Belmont Baseball Heading to Wilmington for First Round of Playoffs

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Photo: Belmont High School Baseball.

In a meeting between eight and nine seeds, Belmont High School Baseball will be take on Middlesex League partner Wilmington High School in the first round of the MIAA Div. 2 North Sectional playoffs.

The teams, both 11-9, will meet on Thursday, June 4, at 4 p.m. at Wilmington High School. 

In their only encounter this year, the Marauders defeated the Wildcats, 9-3, back on April 29 in Wilmington. 

The winner of the game will take on the winner of number-one seed Danvers (17-3) and 16th-ranked Tewksbury (6-14) on Monday, June 8, at 4 p.m. at the home of the highest seed. 

Belmont Falls to Boston College High in Rugby Championship Final

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Photo: The boys up front, the core of the Belmont High School Rugby Club that held its own against undefeated Boston College High.

The 26 Belmont High School Rugby Club players gathered in a circle, after throwing in their soul and heart into every minute of the 70 played in the state championship game held Saturday, May 23, in Worcester.

In a classic battle that left bodies bruised and, in the case of senior back row/center Luke Perrotta, a jersey soaked in blood, Belmont were the equal of an undefeated and mostly untested Boston College High School club squad on the pitch on a breezy, warm afternoon.

Equal in all but one category, the score. In a game in which they honored the tradition built of past teams and a championship earned two years ago, the players walked off the ground beaten by the Eagles, 26-10.

But in the eyes of Belmont’s head coach Greg Bruce, there was no shame in the fight the team displayed on the biggest stage of the season.

“There’s nothing that takes away from the season that your had, the work that you put in, the bonds that you made out here this season. These bonds that you make in rugby can not be broken,” Bruce told his senior-laden team.

“Every day you had this jersey on, you did the club proud. You’re one hell of a team,” he said.

In a game that was close for three-quarters of the match, there was nothing fancy in how Belmont and BC High fought the game. Take the ball and ram it forward. For most of the first half, Belmont – who was playing with key offensive threat senior centre Campbell McCready who was injured in the semi-final victory against Bishop Hendricken on Tuesday – held the momentum edge as Belmont’s core – the seven men in the forward position – held their ground against the unbeaten Eagles.

“The defensive pressure was really, really good. We were coming off the line with a lot of power,” said Bruce, who brought his team to its third consecutive state championship finals on Saturday, winning it all in 2013. 

Leading the group were the three front row big men; senior props Omar Escobar and Deshawn Fredericks with senior Bryce Christian in the central hooker position. Backed by Nick Ryan, Perrotta (who played nearly the entire game with a badly-bloody nose), Peter Durkin and Jacob Hale, the group stood up to the Eagles, resulting in many BC High runs resulting in negative yards.

“Their [fly-half] (in rugby, the player who is the on-field tactician) was under pressure and dropped four or five balls,” said Bruce.

Administering the pressure, both defending and in the transition, were senior scrum half and captain Darren Chan (hero of the semi-final game against Bishop Hendricken on Tuesday), senior flyhalf Paul Campbell and junior “Number 8” Lowell Haska.

And that pressure allowed Belmont to move down the field where a BC High penalty allowed Chan to line up and convert an easy three-point penalty kick to give Belmont the early lead.

Yet BC High, with a collection of players from across the Boston area, was undefeated due to its ability to use its most effective player, their “number 8,” big, brawny senior Terry Cullen who would take the ball from the scrum – what most people associate with rugby: when restarting play, eight players from each team binding together in three rows and the ball is tossed into the maelstrom to be battled over – and passed off the ball or just lower his head and plow.

“BC High’s a great team, and they put us under pressure,” said Bruce. After grinding out 20 meters in the middle of a maul, Cullen scored a five-point try about 25 minutes into the 35 minute half. When the Eagles missed the conversion, they led by two, 5-3.

Belmont nearly took the lead late in the half when Campbell rumbled 20 meters against an exhausted BC High team, coming up just three meters short of the goal line.

Just a minute into the half, Belmont secured the ball deep in the Eagles end on a mistake. Seconds later, Campbell found wing Luke Gallagher with a pass that allowed the senior to cross the goal line. A Chan conversion gave Belmont a 10-5 lead, the first time this season BC High trailed in the second half.

While Belmont appeared to have momentum on its side, what it didn’t have was the steady wind at its back as in the first half.

“They played the territory game real well, playing the wind, pinning us back in our end. When we try to counter – which is our strategy – it was tough to do with a 20-mph wind in your face,” said Bruce.

BC High’s Billy Connos would send long kicks into Belmont’s end, and their wingers would stop Belmont’s backs without much gain. At the 15 minute mark, BC High was threatening inside five meters of the goal line. While Belmont put up two stellar defensive stances, the third time was the charm for Cullen who piled into try to give BC High a 12-10 lead after 18 minutes.

“He’s been a great player for the past three years. I’m glad he’s graduating,” Bruce said of Cullen.

And now it was Belmont’s time to make small errors that allowed BC High to take charge. No longer were Eagle wingers dropping the ball. Instead, they began running off passes to scamper downfield for long gains down their left side. Cullen’s third try of the game came soon after one-such venture to up the score to 19-10 with about 10 minutes left in the game. And a late try off a long run from wing Joe Souza provided the final score.

All that was left was for coaches and teammates to console those too tired, sore and spent to care about anything other then the defeat.

On that cloudless, warm late spring afternoon, it was too early for Bruce to ponder about the season. Rather, it was about the boys.

“For everyone in the league besides BC High. we were able to put it together and walk away on top,” said Bruce.

“They are such a coachable group they work so hard in training. Before the season started; 6 a.m. sessions in January, March in the snow, mud and the rain, classroom sessions. They put in so much time. This is such as a cerebral group,” he said.

Bruce said he would miss this large group of seniors – many who were on the team which won the state championship in 2013 – knowing several are going on to play college rugby “and we’re really proud that they are going to be doing that.”

“Our mantra is that you leave the jersey in a better place; through your effort, commitment, and dedication. Despite not winning, this team left the jersey in a better place.”

Belmont High Will Be In Session Tuesday Despite Early Morning Fire Monday

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Photo: Crews cleaning the room where a floor cleaning machine was destroyed by fire early Monday morning, May 25.

Belmont High School will be open on Tuesday, May 26, a day after a fire in a storage room next to the school’s auditorium destroyed a floor-cleaning machine and damaged the room.

“The fire started shortly before two o’clock this morning and [the entire] company went down there for an alarm investigation,” said Belmont Fire Chief David Frizzell.

“When they got there, they found smoke coming from a custodial storage room underneath the back end of the auditorium outside the hallway that runs from the cafeteria and the music department,” said Frizzell.

In flames was a battery-operated floor maintenance machine used to clean and wash the school’s floors. It’s suspected an overheated battery caused the fire. The arriving companies stretched hose lines into the building to reach the area.

The blaze destroyed the machine and resulted in smoke and water damage to the room and a thick, smokey odor throughout in the auditorium and the immediate area, said Frizzell.

In an unrelated issue, a water pipe in the recirculation system in the adjacent room “let go” resulting in the water being shut off, he said.

By early Monday afternoon, building maintenance had opened all the doors to the school and positioned fans to clear the smoke from the premise. 

“Early this morning, the odor was overpowering. Now it’s so much better,” said Angela Braun, Belmont’s Health Department Director, as she visited the site.

Inside, members from a professional service company were scrubbing the walls and floors of the damaged room as water service was returned to the building. 

The fire comes as the town’s Capital Budget Committee prepares to replace the existing 40 year old alarm system the Fire Department said is past its useful life. The $1 million price tag to replace the system drained the entire bonding capacity provided to Capital Budget in this year’s $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override. 

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. 

‘Something to Say’: Blacker Prizes Honor ‘Insight’ in Writing, and Life

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Photo: The Blacker Prize winners: (from left, front) Eunice Lee, Devon Carter, Sarita Shea with English advisors (back) Nathaniel Markley and Dr. Kristin Comment.

They unveiled society’s truth in the writings of a French existentialist, explored the paradigm of linguistic suppression within dystopian literature, and provide their thoughts on women, men, love and marriage in the novels of Jane Austen.

For the past 34 years, Belmont High School seniors have slogged through a process in which, as one said, “is a year-long marathon” in which selecting the right – or wrong – author must mesh a theme, no matter how messy the process.

But the senior theses is not the culmination of a single project, but of 12 years of English language learning and instruction, said Lindsey Rinder, director of English, ELL and Reading for the Belmont School District.

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From writing their first stories in first grade to creating critical analysis of literature with primary and secondary sources when they graduate, “this is testimony to both our students endeavor and to their education. I believe Belmont High School’s dedication to the senior thesis and to writing education in general singles it out from most secondary schools,” said Rinder.

The senior thesis is not simply a writing exercise, but also the study of literature “that helps us understand who we are,” as it encapsulates and dissects our most human qualities; “our passions and our frustrations, our capacity for great deception as well as brutal honesty, our dignity as well as our most grieves failings.”

On Wednesday, May 20, the Belmont Public School English Department honored three senior student theses writers with the Lillian F. Blacker Prizes for Excellence in Writing.

“Tonight we celebrate our students and ourselves as literate and literary creatures,” said Rinder, as she introduced the honorees; first prize winner Sarita Shea, second prize Devon Carter and third prize Eunice Lee.

The three-winning works can be viewed below.

If there was one certainty when she began the theses process, “I was very clear about just one thing … I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do,” said Lee, who will be attending Harvard College in the fall. Her work, “Freedom in Exile: The Development of Intellectual Independence in Vladimir Nabokov’s Novels.”

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So she took a list of authors provided to the students, “so I took about four of these … based on how famous their names were and started reading excerpts from their novels.”

“I found out that this was a very important part of the selection process, sampling the flavor of an author’s writing before one commits to the full course,” said Lee. She finally selected Nabokov as his prose “is absolutely gorgeous.”

The Brown-bound Carter selected the Romantic poet Lord Byron – “The Torrent With the Many Hues of Heaven”: The Replacement of Traditional Morality in Works of Lord Byron” – for how he influenced his generation through not only through his works but also with scandals and outrageous behavior, becoming “the first modern celebrity. Think Kardashian, but talented.”

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“I have always been interested in stories, and the way we as humans tell stories and why we tell them,” said Shera, whose theses featured the role of storytelling in the novels of Toni Morrison.

Since storytelling shapes every part of a culture and vice versa, “stories do not exist in isolation … they are constantly interact with the culture that produce them and the cultures that absorb them,” said Shera, who will matriculate at Hampshire College this fall.

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“As stories change, so do we. As we change, so do stories,” she said.

For Rinder, these and other notable theses are examples of how students have been transformed into richer learners and people through this task. 

“We see these students in a new light tonight. You are no longer just our children and our students. Your commitment to your work has made you thinkers, intellectuals and writers. You created something new,” said Rinder.

“Now, students, it is incumbent upon you to go out into the world and find a place for your voice. You have something to say, something to contribute.”

Eunice Lee Blacker 3rd Place 2015

Sarita Shera Blacker 1st Place 2015

Devon Carter Blacker 2nd Place 2015

Notable Theses 2015

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.

 

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.

Tuxes and Gowns Set the Standard at Belmont High’s Promenade

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Photo: Belmont High School prom.

Tuxes with bow ties, black dresses and strapless, colorful gowns were the standard for the nearly 450 students and guests attending the Belmont High School Promenade and Prom held Friday, May 15.

A massive crowd of parents, students and families filled the High School auditorium to see singles, couples and groups stride across the stage to cheers and applause.

Unlike last year, all the buses taking the students for a night of dancing and dining were waiting for the student. But the final bus did not leave until the final prom attendee, stuck in Boston traffic, got to the school a bit late, having to run to make the formal. 

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.