Belmont High’s Empress: Class Of ’81 Alum Graduates to Chrysanthemum Throne

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Photo: Empress Mask, Belmont High School, Class of 1981.

Some high schools can boast of their alums who have become pro athletes, pop singers or movie stars while others point to those who run high tech start ups or prize winning eateries.

At Belmont High, the most noted graduate is part of royalty. Not the Hollywood type of nobility (aka Kardashians) or someone from a tiny island principality. In Belmont, that grad is a proper empress.

Belmont High School alumna Masako Owada, 55, became the Empress of Japan on Tuesday, April 30.

A member of the graduating class of 1981, Owada – who was named Masako, Crown Princess of Japan, when she married Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993 – became empress with the abdication of Naruhito’s father, 83-year-old Emperor Akihito who is stepping down from theChrysanthemum Throne.

Owada’s journey to Belmont was not that uncommon for a child of a diplomat as her father, Hisashi Owada, was sent by the Japanese government to Moscow and New York before coming to Massachusetts as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School for two years.

Living a stone’s throw from Habitat on Juniper Street with her parents and younger twin sisters, Owada spent her junior and senior years at the Concord Avenue school where she was a member of the French Club and Math team. After graduation, Owada didn’t travel far for college, attending Harvard. 

Belmont and Owada would next intersect in 1993 when her engagement to Akihito’s eldest son was announced. A short blast of interest in Owada’s former hometown from Japanese tourists occurred only to subside just as quickly. 

The next question is if Empress Masako will be attending her next high school reunion, her 40th, in 2021.

Teammates Start GoFundMe Site To Remember Cleo

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Photo: Cleo Theodoropulos (center) with her Belmont High School Field Hockey teammates before its playoff game against Masco in November 2018.

It’s something that teammates do for their fellow player; being there for them at the most difficult of times.

Cleo Athena Theodoropulos was a junior and a member of the Belmont High School Field Hockey, playing left side forward on the playoff squad this past fall. In less than a week, she was diagnosed with a rare bone disorder which a few days later resulted in a stroke that caused her sudden death on April 22.

“Cleo will always be remembered as a ray of light, a beautiful and positive person,” wrote varsity player Emma O’Donovan who along with nine other teammates set up a GoFundMe site to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where Cleo was being treated.

“Belmont Field Hockey will be raising money to benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and any donation will make an impact. Thank you in advance for your contribution and generosity. Anything is greatly appreciated. We will all miss Cleo dearly and will remember the incredible impact she made on each and every one of our lives,” reads the appeal.

The team posted on social media to everyone they knew. And a flood of donations began.

The team passed through its initial goal of $7,000 in a few hours and broke $10,000 in about a day. So they raised the mark to $12,000. As of Monday at 6 a.m. the campaign has raised $10,810 that will go to research and treatment of cancers and blood disorders that struck Cleo.

Memorial Service For Cleo Theodoropulos, Fri., May 3

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Photo: Cleo Athena Theodoropulos (GoFundMe)

There will be a celebration of the life of Cleo Athena Theodoropulos on Friday, May 3, at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

Born on Aug. 30, 2002, Cleo died suddenly of a stroke on April 22, 2019, at Boston Children’s Hospital where she had been diagnosed the previous week with Ewing Sarcoma, a rare bone disorder. She was 16.

A junior at Belmont High School who was an outstanding figure skater and played varsity field hockey, all will remember Cleo as the beautiful, sweet and big-hearted girl everyone loved. She was radiant, a tall, graceful, blue-eyed girl with a big laugh and a long Greek name. 

She had the gift of giving and receiving love without prejudice. We will all dearly miss her hearty laughter and wry sense of humor. This world lost a rare gem, and we will miss her terribly. The memory that we will hold onto a girl who was “game on” for life – all of it.

Memorial and Reception in honor of Cleo will be held Friday, May 3, 2019, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge at the Bigelow Chapel. Cleo’s family welcomes all those who wish to celebrate her life and receive comfort from the many who were touched by her eternal light.

Interment will be on Halesia Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery after May 3. 

Cleo is survived by her parents Constantine and Amanda (McCarthy) Theodoropulos, grandparents Franziska and Spyros Theodoropulos of Yorktown Heights, NY, grandmother Sandra Ann McCarthy of Ottawa, Ontario, uncle Alexander Christopher Theodoropulos and aunt Tara Cloe Foley of Wassaic, NY, aunt Cara Eileen McCarthy of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and Jojo, her Australian Cattle Dog.

Special thanks to Cleo’s doctors, Lindsay Frazier, Wallace Bourgeois, and Adrienne Randolph as well as the many extraordinary nurses at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

A heartfelt thank you as well to the children, parents and staff of Belmont High School. Your support of Cleo in the last few days and years before helped made her an amazing young woman. 

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center in memory of Cleo. 

Belmont’s McCabe Named MIAA’s Girls’ Rugby Coach of the Year

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Photo:

Well, it’s about time!

Kathryn McCabe, who helped establish the successful and popular girls’ rugby program at Belmont High School in 2015 and who led the Marauders to consecutive (2017-18) state championships, was this week named the recipient of the 2019 Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Girls’ Rugby Coach of the Year Award.

McCabe’s selection was based upon excellence of character, impact upon students and community, and her coaching credentials.  The selection was made from all nominations by a screening committee of MIAA Coaching Education Instructors.

The Coach of the Year Award will be presented to McCabe, who is an educator at Belmont High, at the MIAA Annual Awards Recognition Banquet on Thursday, May 23, at the Doubletree Hotel in Milford.

Belmont Girls’ Rugby Romps In Season Opening Matches

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Photo: Belmont High Junior Callie Weissman on the run vs. Lincoln Sudbury.

The two-time consecutive state champions Belmont High Girls’ Rugby program got down to the business of defending its crown beginning the season with a pair of dominate performances.

The Marauders’ open its campaign for a third banner by defeating last year’s championship finalist Lincoln-Sudbury Regional, 57-28, at Harris Field, Friday, April 5. On Wednesday, April 10, Belmont shut out 2017 finalist Algonquin Regional, 52-0.

Asked about the outstanding performance of her team, Belmont Head Coach Kate McCabe said “we’re really lucky to have a mature squad. We have a lot of seniors and that says also a lot about the depth that they are building for the future.”

In the first game, Belmont was led by last year’s Boston Globe All-Scholastic senior Gabriella (Gabby) Viale as the Marauders took control early on both sides of the ball and never allowed Lincoln-Sudbury to establish an offensive rhythm.

It was Viale four trys – the equivalent of a touchdown – that showed . The first came when Viale made a quick start before Lincoln Sudbury was set and outran its backline to the end zone. Her second was a 60 meters solo scamper after breaking through the L/S defense, the third was the culmination of a series of grind-it-out runs. Viale’s fourth was simply sublime as she kicked the ball over the approaching defense, ran through the L/S line to scoop up the ball for her final try.

“My backline was doing such a good job of using the space, cutting and taking the angles that I was able to make those plays,” said Viale.

Replacing graduated all-scholastic Jessica Rosenstein in the critical scrum-half role, sophomore Sadie Kabhrel belied her youth by defending the ball exiting the ruck and scrum while completing nearly all her releases out to the wings.

“She would not let anyone push her around,” said Viale. “Sadie’s been fantastic with her passes as she’s getting them out really wide and we didn’t have that many drop balls.”

Belmont was up 37-7 at the halftime break and was never threatened.

“We came out with so much power it will only get better from here,” said Viale, who has established herself as one the premier players in the state. “Everyone came out so hard and really wanted it.”

In the second match against the T-Hawks, Belmont’s aggressive defense led by the likes of left wing Ana Oteri (who in the previous game took down Lincoln Sudbury’s quick wings with a series of heavy tackles), Number 8 Sam Dignan and Prop Grace Christensen, kept Algonquin on its side of the field.

The game’s offensive punch came from junior Callie Weissman who plays on the front row as the tighthead (right) prop, not normally the position that comes up with multiple trys which Weissman collected.

“I was really excited for this match because I was feeling really strong during warm up, so just being able to get the ball and to have the space to charge through the line was great, Weissman said.

Despite starting the season on a strong note, McCabe doesn’t have plans to keep the squad’s roster static for the rest of the campaign.

“I think we’re checking out a bunch of options. Just because someone has played a position doesn’t mean that’s where we’re going to play them in the future. We are not going to be complacent where we are,” said McCabe.

“These girls watch themselves play and recognize what they need to work on. They are really honest about saying things that go well and things that [the coaches] ask them to be better about,” said McCabe who took more than a dozen players on the rugby club’s spring trip abroad, this year heading to northern Spain.

Belmont Girls’ Lax Ride The Wave To Thrilling OT Win In Season Opener

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Photo: Belmont’s Jordan Coppolo (#4) scoring the winning goal in OT vs Billerica.

As the team was heading out onto the Harris Field turf for sudden death overtime, Belmont High Girls’ Head Coach Kathryn Anaian called out to them: “Ride the wave!” 

Anaian was speaking about the momentum the team created in the second half of its game against Billerica Memorial High School in the season opener on March 28. After trailing 11-7 at the half, the Marauders’ held Billerica to just a pair of goals while scoring six second-half tallies that resulted in the extra frame.

“[Junior midfielder Carolyn] Findlay made a great comment at halftime. Let’s get the momentum, let’s fire everyone up and ride that wave. And we actually did it,” said Anaian. 

Riding high on that crest was a pair of sophomores who were critical in the unfolding contest. After tying the game with a little more than a minute to play in the game, goalie Kendall Whalen produced a stellar one-on-one save with 8 seconds to play, one of seven she registered in the game to keep the game squared at 13.

It would come down to Belmont’s most dangerous attack forward Jordan Coppolo (4 goals) to make the play of the game after receiving a pass from Marauder All-Star Findlay (6 goals, 2 assists). Rushing into the slot, Coppolo would gather the ball between four Billerica defenders and score on a shot high in the net to secure an exciting come-from-behind victory.

“We needed this first win as a [starting] point and we got it,” said Anaian. “If this is our starting point, I’m happy.”

Belmont came out strong to open the game, scoring three times in the first five minutes by dominating ground balls and faceoffs. While the defense was playing an aggressive style against Billerica’s attackers, the Marauders found themselves behind 11-5 before two late goals from Findlay and Coppolo allowed for some hope of a comeback at the half.

“We have a ton to work on but I can’t coach heart and I can’t coach work ethic. And I have a team where everyone is all in. And for that reason alone, we will be successful,” said Anaian.

What’s In A Name? Plenty As New School Building To Get A Moniker

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Photo: Could this be the new Hogwarts School, Belmont Campus? 

With groundbreaking for the new 7-12 grade school building just 10 weeks away, there’s one thing still missing from the $295 million project.

What’s it called? And like a newborn, you need to get it right off the bat as you’re not getting a second chance. 

Belmont Superintendent John Phelan told the Belmont School Committee on Tuesday, March 26, the Belmont High Building Committee will accept a name from the Policy Subcommittee for the building by May 1 with students and teachers being asked over the next week to contribute to the list of names and assist in whittling down the hopefuls to a handful.

Collecting and coordinating the naming effort are Belmont High Building Committee members Chenery Principal McAllister and Belmont High educator Jamie Shea.

With the countdown starting for when the five-year project commences in late May, Phelan said the Massachusetts School Building Authority – which partnered with the School District in building the new school – knowing that signage and written material will need to be ready by groundbreaking gave the Building Committee “complete permission” to come up with a name that “we would be moving forward.”

After Belmont High sophomore Grace Kane asked if the name change would be effective on May 1, Phelan said “out of respect” for the students at the current school will continue attending “Belmont High School” for the remainder of their schooling.

Phelan read out the names that have been collected over the past two years from teachers, students, and resident in visioning sessions held early in the design process.

The current list includes:

  • Belmont High School
  • Belmont Middle/High schools
  • Belmont High School Upper School/Lower School
  • Belmont High School, Lower Division/Upper Division
  • Belmont Secondary School, Upper school/Lower school
  • Belmont 7-12 School, Upper School/Lower School
  • Belmont High School Academy/Belmont Junior Academy
  • Belmont Academy Upper School/Lower School
  • Belmont Academies
  • Belmont Junior/Senior High schools

“They all revolve around trying to capture that Belmont High should be part of the branding but also with the full acknowledgment that we have a middle school that will now accompany the school,” said Phelan. A name should provide “middle school students a name of their own to call where they go to school,” he noted. 

There are examples of how school districts named buildings that house more than the traditional 9-12 grade arrangement. The town of Lee has “Lee Middle and High School.” Carver, located way far away, named its school “Carver Middle High School,” West Bridgewater has a brand new 7-12 “Middle-Senior High School” and the communities of Dennis and Yarmouth is known as “Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.”

Thinking out of the box, the town of Easton named its high school after the son of the shovel magnate Oliver Ames and Westford kept “Academy” to its high school as it was a private school until the 1920s. 

And why not HSS Academy? Constance Billard-St.Judes School? North Shore High School? And, of course, there’s Hogwarts School, Belmont Campus.

As for Phelan?

“It’ll probably be Belmont High School,” he said to the committee.

Feed Me, Seymour! Belmont High Presents ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ March 21-23

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Photo: Poster for this year’s musicial, Little Shop of Horrors

Don’t feed the plant!

For its spring musical, Belmont High School Performing Arts Company presents “Little Shop of Horrors” produced and directed by Ezra Flam.

Performances will take place on:

  • Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. and
  • Saturday, March 23 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets:

  • ADULTS: $15 in advance, $18 at the door
  • CHILDREN/STUDENTS: $10 ($5 tickets for high school students for the Thurusday Mar. 21 show)

Tickets on sale at bhs-pac.org and at Champions in Belmont Center

All performances will be in the Belmont High School auditorium.

An off-Broadway hit 35 years ago which was turned into a cult-favorite rock/horror/comedy film, “Little Shop” has become a contemporary musical theater classic. The show featured a catchy score inspired by 60’s rock, doo-wop and Motown, written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the duo responsible for “Beauty & the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin.”

The show features a giant, talking plant puppet – operated by three students – a chorus of singing and dancing street Urchins and a crowd-pleasing score, including “Suddenly Seymour,” “Somewhere That’s Green,” the Dentist’s over-the-top rock song (made famous in the movie by Steve Martin) and more.

The big test that faced producer and director Ezra Flam was taking a show that orginiated on a cramped stage Off-Off-Broadway and ramp it up to include a cast of thousands (well, nearly 100.)

“One of the fun challenges of this show has been expanding a show that traditionally has a small cast of nine performers, to work for our cast of almost 90,” he said.

“We have widened to world of the show, expanding the trio of street urchins to ten, adding a group of dancers who serve as a bridge between the gritty world of Skid Row and the fantasy of a glamorous life Seymour finds himself in, and filling out the world of Skid Row. Every character in the show has some part in pushing Seymour down his dark path, culminating in a huge finale song ‘Don’t Feed the Plants’ that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.” said Flam.

“This production showcases what the Performing Arts Company does best: give our actors and stage crew the chance to learn about theater by creating a fully realized production,” Flam noted.

“The set will bring the world of Skid Row to life, and then open up to reveal the inside of the flower show; the costumes capture a colorful 1960s aesthetic; as always, the singing and dancing are sure to be a highlight of the show, especially with incredibly fun songs serving as a creative springboard, and a Pit Orchestra made up of mostly of students, under the direction of Arto Asadoorian.”

Kings Of The North: Belmont Boys’ D2 Sectional Champions After Dominating North Andover

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Photo: Kings of the North, 2019 Belmont High School

Belmont High School senior guard and co-captain Danny Yardemian said at the beginning of the 2018-19 season he didn’t want to end his basketball career without bringing a title, make that any title, back to the school. 

On Saturday, Yardemian and his fellow Marauders picked up that long-sought after silverware and will be placing a sectional crown into the school’s trophy case as number one seed Belmont captured the Division 2 North title beating defending champions North Andover, 64-51, on March 9 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell. 

“It’s mission accomplished,” said Yardemian, whose magical season continues having set new school marks for game scoring (46 points) and career points now somewhere close to 1,400. 

“I’m so proud of my team mates, we as a team worked so hard for this. Words can’t describe it. It’s surreal,” he said. 

The victory sends Belmont (23-2) to the Eastern Mass championships against the defending Division 2 state title holders, TechBoston Academy, on Wednesday, March 13 at 7:15 p.m. at the TD Garden. It will be a rematch from last month when TechBoston outlasted Belmont, 73-68, in the finals of the Comcast Classic in Woburn.

“It sounds good to me,” said Belmont Head Coach Adam Pritchard when asked his thoughts of playing for the second time on the Garden parquet floor this season – a loss to Algonquin Regional High School in January – now for the eastern Mass title.

The victory is the first sectional title since 2007 when Belmont, coincidentally, defeated North Andover before losing to Catholic Memorial in the Eastern finals.

The game was decided over the final four plus minutes of the third quarter when the Marauders outplayed an exhausted Scarlet Knights team to the tune of 17-1. The game also turned into a showcase for sophomore reserve forward Preston Jackson-Stephens who dominated the hardwood on both ends of the court coming off the bench, scoring 18 points (co-high scorer with Yardemian and North Andover’s Jake McElroy) and taking on North Andovers’ front line.

“It didn’t matter who was against me, it was the Eye on the Prize. The only person who can stop me is me, no other opponent [can],” said Jackson-Stephens.

“Preston came in and made some big moves and helped us out a great deal,” said Pritchard, in his 19th year at the helm of the Marauders.

The first half was a game of runs with Belmont stretching up to a lead only to see North Andover bounce back. After senior co-captain Ben Sseruwagi opened the scoring with a hoop and one – which was accompanied by a pose in front of the Scarlet Knights bench – Belmont fell behind 6-3 when Jackson-Stephens gave the crowd a preview of his night by driving to the basket for two than hitting a line drive 3 as part of a 7-0 Belmont run.

Behind by one, 11-10, enter the second, the Marauders took advantage of its speed and confidence with the ball. After Sseruwagi made two free throws, Jackson-Stephens had a monster block then drove the length of the court before being fouled and converting one of two from the charity stripe to put Belmont up 16-15 with 6 minutes to play. The Marauders would then run off a 12-2 spurt over the next four minutes highlighted by threes from sophomore Tim Minicozzi who ended with 9 for the game and senior co-captain center Daniel Seraderian (5 points) who played stellar defense against North Andovers’ big men.

After Yardemian hit one of two from the line to give Belmont a double digit lead, 29-19, with two minutes left, the Marauders appeared to be cruising to a big lead at the half. But North Andover would put on a furious comeback culminating with a pair of 3s from senior guard Jake McElroy and junior guard Kyle Moore (whose basket bounced three times before dropping) and cutting Belmont’s advantage to 30-29 at the break. 

The Knights came out strong early in the second half, up 38-36 when Sseruwagi tied it up with a behind his back drive to the hoop at 4:30 in the quarter. And for the remainder of the half, it was all Belmont as they ran North Andover ragged, outscoring the Knights 17-1 in a display of both ends of the floor total basketball with Jackson-Stephens starting the push with a driving hoop followed by Yardemian’s two in the lane.

After Minicozzi nailed a jumped and one from distance to increase to lead to 10, 49-39, North Andover called a time out with 1:14 left in an attempt to stem the bleeding. But Belmont took the ball from the Knights resulting in another Jackson-Stephens basket who scored eight points in the quarter while Sseruwagi (12 points) threw down seven of his own in the run.

By its end of the third quarter, North Andover was looking up at a 16 point deficit with the final 8 minutes before them. There was no response to the onslaught as Belmont eased through the fourth, going up by 20, 62-42, midway through the quarter, to claim their prize. 

For Belmont Head Coach Adam Pritchard, the victory was due to the “five good offensive weapons” on the court at any one time. And when the game was close at the half, “It was the players that talked about defense and rebounding.”

“The reality is that half time was all about Danny Yardemian, Ben Sseruwagi, [center] Jake Herlihy and [Seraderian] did all the talking,” said Pritchard. And that group returned to the court and proved they could walk the walk.

Belmont Girls’, Boys’ Basketball Earn 1 Seed In North Sectionals

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Photo: Belmont High Boys and Girls have home playoff games.

It’s always impressive for a school’s sports team to be selected the number-one seed in a sectional playoff; it’s an honored earned by a squad for an excellence on the field throughout the entire season.

What’s even more accomplished as well as being extremely rare? Having both teams in a sport – boys’ and girls’ – each selected as one seeds. It happened this basketball season and it happened in Belmont.

On Friday, Feb. 22, at the annoucement of the MIAA basketball tournament, both Marauder teams were selected the number one seeds in their respected divisions – the girls’ in Division 1 and the boys’ in Division 2 – in the North Sectionals which starts next week.

And with the seeding come the matchups and holding the top ranks secures possibily two home games in the first round and quarterfinals for the girls and a quarterfinal match for the boys.

The girls will first play against the winner of the bye-in game between Everett and Beverly (both 10-10) on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Wenner Field House at 7 p.m. If they win on Thursday, Belmont will play the winner of the Woburn (13-7) against Cambridge (14-6) contest, time and date to be determined.

After a bye in the first round, the boys will step on the court to take on a Middlesex League rival, the winner of the Arlington (12-8) vs. Melrose (10-8) first round clash, on Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in Belmont.