By Bill Murphy
Over the years I have had countless conversations with community members throughout the Connecticut River Valley about the difficulty of being a high school athletic director. Not only did it become clear to me that most sports enthusiasts don’t have much of a clue of how difficult the job is, I have to admit personally what I learned on the job firsthand when an athletic director at a school I was an administrator at took time off, that I was also far out in left field in understanding how difficult and surprisingly time consuming the job actually was. I had coached most of my life, followed and covered high school athletics for the same amount of time, and was without true wisdom of what it takes, until I stood in those shoes.
Having defined a difficult task to a degree, I asked present area ADs what it was like to have their job during these extraordinary times. The wonder surrounded how they spotted successes and highlights and what was their biggest challenge.
There was one constant put forward in how to measure success. Everyone agreed basically, “it was better to have played the games, than not to have played at all.”
The two schools which displayed the most success on the field this fall were Windsor and Bellows Falls. The Yellow Jackets captured a state championship in field hockey and a football title for the ages, in their southern bubble created league of 7-on-7 touch football, against schools larger than they were. Athletic Director Andy Tufts said the biggest achievement to him “was the kids stepped up and made the most of whatever was offered, with very little complaining or lamenting what might have been. Despite having schedules reworked and games cancelled at the last minute, they showed up played hard, had fun, and seemed to recognize that they were fortunate to even be playing. The wins and losses are a distant second to all that.”
The Jacks’ AD noted that the biggest challenge he has faced since the pandemic began was “keeping the spirits up through last spring.and the unknowns of the summer months,.among kids who were clearly disappointed in the situation. Giving them hope and encouragement for the future, while trying to be realistic and honest.”
Tufts also passed along to us the Soccer all-stars for this fall. In boys soccer Adam Dufour was a Southern Vermont League (SVL) All-Star and on the girls team Adi Prior, Evelyn Page and Elliot Rupp were recognized as SVL All-Stars with Coach Jeff Bachey named coach of the year. In addition, Page and Rupp were named to the All-State team for the second year in a row. Windsor had their strong football team, but, no all-stars were named for the Vermont League. Tufts let us know that “the whole point of the football league was to de-emphasize racking up statistics and to focus on maximizing the playing time for the maximum number of players.”
Bellows Falls won another field hockey state title for Terrierland and added another Girls cross country championship with junior Abby Broadley capturing both the Division III individual state title, as well as the honor of being the best cross country runner in the state taking first place in the Vermont Meet of Champions.
AD Ian Fraunfelder was excited just “being able to see all the fall teams finish the season. It was great to see the two teams win state titles, but watching all the kids enjoy themselves, while finishing the season was the biggest thing.” Fraufelder felt his biggest task was to enforce crowd allowance protocols in a sports town where “so many want to attend the games, even under these conditions. It was difficult just to get everybody who wanted to show up and watch, not to show up and watch. This was a constant issue most of the season. This is a town with strong community support, and it was a challenge for me all year. Some people just kept showing up hoping to get in.”
Fraunfelder let us know the school did have fall all-stars in girls and boys soccer and cross country. In Girls Soccer, Emma Graham was on the first team, while both Sydney Bazin and Abigail Broadley made the second team, and moving to the Boys team four players Elliott Graham, Tyler Stanley, Jamison Nystrom and Elijah Ghia were on the second team. Abigail Broadley, Stephanie Ager and Victoria Bassette were All-SVL first team cross country.
State Titles were also claimed by the Newport football team and the Sunapee Boys Soccer team. The Lakers AD Tom Frederick sees the Pandemic Era highlights at his school have been, “just being able to hold a full fall season and then to be able to host the the New Hampshire Division IV Soccer State Championship Games.” This tidbit certainly wasn’t hurt by the fact Sunapee advanced to both of those title contests. Frederick has been challenged throughout the fall season in his position by “every day wondering when the other shoe was going to fall and I didn’t want to have to tell the kids that their season was over.” Obviously that ended up being a challenge that enjoyed a positive ending.
Laker All-Stars this fall included Parker Reed and Josh Heino from the Boys soccer team being named to the first team of Granite State South for their division with Heino also being chosen for the Lions Cup Game. Teammate Jackson Cooney was named to the second team and Andrew Claus was an honorable mention. On the girls’ side, Abby Polari and Liz Tschudin were honored first team Granite State, Brynn Smith was selected for the second team and Vanessa Polari was honorable mention. Abby Polari earned a spot on the Lions Cup team. Molly Reed was distinguished a member of the All-State Volleyball team.
Newport’s football team’s New Hampshire Division IV State Championship run put into motion a giant bandwagon presence even in a year with COVID restrictions. Tiger Athletic Director Jeff Miller says “the way this community supports our football team is and always has been really special. The championship parade was an explosion of community support. The route was lined with cars on the sides of the road and following the parade and it was something that was really amazing. People used this npt to just be proud of the team and to show that they were proud to be from Newport, but, I think they used this as a time to forget about their lives troubles and use it as a diversion too.”
As far as his biggest challenge in his job as AD at this time, Miller said, “schedules were always on the fly. They were day by day, hour by hour. Some of the Covid restrictions are so difficult to manage like limited seats on a bus. Sometimes many things vary depending what has happened recently. Sometimes restrictions of some types change on a day to day basis.”
One extra thing which made Miller smile was hearing former local play by play standout Bob Lipman broadcasting the NHIAA video feed of the Newort title game. “Bob doing it made it a really professional broadcast,” the AD told us.
Newport Fall All-Stars included Football Division IV Player of the Year Josh Sharron, Division IV Coach of the Year John Proper, first team Division IV quarterback Marius Edwards, running back Jagger Lovely, wingback Bryce Willey, tight end Tanner Proper, offensive linemen Josh Orlowski and Adriano Urista, defensive linemen Devyn Heino and Chase Hamilton , linebacker Sharron, fellow linebacker Karter Pollari and defensive back Ryder Lovely. Placed on the football honorable mention team were linemen Makyi Matheson, Dylon Carpenter and Logan Ash. The Newport Boys Soccer Team had defender Gavin Callow named first team All-State, midfielder Colton Godwin selected to the second team and goalie David Hutchinson as honorable mention. For Girls Soccer, forward Riely Skarin was placed on the first team, defender Paige Greenhalgh was second team and defender Aura Parker was tabbed honorable mention.
Two schools had successful teams, which advanced to the title games, before bowing to tough competition. Green Mountain fell just short of defending their boys Vermont Division III State soccer championship, while the Stevens football team advanced to their title game before running into a buzzsawing Pelham team. GM AD Todd Parah told us “it’s difficult to name one special thing which has happened in the pandemic, but, our return trip to the title game was really exciting for the whole school. These are special moments for us.” He agreed with other AD’s that “scheduling has been the biggest problem. The soccer schedule itself, had to be done over four times.”
Fall All-Stars at Green Mountain include three All-State players off the State runner-up boys team and a fourth player named All-SVL. The players named to both squads include Jack Boyle, Skylar Klezos and Everett Mosher and Elias Stowell-Aleman. On the girls side, three Lady Chieftains were also named All-State and All-SVL. Those players were Alex Hutchins, Kim Cummings and Eva Sveck with Tierney O’Brien joining them as All-SVL. Second team All-SVL included Hannah Robinson, Grace Tyrrell and Riley Paul.
Doug Beaupre at Stevens was another AD who was just pleased because “we were able to get in a regular season considering all the changes which had to be made and everything happening around us. Having said that he said “the biggest challenge was the day to day dealings with COVID from having to make continual phone calls, juggling busses, it was one thing or another every day.” Stevens had numerous all stars starting in football with first team honors going to Owen Taylor, Clayton Wadsworth, Eddie Brodeur and Pascal Lemieux and honorable mention recognition slated for JJ Tursky, Braxton LeBlanc, Hunter Christian and Colby Shepard. In Boys Soccer, Brady Moote was first team All-State with Cooper Moote selected for the second team and Dylan Chambers as honorable mention. Zahna Rice was recognized as first team All-State in girls soccer with Stella Lavertue second team and Brynn Murphy as honorable mention. Finally rounding out the Cardinals Fall All-Stars, the golf selections had Finn Allen and Dylan Adamovich on the first team, Reeve Wilkinson on second team and both Ryan Seaver and Ian MacDonald named co-coaches of the year.
Fall Mountain and Springfield did not have any teams in a title game, but, the Wildcats did have a state champion. Mitchell Cormier captured the New Hampshire Division III Golf Individual Title. AD Gordon Danserau said, “I was really surprised we were able to get the full season in. I don’t think I would have predicted that back in July. I was hoping we would be able to play and it all worked because everyone did what they had to do to make it happen.” The Wildcat leader felt every day was difficult along the way, “because day to day we were all waiting to see if we are able to play that day.” The FM Fall All Stars were first team football Alex Flynn and Tyler Swain defensive linemen, Reggie DeCamp linebacker and Izaak Westover running back. Linebacker Luke Gay and lineman Quinn Healy were honorable mention. Wildcat All State Volleyball players were Rachel Watson, Mary Ronning and Maddie Manning . Defender Jack Wildes was named to the boys soccer All-State first team, while Midfielder Noah Gutierrez was selected second team and Goalie Brayden Ring as honorable mention. For the girls team, Defenders Nora Dunnigan and Avery Stewart were first and second team selections respectively and Midfielder Makenna Grillone was an honorable mention midfielder.
Springfield’s AD Rich Saypack was pleased with the goings on this fall at his school and felt “the kids adjusted. They made every effort to do the right thing and not whine while they were doing it. They did a really good job.”
But Saypack is already worried about the days ahead.
“You ask me about challenges,” he said. “I don’t know how we are going to do it indoors. There are a lot of moving pieces including inviting people from other towns into our building. I was hoping like in the fall to play the same team twice a week, but, that’s not the way it’s going to be done. It will be a challenge.”
Cosmos Fall Athletic honors went to Jared Pugh of the boys soccer team who was All-SVL first team and VSCA All-State, girls soccer player Haley Streeter, who received the same honors as Pugh and Ari Cioffi, who was selected All-SVL first team. Second team All-SVL Girls Soccer recognition went to Molly Leonard and Emma Snyder. Springfield had two girl runners on the All-SVL first team cross country Anna Ondre and Alcia Ostrom.
Readers may notice there were no Field Hockey All-Stars named in this article. They had already been recognized in a previous entry in the Eagle Times.
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