Sports: Belmont Stumbles to Stoneham, 28-14, in Football Opener

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Photo: Belmont senior Robbie Aiello hauling in a Cal Christofori pass for the touchdown vs. Stoneham. 

“Damn,” said Head Coach Yann Kumin as his Belmont High School Football team shook hands with their Stoneham counterparts after the visiting Spartans (1-0) handed the Marauders an opening game defeat, 28-14, at Belmont’s Harris Field under the Friday Night Lights, Sept. 11.

“We coulc beat that team,” Kumin told Belmont Athletic Director Jim Davis as he walked to huddle with his staff and players.

With a year of Kumin’s active and professional coaching under their belts and working off a solid pre-season – including handling a Waltham team in a scrimmage six days earlier – many viewed the game under the lights with a motivated crowd in the stands cheering them on against Stoneham as the right platform to show the improved and updated version 2.0 of the Marauders during the game.

Yet Belmont offense could not sustain drives, and the Marauder defense appeared overmatched by the bigger and talented Stoneham linemen that allowed the Spartan’s Evan Taylor to collect 222 yards rushing and three TDs – most right up the middle of the line – while keeping possession for long stretches. 

“They have a big senior offensive front and we knew that going in. They established the inside run against our defense and it took us until the second half for us to stop them,” said Kumin. 

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While Stoneham’s running game behind Taylor was active, the Marauders’ backs Ben Jones and Mekhai Johnson along with big senior tight end Justin Wagner never got started as the offense could only manage a handful of first downs and only one sustained drive. 

“We ran them early and just weren’t able to get the run game going that way we wanted to,” said Kumin. 

Belmont’s most efficient offensive weapon was the arm of junior Quarterback Cal Christofori, who pitched a pair of long passes – 74 and 47 yards – that hit their marks leading to Belmont’s touchdowns. 

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After a quick four downs in which Belmont turned over the ball on downs to start the game, the Spartans kept it simple, head down field behind its big line taking six minutes to travel 43 yards where Spartan QB Brandon Cann scored from the two-yard line with 3 minutes remaining in the first quarter. 

Belmont would tie it up at 7 when Christofori hit senior Robbie Aiello with a perfectly thrown pass to allow the senior wide receiver to walk into the end zone at the 2:22 mark.

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Stoneham responded quickly, going 69 yards in nine plays to take a 14-7 lead with 9 minutes remaining in the second quarter behind Chase’s first of three consecutive TDs.

Belmont would make its first first down on the subsequent drive but would stall on its 45-yard line.

The Spartans would then take nearly the entire five and a half minutes left in the half to move 76 yards on the ground and air as Chase took a sweep 23 yards before catching a 34 yard pass to get into Belmont’s red zone. Stoneham kept it on the ground to score with 38 seconds remaining to take a 21-7 lead into the half. 

After Belmont’s defense halted Stoneham for the first time in the game – but only after the Spartans’  held the ball for 8 minutes in the quarter – Christofori came out winging the ball, hitting senior Joe Shaughnessy for 10 and 9 yards as senior Trey Butler (the lacrosse standout playing his first high school football game) got the Marauders a first and 10 on the 34 yard line.

But the drive died and Stoneham took over at its 27 yard line with a minute-and-a-half remaining in the quarter, driving the field before scoring its fourth and Chase’s third with eight minutes left in the fourth to up the lead to 28-7.

Christofori hit senior wide receiver Grant Gilbert for nearly 50 yards to the Belmont 18 yard line. Johnson took the ball to the one and Christofori hit a diving Shaughnessy to finish the scoring with 6:18 remaining in the game. 

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“We have to go back to work on the grass field and fix our offense in order to take on Medford next week. But I’ll tell you, we’re a good team. There were moments of great responsiveness by this football team, some explosive offensive moments that we were able to move the ball well through the air and protect our quarterback. There we all positives for me.” 

“I see a really bright future. I’m not excitied to loss 28-14 but there are a ton of positives that I can take out of this game,” said Kumin. 

Sports: Building A Football Team in Belmont, Year Two [Video]

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Photo: A scene from Belmont Football 2015: First Look 2.0

Belmont High School senior James Neylon and Belmont resident and Dexter School student Lucas Tragos have completed the sequel to last year’s documentary on Belmont High School Football’s first year under a young and dynamic head coach Yann Kumin.
In Belmont Football 2015: First Look 2.0, the 20-minute film features the work put in by players and coaches this pre-season as well as takes you inside the homes of two of the team’s star players. 

New Date for ‘Real World Career Day’, Young Professionals Wanted

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Photo: The poster for “Real World Career Night” at Belmont High School.
 
For Belmont High Schoool Senior Tess Hayner, last year’s first-ever “Real World Career Night” – her idea of having young professionals discuss with high school students the ins and outs of finding a career – is well worth holding again. 
 
“Based on positive feedback, I know the students appreciated the chance to interact with relatively recent college graduates, now working in the real world.” said Hayner 
 
The second annual “Real World Career Night” will take place on (new date) Monday, Sept. 21, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Belmont High School cafeteria.

“We were thrilled with the wide variety of professions that attended last year’s event, and now hope to recruit even more professionals from different fields,” said Hayner, who is managing this year’s event with junior coordinator Anya Sondhi.

And like last year, the event is seeking a wide-array of workers in their 20s and the early 30s who graduated from any high school between the years of 1999-2011, to volunteer and hold short, informal conversations with Belmont High juniors and seniors.

Registration to volunteer ends on Friday, Sept. 18.

“My goal is by the end of the night, after many conversations with various young professionals, the juniors and seniors of Belmont High School will feel less intimidated, and perhaps inspired when it comes to turning their hobbies and interests into lifetime careers,” said Hayner.

All professions are welcome. Business people, educators, graphic artists, technicians, medical workers, scientists, accountants, you name it!

An introductory video and volunteer entry form can be found here, or email Tess and Anya at rwcareernight@gmail.com for more information.

“Whether you’re in your dream job, working towards your dream job, or still unsure of what that dream job even is, we want to hear from all of you,” she said. 

Opinion: Time to Reset When Belmont Schools Start The Day

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Photo: Sleep deprivation among adolescents is a chronic problem across the country and here in Belmont.

By Andrea Prestwich and Steve Saar, Belmont Start School Later

For one Belmont High School senior, the beginning of the school year – which starts today, Wednesday, Sept. 2 – is a double edge sword; the excitement of their final year in the public schools is dampened in trying to stay awake to enjoy the moment. 

“It’s really difficult to maintain your focus in class when you don’t get enough sleep. Belmont High School is a great school with high standards, but it’s difficult to keep up when you’re chronically tired,” the senior said, who manages to sleep seven hours on a “good” night.

Our daughter is another example. She is a 12-year-old Chenery Middle School student who says she feels “heavy, slow, grumpy and lethargic” on most school mornings.

What’s wrong with these kids? As it turns out, NOTHING! Many – if not most – middle and high school students in Belmont struggle with chronic sleepiness as they are forced out of bed at 6:30 a.m. or earlier to get to school.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that as kids hit puberty their sleep rhythms change. They naturally fall asleep later and get up later. Asking a teen to get up at 6:30 a.m. is like asking an adult to get up at 4 a.m.; they are deep into their natural sleep cycle. Studies also show adolescents need eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half hours of sleep each night.

Depriving kids of sleep at such a crucial period of their development can lead to serious long-term health consequences, including:

  • increased risks of obesity
  • diabetes
  • hypertension
  • stroke
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • substance abuse
  • Accidents while driving.

Sleep deprivation among adolescents is a chronic problem across the country, linked to poor impulse control and self-regulation – sleepy kids make bad decisions – impairments in attention and memory and deficits in abstract thinking.

Student athletes are especially impacted by sleep deprivation. A study highlighted by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that “athletes who slept eight or more hours each night were 68 percent less likely to be injured than athletes who regularly slept less.”

The scale of the problem has been recognized by the Center for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Pediatric Nurses, the National Association of School Nurses, and the National Sleep Foundation, all endorsing later school start time, with middle and high schools opening no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

So, with just about every professional medical organization in the country endorsing later school start times, why does Belmont begin the Chenery day at 7:55 a.m. and Belmont High at 7:35 a.m?

Sometimes the reason is economics. Many schools set start times decades ago to save transportation costs by running the same busses in three cycles for the high school, middle school and elementary school. Starting schools early also leaves more time in the afternoon for athletics and other after-school activities.

The current schedule would make sense if adolescents had a “sleep mode” button, but sadly, evolution has not seen fit to equip them with one. You just can’t put teens to bed at 9:30 p.m. and expect them to go to sleep immediately and wake bright and early at 6 a.m. as the schedule is contrary to their natural sleep rhythms.

If you put teens to bed at 9:30 p.m. they will toss and turn until 11 p.m. when they will finally start to feel drowsy. The adage “early to bed and early to rise” doesn’t apply to adolescents; they are creatures of the night!

So why not change Belmont to a healthier, later schedule? First, there’s a widespread belief that if schools start later kids will stay up later. This is not true. A landmark study looked at 18,000 high school students in Minneapolis before and after the district’s school start time changed from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. The main conclusion was that high school students slept an hour longer on average when their school started later. They went to bed at the same time as before the time change and slept longer. 

Athletics is another consideration. Currently, schools in the Middlesex League have early starting times. If Belmont were to shift to a healthier, later schedule, our athletes would be out of sync with the rest of the league. Practice times would also have to change, possibly causing a ripple effect and impacting youth groups who use the same facilities.

Other barriers to a later schedule include the need to re-think before- and after-school programs and the impact on some kids with part-time jobs. 

There are certainly obstacles to shifting Belmont High and the Chenery to start later but none is insurmountable. For example, bus schedules could be reversed so that Winn Brook starts first at around 7:45 a.m., then the High School just after 8:30 a.m., Wellington, and Chenery later. Elementary school kids are usually up with the larks, bouncing on their beds – they have sleep rhythms naturally suited to an earlier start. 

Start School Later has local chapters across Massachusetts working for later start times, and we are working with Massachusetts legislators. Hopefully, Belmont will join other districts as they shift times.

Even though there are difficulties in changing school start times, it is not acceptable for our kids to be sleep deprived, any more than it is acceptable for them to go without food or any other life necessity. And sleep is a necessity of life. Our kids should start the school day well fed and rested. The current start times make this impossible.

School districts around the country have shifted to healthier schedules with very positive results: kids are more alert and less grumpy, there are lower rates of tardiness and fewer missed school days. They arrive at school ready to learn.

We ask Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan and the Belmont School Committee follow the recommendations and shift Belmont schools to healthier schedules.

 

Medal of Honor Recipients To Speak At Belmont High Sept. 16

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Photo: Clint Romesha, a Medal of Honor recepient, will speak at Belmont High School.

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. The actions by the soldiers, sailors and airmen to earn this award is heroic in every possible way.

Of the approximately 3,670 military personnel whom the medal has been bestowed since the Civil War, only about 79 are living today. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, three men who were awarded this highest military honor –  Tom Norris, a Navy SEAL who fought in Vietnam, Clint Romesha, a soldier from the Afghan War and Donald Ballard, a Navy Corpsman from the Vietnam War – will speak to mostly sophomores at Belmont High School about themselves and the courage, commitment and sacrifice they demonstrated.

“This is a really rare and unusual experience for our students and we are honored to have been selected,” said Deb McDevitt, the Belmont Public School’s social studies director and teacher at the High School. 

The honorees will arrive by helicopter around 8:45 a.m. and speak to the students from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., McDevitt told the Belmontonian. 

As part of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Conference being held this month in Boston, the society conducts outreach programs at area schools “to share their stories with students and educate the public with all the things they are able to do and lessons they learned,” said McDevitt.

The society connected with Belmont High School through an alumnus who is one of the 79 living recipients. Robert Foley (graduate ’59), who was awarded his medal for actions during his service in the Vietnam conflict, is unable to attend the conference but suggested his alma mater as one of the schools on the speakers list. 

“They contacted me to see if we would be willing to host and welcome these speakers and I immediately said ‘Of course!'” said McDevitt. “It was no question that we would do this.” 

The sophomore class was selected to hear from the men as the talk dovetails with the curriculum 10th graders are studying in General American History. 

“One of the essential questions we focus our whole year around is what’s America’s place in the world,” said McDevitt.

“When they hear these stories at the beginning of the year, students are going to have a much richer understanding of the wars the nation fought and the relationships and alliances we’ve had with other countries. This will ground their studies with real-life meaning for all the work they’ll be doing for the rest of the year,” McDevitt said.

High School Students Continue to Make Their Garden Grow [Video]

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Photo: Olivia Cronin and Ann Pan cutting the ribbon at the Belmont High School Food Justice Club’s Garden.

Looking for the dedicated plot of land – with its new fence, plants and a whole lot vegetables growing adjacent to the Grant Baseball Field at Belmont High School – Olivia Cronin thinks back a little more than a year ago when she and Maggie O’Brien decided to start a garden on campus. 

“It’s very nostalgic, I’ll have a hard time letting go,” said the 18-year-old this past Monday, as she prepares to matriculate at McGill University in the next few weeks.

Olivia Cronin at the ribbon cutting.

Olivia Cronin at the ribbon cutting.

“But the four girls taking over, it’s in good hands,” she said. 

In its second growing season, the Belmont High School Garden and Food Justice Club held a ribbon cutting ceremony this past Monday, Aug. 17, to hail the garden’s success and recent improvements.

“It’s a celebration of the past two years where we saw a lot of improvement and success in the garden,” said Cronin, who along with fellow recent Belmont High graduate O’Brien, symbolically handed off the garden to the next group of student volunteers.

[Source: Video thanks Lucas Tragos/Belmont Media Center]

The student-led club founded the school’s first vegetable garden in the spring of 2014 “with the practical purpose was supplying food to the [Belmont] Food Pantry,” said Cronin, noting that all the food in the pantry is canned goods, so “it’s nice to have the fresh food,” including eggplants, beans and tomatoes.

“When they first came to us last year, they would have a small box with a few tomatoes and some beans. Now a year later, they came in yesterday with eight eggplants and two huge zucchinis,” said Food Pantry Director Patty Mihelich, whose non-profit receives the bounty of the student’s garden.

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“I had a new person come to the pantry and she was so excited the fact that we had fresh produce which is so expensive at the stores,” said Mihelich.

The BHS Garden is cared for by students during the school year and summer and during the non-growing season the club hosts a Winter Food Drive, as well as other projects and trips.

During its first summer, the garden’s four beds hosted tomatoes, eggplant, bush beans, broccoli and beets, with seedling donations from Belmont Acres Farms.

In its second season, the garden received a grant from The Whole Kids Foundation to finance a cedar post fencing and blueberry bushes that will give the four garden beds some durability.

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Ann Pan picking a tomato from the garden.

The student garden is now in the hands of Ammu Dinesh, Brett Koslowsky, Alena Jaeger and Ann Pan, with a goal of continue expanding, increasing the school’s involvement in the garden and promoting conversation about sustainable growing and food insecurity in Belmont.

“We hope to see the garden expand in the future,” said Cronin, “since this brings the whole community together, high school students providing for other community members in the same area.”

Cronin noted assistance from Belmont High Principal Dan Richards and Fred Domenici, the school’s head of grounds, Mike Chase of Belmont Acres Farm for seedling donations; Joan Teebagy of the Belmont Food Collaborative for writing The Whole Kids Grant; Suzanne Johannet of the Belmont Food Collaborative for her guidance and practical support; and Michael LaPierre of ML Fencing for donating the fence installation labor.

For Richards, the plot is an opening to broaden students outlook.

“The kids deserve all the credit for the garden from the very beginning in my office to today where they have faced all the challenges of keeping this going,” he said. “I think they learned a great deal of project-based planning and responsibility as well as giving back to the community.”

“And it’s another way for the kids to think about hunger and how to support people in need,” said Mihelich.

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Young Professionals Wanted for Belmont High’s ‘Real World Career Night’

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Photo: The poster for Real World Career Day.
For Belmont High Schoool Senior Tess Hayner, last year’s first-ever “Real World Career Day” – her idea of having young professionals discuss with high school students the ins and outs of finding a career – is well worth holding again. 
 
“Based on positive feedback, I know the students appreciated the chance to interact with relatively recent college graduates, now working in the real world.” said Hayner 
 
The second annual “Real World Career Events” will take place on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Belmont High School cafeteria

“We were thrilled with the wide variety of professions that attended last year’s event, and now hope to recruit even more professionals from different fields,” said Hayner, who is managing this year’s event  with junior coordinator Anya Sondhi.

And like last year, the event is seeking a wide-array of workers in their 20s and the early 30s who graduated from any high school between the years of 1999-2011, to volunteer and hold short, informal conversations with Belmont High juniors and seniors.

“My goal is by the end of the night, after many conversations with various young professionals, the juniors and seniors of Belmont High School will feel less intimidated, and perhaps inspired when it comes to turning their hobbies and interests into lifetime careers,” said Hayner.

All professions are welcome. Business people, educators, graphic artists, technicians, medical workers, scientists, accountants, you name it!

An introductory video and volunteer entry form can be found here, or email Tess and Anya at rwcareernight@gmail.com for more information.

“Whether you’re in your dream job, working towards your dream job, or still unsure of what that dream job even is, we want to hear from all of you,” she said. 

Freshman Orientation at BHS Set for Thursday, Aug. 27

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Photo: Mr. Marauder.

The first day of school is always daunting, especially when it’s in a new building with people you don’t know.

In an attempt to ease those anxieties and make the transition from middle school a tad less stressful, the Belmont High School Connectors Program is sponsoring a Freshman Orientation for the approximate 300 raising 9th graders entering the High School on Thursday, Aug. 27, from 5 p.m. to  7:15 p.m. 

There will be a smaller Connectors event for upper-class transfer students on Friday, Aug. 28 at lunch time.

Events for the new students will include:

  • A student-led tour of the building,
  • Group meetings with guidance counselors,
  • Joining current students for a pizza dinner,
  • Parents are welcome for the opening panel from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
  • Pre-registration or sign-up is unnecessary. 

The Connectors is a joint program of staff, teachers, students and the High School’s PTO to provide information, support and companionship so a new student’s adjustment to high school will go smoothly.

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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