Photo: Belmont High junior forward Maddie Pennock (left) scores her second goal as Belmont defeated Lowell, 9-2, in the first round of the 2026 MIAA Div. 1 Field Hockey state tournament

Belmont High School sent out a clear statement to future opposition in the state field hockey playoffs: It’s here to play.

With six Marauders scoring while dominating the pitch offensively and on defense, Belmont swamped Lowell High, 9-2, in the first round of the MIAA Division 1 Field Hockey tournament held on Harris Field Thursday, Nov. 5.

“I thought that everybody showed up to play today and we did a number of things well on the field. So that was great to see,” said Belmont’s long-serving Head Coach Jess Smith, as she watched this year’s edition improve to 17-1-1.

Next up for the the 3rd-seed is a familar opponant in Lexington High which defeated Shrewsbury, 1-0. A return battle of Middlesex Liberty League foes – the visiting Marauders beat the Minutemen, 4-0, on Oct. 2 – will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 4:30 p.m.

The Belmont/Lexington match will be the front end of a playoff doubleheader with the Belmont taking on Newton North in a first round contest of the MIAA Division 1 Girls Soccer tournament. The second game starts at 6:30 p.m.

Every team has an X factor they must face during a game, and for Belmont it was an XY factor in Lowell co-captain Tony Ford, who was recently named the co-Merrimack Valley Division 2 Player of the Year. A three-year starter, Ford was clearly the dominate Red Raider player anywhere on the field which Belmont had to pay attention to.

But from the very start, Belmont demonstrated why it was a top five in the Division 1 power rankings for the entire season, scoring twice in the first five minutes of the match, the first by defender Lucie Lakin-Schultz off a penalty corner and the second a 15-meter blast by Lucie’s big sister, senior co-captain Elsie Lakin-Schultz.

Lowell’s Ford showed how quick he could swing momentum by taking his team’s offense onto himself weaving past four defenders and scoring past Belmont goalie Zoe Bruce to reduce the Marauders lead to one, 2-1, three minutes into the second quarter.

But that goal was a spark for the Marauders as it would answer with four of their own in the next 10 minutes: An carbon copy of the first goal as Lakin-Schultz (Lucie) redirected a feed from Lakin-Schultz (Elsie); junior forward Kendall Regan nudging it over the goal line; first year forward Reagan Moulis’ 10-meter shot going five hole past the goalie; and finishing with junior forward Maddie Pennock sweeping a pass from fellow junior Mia Smith into the net. And Belmont would spend the five minute half time with a deserved 6-1 advantage.

Belmont would continue its contol of the game as the Marauder’s defense backline of senior Nina Sheth-Voss, junior Roisin Reavey, Cookie Mahoney and the two Lakin-Schultzs never allowed the Red Raiders any opportunities to sustain an attack. Pennock would earn her brace from a pass by first year forward Grace Brodigan, and sophomore forward Amelia Long scored from out front as she was being dumped onto the pitch.

Ford was looking as he would have the final say with an outstanding solo goal after a 70 meter run, striking a bullet while in full stride after putting the ball between his legs. Lowell’s second was the most goals giving up by the Maraders this season. But Elise Lakin-Schultz wasn’t having Lowell have the last word in the scoring sheet. The captain called for the ball, rounded Ford before slotting the ball into the corner, while giving the Lowell captain a look as Belmont ended the game 9-2.

Despite having handled the Minutemen early in the year, Smith is not looking past Lexington in the Sweet 16.

“I think you know I’m nervous going into that game. We have to bring our best game to beat Lexington. We’ve have this Middlesex target on our back and you know their going after us. And they have some really good, strong athletes and they’ve well coached. We have to bring our A game,” said Smith.

Photo: The full company performing “Light” from Next to Normal in the finale of Broadway Night in Belmont

It’s little wonder why the auditorium of Belmont High School was packed over Friday and Saturday night. For 90 minutes, the stage could have been some theater in Manhattan as a group of talented students belted out and danced the best of musical theater in the annual Broadway Night in Belmont by artists from Belmont High School’s Performing Arts Company.

Produced by Ezra Flam, directed by Jenny Lifson who handled the choreography, and Jonathan Kessler who was the music direction as well as the company’s accompanist, the opening “act” of the PAC artistic season spotlighting the individual skills of veterans and newcomers in solo, duo, and ensemble adapations of well known works and hidden treasures of the Broadway songbook.

Rehearsals are already underway for the fall play which this year will be three performances of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (which was last performed by BHS PAC in 2007) from Nov. 12 to Nov. 14. The spring musical – still to be announced – will have performaces on March 11 to March 13 with an afternoon matinee on March 13. The annual One Acts – each directed by seniors – will take place on May 6 to May 8. And don’t overlook the always surprising Improv stagings in Febraury and May with an Improv Marathon on April 16.

Photo: Belmont High’s Libero Layla Cadet (4) and Danbi Kim (3) in action against Woburn

One point away from eeking out a thrilling five-set victory against Wayland, Belmont High Volleyball Head Coach Raylynn Kauila was so into the moment, she was practically on the court for the final point.

And with the first of consecutive five-set wins – the second came Friday, Oct. 2 at Lexington – Belmont extended its winning streak to seven matches to reach the midpoint of the season, 9-2, and 16th in the MIAA Division 1 Power Rankings, a big improvement from last year’s 10-9 regular season that ended with a first-round loss in the MIAA tournament.

“Sometimes their energy is so contagious!” said the second year coach. “While I can only put the best lineup out there, I do try to keep their energy up, and match their energy to push them.”

Belmont hosts Concord-Carlisle High (2-7) on Friday, Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m. It’s free to attend.

After a lackluster 3-2 start to the season, Belmont faced a strong 5-1 Woburn High squad at The Wenner, Sept. 22. But to the shock of the Tanners, the Marauders swept their Middlesex League rival out of the Field House in three sets (25-15, 25-13, 25-16) on a night that Belmont started each set with the lead and stretched that advantage as the games went on. 

The team’s core – Middle blocker/opposite hitter Katia Polina, setter Sophie Wang, defensive specialist Emma Miao, opposite hitter Danbi Kim, Middle hitter Leelee Kozelian and senior liberoes Layla Cadet and Sophia Pavlou – is proving to be “a handful” for opponents, said Kauila. 

“Once we beat Woburn, we gained some confidence and momentum,” said Kauila. “The girls realized, especially how we started games against (losses to) Burlington and Wakefield, our record was not reflecting who we were. It’s like we can beat these teams. And we’re showing that even though we’re (a) small team, we can keep up with them.” 

That ability to stay close and play up to the competition was evident against Wayland, a top-ten Division 3 squad, who came to town with a tall team – at times Wayland would put on the court four players taller than Belmont’s – that dominated both sides of the net, blocking and shooting. 

Where Belmont had the advantage was outstanding serving, especially from Wang and Polina, and the digs from the backs led by Miao and Cadet. Belmont got out to a fast start, and when Kim grabbed a point with kill from the back and Miao made a string of winning serves, it was two points from winning the first set. 23-18. But Wayland would storm back, and with Belmont failing to convert three match points, the hosts would waste their chance in the first to lose 26-28. 

The second set saw Belmont refuse to back off the net, winning consecutive points from block to swing momentum and seeing it cruise to a 25-14 victory. The third set was close until serving once again pushed open an advantage for the Marauders, and see then take the set 25-15. 

But Belmont began making unforced errors due in part to Wayland’s commitment to playing aggressively at the net, with Belmont falling 21-25. The final set was close at 7-5 when Polina hit a service ace that started a 6-1 run to up the lead to 13-6. But Wayland would not go away quietly, ripping off four points before seeing Belmont finish them off to win 15-10.

With the opportunity to hit double digits in wins by Friday, Kauila sees the team’s success as important for it as the Marauders enter the meat of its season, starting Tuesday, Oct. 13, away at one-loss Winchester (ranked third in the Globe poll and followed by Division 2 powerhouses), away at Melrose (Oct. 15), third in the Division 2 power rankings, and home vs. Reading who comes in second in the rankings with one loss. (Oct. 20).

“That schedule is going to push us and will get us ready for that post season push,” said Kauila. “I’m excited for the next weeks and will see how we handle [the competition],” she said.

Photo: Counting teams preparing to for the Belmont Town Moderators recount in 2025

You hear it in every election: ‘Every vote counts.’

And that certainly was the case in the race for the Middlesex and Suffolk state senate seat, where the two candidates in the Democratic primary enter the weekend seperated by the narrowest of margins.

After a topsy-turvey day which saw the lead in the race swiched hands and neither candidate able to pull away, first time challenger Daniel Lander leads incumbent Will Brownsberger by four votes out of approximately 24,000 total ballots tallied.

With the results easily within the state’s threshold for a recount, the outcome between the election nyophite Lander and Beacon Hill veteran Brownsberger will be decided next Thusday, Sept. 10, when ballots will be recounted by volunteers in the four communities – Belmont, Watertown, Cambridge and several Boston neighborhoods – that makes up the district.

And the recall will not simply an exercise of re-reading ballots that have already been counted. Cushman said the town is holding seven uncounted ballots as pervisional as the voter’s party afflictation had not been determined on election night. And Boston reported to have several paper ballots that were damaged when processed through the scanners.

According to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, the recount will need to be completed by Friday, Sept. 11, with the updated results presented to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office by 5 p.m.

Both candidates filed for a recount by the Thursday, Sept. 3 3 p.m. deadline with Brownsberger handing in his petition early to Cushman with Lander’s signatures coming in by the afternoon.

Cushman said the next step in the recall will be boundling the ballots into groups of 50 which will make it more efficient to collect and count. On Thursday, Cushman was calling for volunteers to be examiners who will determine which candidate a voter had selected.  

Cushman’s team has recent experience with recalls, including the Town Moderator in 2025.

The recount of nearly 6,000 votes will be conducted at card tables in the Town Hall auditorium by a two-person “counting team” with a reader facing a ‘calculator’. who will tally the votes. The candidates were allowed an observer at each table who an challenge any ballot they feel is incorrectly tabulated. The town’s Board of Registers will judge all disputed ballots.

With clerks and town officials, the auditorium could see 100 people squeezed into the second floor space.

After each 50 ballot bundle is complete, the results will be brought to a table where the Registers will tally the numbers. When all the bundles are counted, a final Belmont vote count will be announced.

The town’s experience with the Town Moderator recall should allow the process to move quickly along, said Cushman.

Photo: The Belmont Select Board honors the Belmont High Girls: (from left) Select Board Chair Taylor Yates, Head Coach Kate McCabe players Adele Goho, Nina Lind, Serena Field, and LeeLee Kozelian with board members Carol Berberian and Matt Taylor.

For this one time, there’s actually no word that describes the accomplishments of the Belmont High School Girls Varsity Rugby team.

“I’ve heard of repeat champs. I’ve heard of repeat, repeat champs. I don’t know what the word is for an eight times champion,” said Taylor Yates, the chair of the Select Board commemorating the girls’ rugby team’s eighth consecutive title after the team defeated Weymouth High School, 36 to 24, in the 2026 MIAA Division I girls rugby state championship on June 11 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy,

“One of the things that we do here at the select board is recognize exceptional achievements, accomplishments, and contributions by members of our community. And I’d like to congratulate on behalf of the select board, the girls rugby team,” said Yates.

Juniors Adele Goho, Nina Lind, Serena Field, and LeeLee Kozelian joined long-time head coach Kate McCabe in accepting the proclamation from the town.

Part of the citation reads:

“You have set a high standard of excellence, commitment, and dedication, which the youth of our town may follow, and you serve as an inspiration to the citizens of the town of Belmont.”

“The student athletes, coaches, families, and supporters of Belmont’s girls rugby have demonstrated commitment, dedication, perseverance, and pride in representing Belmont High School and the town of Belmont, now therefore it be resolved that the Select Board of the town of Belmont joins with the community in paying tribute to the Belmont High School Girls Varsity Rugby Team for this outstanding achievement.”

Photo: Leon Dyer

A well-known Belmont Middle School educator will be arraigned Monday, July 27, on two counts of possession of images of child abuse in Cambridge District Court.

According to a press release from the Massachusetts State Police, Leon Dyer, 45, of Belmont was arrested Saturday, July 25, following an investigation by the State Police Cyber Crime Unit’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Crime Scene Services and the Belmont Police Department.

The investigation remains active, according to law enforcement. 

In a message to the community, Belmont Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jill Geiser said the district’s “primary concern, as always, is the well-being and safety of students. We have no information at this time to suggest that this individual engaged in any inappropriate conduct with BPS students, on BPS property, or otherwise in connection with his employment with BPS.”

Geiser said Dyer is not permitted on school property, and his school-issued technology accounts have been suspended.

“We are working with the Belmont and State Police and will share information with the BPS community whenever we are able. We aim to be as transparent as possible throughout this process,” she said.

One month shy of his 19th anniversary with the district, the Ohio native spent his entire career at the Belmont Middle School. A popular technology teacher, Dyer lent his time running extracurriculars; the best known of these was the yearly eighth grade class trip to Washington, DC. 

Dyer was described as a jack of all trades in the district: he worked as the district’s athletic department’s equipment manager, helped edit the middle and high school yearbooks, assisted in running the student council, and established the middle school’s soapbox derby team. In the winter quarter, Dyer would be on the road most weekends managing wrestling tournaments in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region. He singlehandedly pulled off the Brendan Grant Memorial Wrestling Tournament, which had its most successful meet with 23 teams and 650 athletes in January.

Dyer has been active with the Belmont Educators Association, the teachers and instructors union, working his way into a senior leadership role. He would spend his summers working at a camp in Middleboro. 

The reaction among fellow teachers was one of shock and disbelief.

“It’s just so sad,” said an educator. 

Photo: Belmont High celebrates its 14-9 victory in the opening game of the MIAA D1 Girls Lacrosse tournament.

There’s a moment in every game when your quality players need to step up.

That moment in Belmont’s opening round MIAA Division 1 contest held Thursday, May 28, came late – really late – in the contest, as the 14th-ranked Marauders were potentially seeing their 13-win season turning sour on them. In the ultimate quarter, underdog Waltham High had climbed back from a four-goal deficit to cut the lead to one at 10-9. With the ball in their possession with three minutes remaining in the game, the visiting Hawks were a score away from tying the playoff game. With all the momentum behind it and a large, loud group of traveling supporters, the 19th seed could imagine its way to the next round.

“[Waltham] was gritty, hard-fought, and they made some plays in the final quarter,” said Belmont Head Coach Dan O’Brien. “I think defensively we lost track of some cutters, and we weren’t communicating as well as we should. They finished their shots, which was a concern late in the game.”

Just when it was needed, Belmont’s elite athletes showed up. As the Hawks drove to the net, Belmont senior goalie Brooke Whalen deflected a shot off a loose ball heading for the goal, and she laid the ball off to junior Lily Cook, who used her exceptional speed to whiz by a half dozen defenders into the offensive zone. A nasty hack at Cook after a penalty was called saw Waltham pick up a yellow card, giving the Marauders a two-minute player advantage.

“I’m not going to lie. That yellow [card] really helped us,” said O’Brien.

As Belmont rotated the ball around the goal from Senior Sydney Mun to junior Ruth Siegert, who had been an offensive force early, the Waltham defenders lost containment of Belmont’s MVP Niamh Lesnik, who was left standing alone 10 meters dead center from Waltham goalie Leah France.

There was no doubt about Lesnik’s power shot: high right beyond France’s desperate lunge. 11-9. Game over.

“I just felt that I was open,” said Lesnik, who finished with seven of Belmont’s 14 goals. “Sometimes throughout the season I feel like I would take the extra steps and try to get closer, but I just felt with all the space that I had, I just better let this one rip, and hopefully it goes in. It did, so I was very happy.”

With the Hawks picking up a second yellow card, Belmont punished the visitors with three unanswered goals – two from Lesnik and one from Mun – to finish off their gritty cross-border rival, 14-9.

“It wasn’t our best game, but we found a way to win it and execute,” said O’Brien. 

On Monday, June 1, Belmont (14-5) travels to Concord to meet 3rd-ranked Concord-Carlisle High (16-3) in the D1 Sweet 16 matchup. The game gets underway at 4:30 p.m. at Memorial Field, Concord.

 Belmont could not find its shooting or any rhythm. The star of the first quarter was Waltham’s France who stopped 10 of 12 shots – many of them penalty shots – in the first quarter alone, ending with 27 saves.

The second quarter saw it build its lead by keeping possession of the ball like Gollum did the One Ring, with Waltham crossing the midfield line only twice. Maddie Tisdale collected a pair in the quarter, with Ellie Siegert putting in a single. But Waltham would stay close, scoring with five seconds remaining in the half to cut Belmont’s advantage to three, 6-3. 

Belmont would score four early in the second half – a brace for both Lesnik and Ruth Siegert – to go up 10- 6, late in the quarter..

“I think a lot of teams scout for Lesnik, but I think what’s great about our team is that we’re so balanced on attack,” said Ruth Siegert. “I think that really opened up many cuts for me, so that opened up a lot of opportunities for assisting goals as well.”

But Waltham would chip away behind Mia Kearney’s three goals, leading to the drama at the game’s end. 

Photo:

The weekly Belmont Farmers Market turns 21 this year as the yearly community event brings nearly 50 vendors to the Claflin Street Parking Lot from the first week in June to the final week in October.

Opening day will take place at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, behind Leonard Street in Belmont Center. The market is open from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. through September and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in October.

Patrons will again come for a familiar array of veggies and fruit, baked goods, meat and fish, beer and wine, and other sundries, said Market Chair Hal Shubin.

Yet the market is not just a place to find locally sourced goods. It also helps relieve the ever growing level of food insecurity in Belmont. Stubein reported that 720 households representing 1,121 residents are using SNAP benefits, which used to be called food stamps. 

“But we think there are far more people” who are impacted by the lack of nutritious food, said Stubein at the April 27 Select Board meeting setting this year’s market dates.

The farmers market has been pushing actions to solve the issue. For more than two decades, the market has been asking vendors to donate unsold produce and other products to organizations – such as Arlington’s Food Link – that distribute it to agencies in Greater Boston. In 2009 the Farmers Market incorporated as the Belmont Food Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that assists in fundraising and education.

The market also has several direct assistance programs, such as matching federal SNAP benefits, which provides customers an extra $25 a week. The collaborative also provides funding that boosts the state’s HIP assistance program, known in Belmont as HIP Plus. Last year, all the benefit programs helped stretch patrons’ food budgets by more than $71,000, funds obtained from fundraising, grants, sponsorships, and direct donations from patrons and residents.

“We do [all] that because we believe that it’s important that everyone have enough healthy food to eat,” said Stubin.

Photo: Poster for this year’s Books In Bloom

Explore floral interpretations of books, sip wine, enjoy bites to eat and live music at the Belmont Public Library as the Friends of the Belmont Public Library and the Belmont Garden Club invite the public to Books In Bloom, a one-of-a-kind evening celebrating floral art, books, and community on Friday, May 8, from 6 p.m.to 9 p.m..

Wander through the newly-constructed library and discover floral arrangements inspired by beloved books, each a unique creation designed and donated by the talented members of the Garden Club. Sip and swirl at a wine tasting hosted by The Spirited Gourmet, munch on light refreshments, and enjoy live music. Whether a book lover, a flower enthusiast, or simply looking for a wonderful night out, this is an evening not to be missed.

Tickets are $30, available in advance online or at the door.

Proceeds from the tickets support programs of the Belmont Public Library. For more information or to become a Friends of the Library member, visit About FOBPL.