar each) took first, beating the Dublin School by four and a half second, crossing the line in 7 minutes, 4.9 seconds. 

The men’s lightweight eight took second (6:30.1) behind Boston Community Rowing, edging out Brookline High School by half a second. 

The women’s lightweight eight finished behind Saugatuck Rowing, finishing second in 7:27.3.

 The 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships will be hold on June 12 to 14, in Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.

Belmont Girls’ Track Takes League Title, First in Nearly 40 Years

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Photo: Belmont High Girls’ Spring Track in action.

“Hotel California” and lots of disco was playing on the radio, “Star Wars” was the monster hit at the movies, TV viewers loved “Laverne & Shirley,” leisure suits were big for men and women wore high-waisted bell-bottoms and the “Farrah-flip.”

And in that same year of 1977, Belmont High’s Girls’ Spring Track came home with the league championship. And it would take nearly five decades before another Belmont team would be able to raise the trophy again. 

On Tuesday, May 12, just as the final relay finished with Belmont defeating hosts Winchester, 88-48, several senior got hold of a water bucket filled with ice and doused Head Coach Melissa Glotzbecker with a celebratory dunking as the team completed the season undefeated (6-0) and atop the Middlesex League, which took 38 years to repeat.

Then, as part of a tradition with victorious girls teams, the squad cheered and yelled from Belmont Center to the school from the buses transporting them back home. 

“We had no idea it was that long since the last title,” said Glotzbecker. Since no one could recall the last title, she went to the Wenner Field House to view the championship banners on the wall to finally determine how very long it had been. 

“So we’re proud that we’ll be putting up another [banner] for the school to see,” the former St. Lawrence distance runner said.

Belmont was able to defeat traditionally large and strong programs such as Lexington and Reading due to this year’s squads depth, said Glotzbecker. 

“We are really strong in so many events and that makes us very diverse in terms of scoring,” said Glotzbecker, noting the team has qualified multiple runners, jumpers, and field events athletes to the Div. III state championships at Durfee High School in late May, not sending participants in the shot, discus and pole vault, the last which Belmont does not compete. 

“But it’s not just those who are scoring that makes up this team, everyone who worked hard this year contributed to the success of the team. We wouldn’t be this good without being pushed and supported by the entire team,” she said. 

Next for the team is the Div. III relays at Burlington on Saturday, May 16, “which will be fun as it’s a true team event” before preparing for the Middlesex League meet on Tuesday, May 19, at Regis College. 

Patriots Visit Spur Boosters Funding for Belmont Sports

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Photo: New England Patriot LeGarrette Blount at the Belmont Boosters Fundraising game. 

Apparently, afternoon traffic set back the basketball game’s starting time by a few minutes. But by 7 p.m., several very skilled, really big and quite successful athletes were on the Wenner Field House court ready for a fun time in Belmont. 

And from the enthusiastic response from fans and players, Wednesday night’s Belmont Boosters Club’s fundraiser between the Super Bowl champions New England Patriots Celebrity Basketball team against a rag-tag team of Boosters All Stars.

While the game had its moments – Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler’s near half court three-point baskets, how fast nose tackle “Sealver” Siliga is on the court and running back LeGarrette Blount bouncing around with kids during the lineup announcements – the true winners will be Belmont High School athletes, said Boosters’ Ann Reynolds.

“This is one of three big fundraisers the Boosters had in the past two years,” said Reynolds, noting the organization is in the second of a three-year contract with the Patriots.

Along with the annual golf tournament and the yearly October door-to-door fundraising “drive,” the game supports the Boosters purchase of jackets awarded at the seasonal athletic awards nights, championship banners in the field house, the team captain leadership program and a great amount of equipment and material to support of high school sports. In the past six years, the Boosters have contributed approximately $130,000 to the athletic department.

The latest project that will be undertaken by the Boosters will be renovating the school’s weight room and transform it into a fitness center, introducing new equipment and a rubberized floor. 

Those who wish to support the new fitness center, you can visit the Boosters website.

“Sometimes we have to remind people that we have sports at the high school and that we need to support them,” said Reynolds, before rushing off to tackle a number of tasks to keep the event on time. 

Playing in Belmont Could Cost More for Outside Groups under Proposal

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Photo: Harris Field in Belmont.

The good news is that Belmont has a wealth of recreation play areas and locations. With soon two pools, a hockey rink, a large field house, a Turf surface at Harris Field, parks, ballfields, soccer pitches and 22 tennis courts, Belmont has more town-owned playing spaces than any of its neighboring communities.

The bad news is that Belmont lags far behind those same nearby communities in bringing in the bucks for the privilege of using town spaces. While revenue from Belmont’s recreation facilities brought in $792,000 in fiscal 2013, next door Arlington pulled in $1.5 million during the same time frame despite not having an indoor pool (it does have pond swimming) with camps and other groups lining up to use their facilities. 

With Belmont facing limited avenues to increase overall revenue for the near future, the time has come for Belmont’s recreation areas to follow the lead of other communities and begin using its resources to pay for themselves today and in the future, according to a report from the Financial Task Force issued at the Task Force’s meeting in Town Hall on Monday, May 11.

“Now is the time for the town to change the ways we’ve done things,” said Task Force member Anne Helgen who authored the report with suggested a series of recommendations for town officials to consider. 

In her report, Helgen said while Belmont’s management of the recreational assets “ad hoc … ragged and never written down,” surrounding towns have used their resources to generate greater money through broader programming, using facilities throughout the year and all day and rent them out at a considerably higher rate.

Due to the lack of any official policy, agreements and contracts were written with groups and teams “that were not made in [the town’s] interest so private groups benefited at our expense,” said Helgen. 

In addition, while most surrounding municipalities promote recreation activities year round, Belmont generates 60 cents of every dollar it takes in annual from one season, the summer.

“It’s astonishing how much [other towns] offer,” said Helgen.

By analyzing the way other communities have set up their recreation programs, Belmont can begin turning around its underutilized assets by following their lead, said Helgen. They include:

  • Expand programing at recreation sites, such as introducing Cross-Fit, alternative sports including flag football and Ultimate Frisbee and other enrichment events like chess, Legos and art programs. 
  • Target underserved market such as pre-kindergarten and toddlers with active programs as well as the stay-at-home population and seniors.
  • Expand the hours the facilities are open. Summers, weekdays and many hours over the weekend “Harris Field is empty,” said Helgen, while the pools could attract more campers and programs if the pools’ times were managed more closely. 
  • Outsource programing such as using fitness firms to supply the demand for outdoor exercising.
  • And take advantage of the high demand in the greater Boston area for pools and turf fields to charge market rate to non-residential users. Watertown rents out nearby Victory Field for $130,000 a year to groups from Boston University and Boston College during its off-peak hours.

But “jacking up the fees” will not come at the expense of Belmont youth sports or people who live in town, said Helgen.

“No, we are not proposing to put these fees on youth leagues in town. That’s not the purpose at all,” she reiterated.

 

Those most effected by the increase in rents will be current and future non-resident users, such as camps and sports teams which the majority of participants are not Belmont residents. 

To bring these suggestions to fruition, Helgen advises Belmont to hire at approximately $100,000 a year a veteran full-time recreation director  – a position not filled in the past three years as a cost savings measure – to management and lead the turnaround. The new director will be assisted by a Field Management Committee (which is currently employed in Wayland, Wellesley, Winchester and Burlington) made up of residents, the schools, sports programs and other stakeholders whose job will be to balance the needs of all users. 

The town should consolidate the school and town assets under a single consolidated management – including the aquatics facilities – in addition to inventorying the available facilities. 

A conservative estimate by Helgen suggests the town could generate between $165,000 to $330,000 in net revenue within three years, enough to not only run the department but also to make contributions to future capital improvements. 

But just as important as developing new committees and policy approaches, according to Helgen, is changing the mind set of the town and the Recreation Department. 

“We need to adopt a new mentality,” said Helgen, having heard possible initiatives to use facilities in new ways were turned down “because they were told ‘we’re not allowed to do that’.”

If successful, Helgen said the end result will be a “win-win” for the town and residents with greater and more creative programs drawing in more users, high costs to outsiders will subsidize the fix costs and there will be greater use of the town’s facilities. 

In Historic Victory, Unbeaten Belmont Girls’ Track Defeats Lexington

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Photo: (from left) Anoush Krafian (16.1 seconds), Rachel Berets (16.8) and Sammy Kelts (17.2) sweep the 100m high hurdles in a duel meet with Lexington. 

Usually, a duel track meet between strong teams come down to the final two events; the 100 and 400 meter relays. 

That wasn’t necessary on Thursday, May 7, when the undefeated Lexington High School Girls’ Track squad visited unbeaten Belmont High School at Harris Field. When Belmont’s junior Meredith Hughes strode across the finish line to win the two-mile (12 minutes, 11.5 seconds), the Marauders piled up an insurmountable point lead so to clinch the historic victory over the Minutemen without having to pass the baton around the track.

The 70-66 victory was the first by Belmont over Lexington in nearly 15 years, and brings the 5-0 Marauders to within a whisper of winning the Middlesex League title, said Belmont Head Coach Melissa Glotzbecker, with a meet with Winchester remaining on the schedule. 

“Overall, all of our girls showed up, they were setting personal bests in a lot of different events. The came in with a positive attitude and ready to run hard and fight for the win,” said Glotzbecker. The victory outdoors comes just three months after Lexington crushed Belmont inside, 62-24. 

The meet was close with Lexington in the lead by four points, 29-25 (the first three finishers score in a meet with first receiving 5 points, second, 3 points, and third, 1 point) when Belmont made its move midway through the meet.

The comeback started with freshman standout Anoush Krafian breaking the school’s outdoor long-jump record by just over three inches with a leap of 17 feet, 5 1/2 inches. Earlier, Krafian just missed clearing 5 foot, 3 inches in the high jump, still winning with a height of 5’1″, with Sammy Kelts finishing second with a leap of 4’9″. 

In the triple jump, Kelts (33 feet, 8 inches) and Marley Williams (33 feet, 6 1/2 inches) out jumped Lexington’s Div. 1 standout senior Cathryn Pryor by 2 1/2 and 1 inch to take first and second and grab eight points to the Minuteman’s one. 

Finally, in the 100 meters hurdles, Belmont swept the top three places as Krafian (16.1 seconds), Rachel Berets (16.8) and Kelts (17.2) led the way to nine points to give Belmont a 47-34 lead. 

“Our hurdle group is hard working. They fight for every single last step that they can get. And you saw that at the finish line when [Kelts] went for the lean just so she could get that last [scoring] place,” said Glotzbecker

The hurdles have become a speciality for the Marauders as Claudia Tenner (69.3 seconds) and Kayla Magno (69.6) went one-two in the 400 meter hurdles, giving Belmont 17 out of a total of 18 points in the two events.

The Marauders protected the lead by placing either first or second in the remaining events. Williams won both in the 100 and 200 meter dashes with Megan Alper finishing third in the  200; Meghan MacAulay and Danielle Kelly finished second and third in the 4oo meters, and Julia Delhome gutted out a 2:32.1 800 meters to finish in second. After the Hughes ran the second mile by herself to the victory, Belmont had secured the win.

“We have a hard working group, they are unified as a team which is great,” said Glotzbecker. 

Belmont Rugby Ends Regular Season with Overwhelming Win, Playoffs Next

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Photo: Belmont High School Rugby.

Despite the loss of captain senior scrum back Darren Chan, Belmont High School Rugby Club dominated a good Xaverian Brothers High School squad, 34-7, in the final regular season match held at Belmont’s Harris Field on Wednesday, May 6. 

Read the game recap here.

The team finishes the season with five wins against a single loss to Boston College High School. 

The victory gives Head Coach Greg Bruce’s squad an expected second seed in the Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization High School championships and a bye for the first round.

Belmont tentatively will host a semi-final match at Harris Field on Tuesday, May 19. 

If successful in the semi-finals, Belmont will reach its third consecutive championship game which takes place on Saturday, May 23 at Commerce Bank Field at Foley Stadium in Worcester.