One Run Playoff: Belmont High Baseball Bows Out To Arlington In First Round

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Photo: Senior Steve Rizzuto crossing the plate after hitting a home run in the bottom of the 10th against Arlington.

The playoffs ended way too soon for Belmont High baseball.

A pair of errors on fly balls in the outfield proved the difference as Belmont walked off Brendan Grant Field as 12-ranked and Middlesex League rival Arlington (12-9) celebrating a 5-4 upset victory over the fifth-seed Marauders (15-6) in the first round of the Division 2 North sectional playoffs on Thursday, June 7.

“It’s a tough one,” said Head Coach Jim Brown after the game. “We were winning those lately.” 

The senior-heavy team nearly made off with another last inning victory, scoring three runs with two outs in the bottom of the 7th off Arlington reliever Jay Masci on four consecutive singles by seniors Dennis Crowley, Ryan Noone, Connor Dacey and Steve Rizzuto to tie the score at three. 

“That’s what is great about this senior class and these kids. They don’t panic and fight to the very end, to the last out. They never quit,” Brown. 

After allowing two runs to score on a two-out dropped fly ball in the top of the 10th off hard-luck loser Martin Marintchev who relieved senior starter Nate Espelin, Belmont quickly reduced the lead to one with a home run by the game’s hitting star Rizzuto, who went 4 for 4 with a double and the dinger, scored a run and drove in a pair. 

But with a man on second, a line drive to the Arlington shortstop started a 6-3 double play and an easy fly to right field ended the season which saw Belmont win consecutive Middlesex League championships, the first time since 1961 Belmont captured the league two seasons running. 

The one-run defeat was apropos for the team; in 21 games the Marauders played this season, 10 were decided by a single run.

“I love playing with this team. It was awesome,” said Espelin, Belmont’s ace southpaw who struck out 17 SpyPonders over nine innings while giving up two earned runs on five hits. “It was frustrating how it ended. It’s memorable the character that they all showed, how we stayed together no matter what.”

On Espelin’s first pitch of the game, leadoff hitter Brendan Jones sent the ball to deep center where the Marauder center fielder stumbles, recovers but then stumbles a second time to see the ball fall beyond his glove. Jones scored on Dara Conneely’s double.  

In the hole by a run after half an inning, the Marauders’ had its chances against Arlington starter Adam Bowler including leaving the bases loaded in the 2nd and 4th innings and stranding 12 men on base, 8 in scoring position. 

The SpyPonders increased its lead scoring twice in the top of the 4th with two singles and a double off Espelin.

It didn’t appear Belmont had anything in the tank offensively until the 7th when the bench erupted with each clutch hit by the middle of the order. But the team could not muster the one extra run to take the game.

Brown said despite the early exit, “it was definitely a good season. Obviously, these seniors, many who were three-year starters, wanted to go further in the playoffs. But I’m proud of them,” he said. 

 

Track: Krafian Repeats As Hurdles State Champ; Perkins 2nd In Record Time

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Photo: Anoush Krafian

Belmont High School Senior Anoush Krafian finished her Massachusetts High School track career in style by repeating as champion in the 100 meters hurdles, coming within one-one hundredth of a second of the state record as she left a talented field in her wake at the MIAA All-State Outdoor Track and Field Meet held at Fitchburg State University on Saturday, June 2. 

The Dartmouth-bound Krafian flew over the 10 33-inch barriers in 14.26 seconds, a personal best and a Belmont High School record to win by more than half-a-second over runner-up Saige Tudisco of Pentucket Regional in 14.80. Krafian’s time was .01 of a second back of the state record of 14.25 set in 2011 by Brockton’s Vanessa Clerveaux who currently runs for Haiti internationally.

Earlier in the meet, Krafian jumped to a fourth-place finish in the high jump with a 5-foot, 6-inch effort, which tied with two other athletes for the second highest attempt (Krafian took fourth on the number of misses she accumulated in the meet) behind Anna Jordahl-Henry of Wellesley who won scaling 5’8″.

On Thursday, Krafian came close to repeating as the state’s pentathlon champion – a title she won indoors in February – as she broke her own state outdoor record by nearly 150 points. But she was overtaken by sophomore Jada Johnson of Sharon who destroyed her own personal best by 300 points to win the five-event competition, 3,529 to 3,408.

With her first, second and fourth place showings, Krafian earned all of Belmont’s 23 points to place 6th out of 71 schools scoring in the meet. 

On the boys’ side of the ledger, Belmont High Senior Calvin Perkins repeated last year’s All-State result placing second in a school record 48.16, this time to Phillips Magre of Somerville who dipped below the 48 second line in 47.98. Perkins took a half-second off last year’s race time to come close to the state record set by Boston College High’s Mike Greene 35 years ago. 

Belmont’s 4X400 relay team of seniors Max Serrano-Wu, Mel Nagashima, Bryan Huang and junior Nicholas Picardi took 7th in finals in 3 minutes, 24.75 seconds. 

Belmont’s Boys finished 25th with 10 points out of 77 teams scoring.

Dismissal Of Well-Liked Teacher Leads To Call By Students To Reinstate Educator [VIDEO]

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Photo: Belmont High seniors Haley Brown (left) and Eva Hill are working to reinstate popular English teacher Roanne Bosch whose contract was not extended after two years.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Belmont High School student who didn’t enjoy having Roanne Bosch as their English teacher.

“She’s everything a teacher should be, noted Brown; passionate, driven, compassionate and true understanding of all of our needs,” said senior Haley Brown, who with fellow 12th grader Eva Hill took Bosch’s junior honors class – which focuses on American writers – the year before and came back this school year to be her teaching assistants.

“She’s universally loved in a school which is hard to do with such diverse population,” said Brown.

The reason for such high praise for someone at Belmont High for only the past two years, is “this innate talent that’s not commonly found, it’s about her character that makes students really want to learn,” said Brown. “She really cares what each person say in class then asks them more questions, treating us like mature young adults with ideas that are valid,” said Hill.

The result is student’s care about the material rather than completing it by rote, said Hill.

With a growing number of students drawn to her teaching approach and lessons, it would appear that Belmont High had discovered an educator with that something special that every district is seeking to teach in their schools.

But Bosch’s classes will be filled by another educator in September as the school district declined to extend the English teacher’s contract for a third year.

For students, parents and some fellow teachers, the news came as a bolt from the blue.

“All of the blood left my head. I was in shock,” said Brown after hearing that Bosch was not asked to come back

“I saw a Facebook page that said Miss Bosch was leaving and I thought it was a [prank],” said Hill.

It’s not that Bosch lacks experience in the field; a third generation teacher, she joined Teach For America after graduating from the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry and earned a master’s in education from Harvard. Bosch taught at Lexington High School in the mid-2000s and earned professional status there in 2011 before teaching at Belmont. 

While Bosch quietly told students about her status, the news got out to the hallways and across the school in a flash. 

“The response has been incredibly passionate,” said Brown, which included a student writing “#freebosch” on his arm. 

Students rallied to come up with a plan to allow Bosch to come back for the next year. Brown and Hill joined others to create a petition on change.org in which 705 students, parents and others are calling the Belmont School Committee to rehire Bosch. Parents began discussing possible tactic to remedy what they see is a problem in fairly evaluating staff. 

What is troubling to Brown, Hill and other students is that no reason has been provided by the district for why Bosch was terminated. “We don’t know how many people were part of the decision, who they were and what was the criteria they used. It seems pretty arbitrary since all we know is how engaged and great she was in the classroom,” said Hill.

Belmont School District Superintendent John Phelan told the Belmontonian in an email “[t]he district respectfully will not comment on employment and personnel matters.”

If a teacher of Ms. Bosch’s caliber can be let go without a second thought, it worries us about the future, said Hill.

“It’s evident to us that the district’s decision was a mistake,” she said.

The students and their supporters will take their cause to the Belmont School Committee at its Tuesday, May 22 meeting at the Chenery Middle School with the ultimate goal of seeing their teacher back at Belmont High in the fall.

“We want to make a difference and reinstate Miss Bosch,” said Hill

As they have been working on the effort, the goal is now bigger than just bringing back Bosch, said Brown. “How is an educator who will be in the same position in the future to know how to do better in the future?” she said.

“We want to foster an environment where more teachers aren’t afraid to try new things and engage with all their students and treat them like they deserve to be there no matter how academically talented they may be,” said Brown.

“Why would a teacher who is an innovator want to come to Belmont when they fire the ones they have here already?” said Hill.

Belmont Track’s Krafian, Calvin, Relays Shine At Coaches’ Invitational Meet

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Photo: MSTCA State Coaches Meet director Mike Miller and the field of an athlete of the meet Shira Stoller (left) and the Overall athlete of the meet Anoush Krafian (right). (photo credit: MSTCA)

In a warm-up for the league, division and state championships upcoming in the next three weeks, Belmont High top track athletes are hinting at some big results after putting forth some outstanding performances at the Massachusetts State Track Coaches’ Association Invitational on Saturday, May 12.

At the boys’ events held at Durfee High in Fall River, senior Calvin Perkins destroyed a talented field in the 400 meters, powering home to win in 48.98 seconds, a full second and a half in front of Boston College High sophomore Shawn Carter. Perkins then anchored Belmont’s 4×400 relay to his second victory of the day, again in impressive fashion as the quartet finished in 3 minutes and 27.95 seconds, two seconds clear of the second place squad.

Also showing his talent in two events, junior Merrill Barnes finished in fifth in the long jump (19 feet, 2 and a quarter inches) and tied for eighth in the high jump (5 feet, 10 inches). Senior Mike Pomer raced to 10th in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:00.64.

As for a glimpse into the future, Belmont freshman Preston Jackson-Stephen won the freshman 100 meters in 11.88 seconds, the Marauders’ sophomore 4×100 placed fifth and sophomore Stephen Carvalho dipped under 10 minutes in the two miles in a time of 9:56.77 to place 10th.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Belmont senior star Anoush Krafian came away with her share of silverware as she strode to an easy victory in her specialty, the 100 meter hurdles, in 15.31 second (she qualified for the finals in 15.17) while finishing second in the high jump (5 feet, 2 inches) and a tie for ninth in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet and a half inch. At the end of the competition held a Sharon High School, despite some outstanding performances – including Natick junior Grace Connolly breaking Olympic bronze medalist and New York City marathon winner Shalene Flannigan’s state two-mile record set in 1999 – Krafian left with the Outstanding Overall Athlete of the Meet.

Belmont Girls’ 4×400 relay took home fourth in 4:15.81 while freshman Victoria Meringer finished sixth in the freshman mile in 5:34.23.

Excellence In High School Senior Writing Honored At Blacker Prizes May 16

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Photo: The annual Blacker Prizes will be bestowed on Wednesday, May 16.

The Belmont High School English Department will present the annual Lillian F. Blacker Prizes for Excellence in Writing on Wednesday evening, May 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the Peter Holland Library at Belmont High School. This year, we will honor seniors James Kitch, Mirilla Zhu, and Nanako Tokuo for their outstanding writing.  Belmont residents are cordially invited to attend.

Family and friends established the Blacker Prizes more than 20 years ago in memory of Lillian F. Blacker, a longtime Belmont resident who was very active in community affairs and was director of the Harvard Medical News Office. She is remembered by the school and the community as a true lover of literature and language.

The Blacker Prizes are presented each year to three seniors for outstanding writing ability on their senior theses.  Each senior reads, researches, and writes a lengthy thesis paper investigating a literary topic. English faculty members determine the winners after an extensive reading process.

At the awards ceremony, the three Blacker Prize winners will read from their papers and discuss the evolution of their ideas. A panel of seniors will discuss their topics and the senior thesis process. Teachers, parents, administrators, and friends are invited. Underclassmen are encouraged to attend the ceremony to learn more about the senior thesis process. Refreshments will be served.

Three Performances Of Annual One Act Festival This Weekend At Belmont High

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Photo: Poster for this year’s show.

Three chimpanzees writing “Hamlet”, four women traveling in outer space, an eccentric funeral guest and a delectable bowl of soup.

Those are the plots of eight theatrical pieces the Belmont High School Performing Arts Company is presenting at its annual One Act Festival. And due to popular demand, the company will stage three performances including a Saturday matinee.

The student-directed 10-minute plays, directed by Performing Arts Company members, are a mix of comedy, drama and everything in between. For a synopsis of the plays, head over to the BHS PAC webpage. 

The performances, which are held in the school’s Little Theater, will be on: 

  • Friday, May 11 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 12 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

TICKETS
Adults: $12; Students: $5

WHERE TO GET TICKETS:
Tickets are on sale online and at Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center.

Mother’s Day Flowers And Plants Sale Friday To Sunday At Lions Club

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Photo: The annual sale starts Friday.

It wouldn’t be Mother’s Day without a bouquet of flowers and there’s no better – and convenient – place to find that special gift than the annual Mother’s Day Flower Sale sponsored by Friends of Belmont Softball.

Purchase beautiful flowers and blooming plants and help support the Belmont High School Varsity and Junior Varsity Softball teams.

The sale will be held at the Belmont Lions Club at the intersection of Royal Road and Common Street just past the Belmont Commuter Rail tunnel on the following dates and times:

  • Friday, May 11; 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 12; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 13; 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Belmont Youth Hockey Scores On Proposed New Rink Along Concord Avenue

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Photo: An overview of the proposed new Belmont Youth Hockey rink along Concord Avenue.

They patiently sat on the bench for the past two-and-a-half years since it last was action, but on Tuesday, April 24, Belmont Youth Hockey jumped over the boards to reintroduce itself to the community and the Belmont School Committee with its vision of a new skating rink for Belmont.

The structure will be a sleek single-story rink/recreation center located on Concord Avenue across from the Underwood Pools, creating with a new high school and public library a new community hub for Belmont, according to Belmont Youth Hockey representative Robert Mulroy who, along with Ara Krafian, CEO of Cambridge-based SMMA |Architects who created preliminary drawings of a new rink, who presented the plans to the School Committee.

If all goes to plan, the new rink/center could be up and running by 2020 before major construction begins on the new Belmont High School.

To make the whole thing work, the youth hockey organization is proposing a public/private partnership with the school committee and town which will allow the non-profit to take school property in a 30-year lease at zero cost with the stipulation Belmont High sports teams will have a set number of hours reserved for games and practices. That partnership agreement will need to pass muster from the school committee and Town Meeting.

A new rink that will not need significant public funding will be a small but significant capital expense removed from the town’s significant “wish list” of large projects that Belmont faces paying for which includes as new Police Headquarters, Department of Public Works facility and public library.

While reluctant to say how much the new center will cost as construction expenses have markedly increased, Mulroy quoted a price tag of $6.5 million in 2015. The construction of the new rink – which will require the demolition of both the White Field House and the Viglirolo rink, known as “The Skip”, which was built in the 1970s.

School committee members did raise questions on the impact of traffic along Concord Avenue with a brand new facility and high school just a few hundred feet from other., But Mulroy believes the nearly 180 new parking spaces and traffic pattern changes associated with a new High School project will alleviate the current demand of on-street parking on main and side streets created by the existing rink and vehicle congestion created by those seeking parking. 

Belmont Superintendent John Phelan said youth hockey was asked by the district and school committee to wait to present its proposal until the “footprint” of the new High School was determined, so not to create any interference with the design and location of the 7th to 12th-grade building.

The need for a new rink is evident once anyone enters “The Skip” which is the current home of Belmont Youth Hockey and the Belmont High teams. Built more than 40 years ago, the once open rink has one wall of corrugated steel open to the elements. (Once, a visitor from Calgary, Canada who attended a nephew’s game at “The Skip” on one bitter January night, said he had been in warmer outdoor arenas in his hometown than indoors in Belmont). The mechanical infrastructure is on “death’s door,” said Mulroy. 

“It’s not how long until there is a catastrophic failure. It’s that it will happen,” said Mulroy, whose league currently purchases three-quarters of all rental time at the rink. “But we have the capacity for a lot more,” he said.

A new rink comes as the youth hockey program has seen increased growth in participation and teams – eight developmental programs and 22 competitive traveling teams for boys and girls from 4 to 18 – in the program which started 47 years ago.

The rink/rec center would be located on school property facing Concord Avenue on the parking outcrop between the White Field House and the Mobil service station across from the Underwood Pool. It will be a short walk from Harris Field and will allow for a softball field and soccer/lacrosse pitch to be located in the rear.

The key points of a new Concord Avenue facility include:

  • A 6,500 square foot multi-use athletic/recreation center.
  • A year-round NHL-size rink with above the ice seating and a “half” rink, both can be used for ice hockey, public skating, figure skating, sled hockey and curling.
  • A field house for half the year (where the half-rink is located) for indoor tennis, concerts and a practice facility for baseball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and rock climbing.
  • A running/walking track above the field house.
  • 180 parking spaces that can be used by pool patrons and a drop-off area at the rink’s entrance.
  • Eight new locker rooms that can be utilized by teams playing on nearby Harris Field.
  • A team or community meeting room for public meetings or continued learning classes.
  • Exercise/health room for yoga and exercise.
  • Food concession stand.
  • A skate shop

The facility will be funded with a private 30-year loan which requires the school committee to lease the land at no cost to the non-profit, with an agreement that Belmont High’s Boys and Girls ice hockey teams will have a specific number of hours dedicated to practice and games. Phelan pointed out with a rink, the school department would need to allocate more than $100,000 a year on rental fees at other rinks and bus transportation.

Public-private arrangements are fairly common, said Mulroy, including for recreational facilities pointing to a pair of nearby examples: the Beede Pool and Gym in Concord and the Wellesley Sports Complex which will open later this year. 

The rink will be run by a professional management company. At the end of the 30 years, the town will have the opportunity to take possession of the facility or allow the existing management contract to continue under a new agreement. 

The Youth Hockey Association has been discussing an alternative location for the rink at the former incinerator on Concord Avenue at the Lexington/Belmont line. It would be an 80,000 sq.-ft. complex with two full ice surfaces and parking. While the association has been in discussions with officials and town counsel exploring the feasibility of the town-owned location, Mulroy said the clear first option for youth hockey is the high school site.

Mulroy said the next steps will be gathering feedback from the School committee and residents before seeking support from both the committee and Town Meeting to move forward. Once it gets the initial OK, Youth Hockey will release a Request for Proposal to build the facility and finalize the lease agreement. Afterward, the final designs will be done and the financing will be secured. The final step is to go back to the School Committee and Town Meeting for final approval of the lease deal. 

Rinse, Repeat: Belmont High’s Principal Search Back To Square 1 With Interim Head For Next Year

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Photo: Belmont High School

They got the candidates they were looking for but like the belle of the ball, everyone wanted to dance with Jonathan Bourn to Belmont’s chagrin. 

While Wellington Elementary has found the right person to lead the school, the search for the educator to succeed Dr. Dan Richards at the helm of Belmont High School – and lead it possibly into its new building in 2022 – goes back to square one as Bourn, the current principal of Norwood High School since 2015 and sole candidate selected by the search committee turned out to be a popular candidate for many communities other than just Belmont. With a good reputation as a youngish educator who can connect with staff and students (but who also rubbed some school committee members the wrong way when he pushed and succeeded to move the school from the Bay State to the Tri-Valley athletic conference), Bourn was sought after to become high school principal in both Medway and Braintree, where he was the only candidate selected from 25 finalists.

Something was amiss when Mary Pederson, the district director of human resources, sent an email on Tuesday, April 10 an “update … on the status” of the high school principal’s search rather than an announcement on a new hire in the opening paragraph.  

Bourn, who resigned as principal of Norwood High School in mid-March, met with Belmont High students, staff, parents and administrators on April 2. But despite passing over a number of qualified candidates to only go forward with Bourn, Pederson said, “after a thorough review and thoughtful consideration of all information gathered through this rigorous process, the decision has been made not to move forward with Mr. Bourn as the next Principal of BHS.”

Coincidently, Braintree announced on Tuesday, April 10 that it would be reopening its search for a new principal as Bourn would not be coming to the South Shore town. Bourn is one of three candidates for the Medway position, which is close to his Walpole home. 

With the ability to hire a principal to manage a highly successful program before the new school year all but nil, Belmont District Superintendent John Phelan is starting a two-pronged approach to run the school. The first is redo a full-fledged candidate search beginning early in the coming school year in the fall of 2018.

But with the reality that Belmont High will not have a permanent leader on board until July 2019 at the earliest, Phelan will appoint by June 1 an interim principal for the 2018-2019 school year from the ranks of retired principals, an internal candidate, or other qualified educational leaders. While interim leaders are in the unenviable position of being a short-term fill in, one needs only look at Belmont’s last interim head, superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston, whose three-year tenure was celebrated as bringing stability and professionalism to the district. 

Winter Wonders: Belmont High Globe All-Scholastics and League All-Stars Named

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Photo: Julia Martin, alpine all-star.

Four Belmont High School winter athletes took home regional honors from the Boston Globe by being names Eastern Massachusetts All-Scholastics in their sports. In addition, the Middlesex League released its list of Belmont all-stars which included a record eight members of the league winning Boys’ Swimming team.

Carly Christofori (Girls’ Basketball), Julia Martin (Alpine skiing), Anoush Krafian and Calvin Perkins (Indoor Track) were selected All-Scholastics athletes by the Boston Globe.

  • The Middlesex League MVP, Krafian ended her indoor high school career winning the state pentathlon crown and three days later the 55-meter hurdles and placing second in the high jump in the All-State meet. She would go on to place 5th in the pentathlon in the National meet in New York.
  • Martin, who dominated the league this season, finished fourth in the giant slalom and 10th in the slalom at the state championship.
  • A four-year starter and Middlesex League MVP, Christofori lead Belmont to the Division 1 North finals in the team’s first year in the upper division.
  • Perkins turned in the second-best time nationally in the indoor 600 meters and won the All-State meet and is a member of Belmont’s All-American 4×400 mix relay team that placed 6th in the National meet.

The Belmont athletes who were selected Middlesex All-Stars include: 

Girls Basketball: Carly Christofori, Jess Giorgio, Megan Tan.

Girls Hockey: Meg Higgins, Rachel Iler-Keniston.

Girls Indoor Track: Carey Allard, Olivia Cella, Emily Duffy, Anoush Krafian, Alexa Sabatino, Soleil Tseng.

Girls Alpine Skiing: Ashley Green, Julia Martin.

Boys Hockey: Kevin Dacey, Steve Rizzuto.

Boys Swimming: Ilias Arredouani, Damien Autissier, Antony Bulat, Luc Durand, Will Findlay, Tor Metelmann, Samuel Thompson, Rickey Ye.

Boys Alpine Skiing: Nicolas Coppolo, Max Vigneras.

Boys Basketball: Danny Yardemian.