Wicked Local Walpole Youth Sports News

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   The Walpole American 12-year-old Little League team has proven over the first two days of the single-elimination District 11 tourney that it can win either small or big, but they would all most likely say that they’d rather win big.
   After squeaking through a 2-1 nail-biter Monday night when they had to come back at the last second after trailing all game, they seemed pretty happy to be able to do it the other way Tuesday night when they rolled over Ashland, 12-2, at the Norwood Little League Complex on Washington Street.
   The victory, coupled with Monday’s tight one over Norwood, put the Americans in the District 11 championship game, which was played Wednesday against the Walpole Nationals, with the winners taking the next step in the direction of Williamsport.
   It was the second year in a row that the same town swept the tourney bracket, with host Norwood having done it last year. Adding more fuel to the deep rivalry between the two …

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   Kelley Field in Norwood was not named for Andrew Kelley, but it might as well have been.
   In two games in which the Walpole National 12-year-old Little League team dominated both Hopkinton and the Norwood Americans this week, Kelley was completely dominant.
   He started the tourney by cruising on the mound through a 9-1 shellacking of Hopkinton in the District 11 tourney opener, adding a two-one homer as an exclamation point to his performance.
   While the Major League home run derby ended Monday night in St. Louis, Kelley’s didn’t. He helped put the Nationals in the title game against the Walpole Americans with two more round-trippers Tuesday, pacing a 14-0 rout of the Norwood Americans that ended in the fourth inning of a mercy-rule ended game.
   The Nationals made it look too easy as they trampled the opposition by a combined 23-1.
“They’re flying high; they’re one of the most confident bunches I’ve ever coached,” offered mentor Brian …

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   Lacrosse still may be the fastest growing girls’ sport in Walpole, but it also is still getting healthy competition from old standby softball.
   That could become even more significant with new developments both in the Walpole Girls Softball Association’s ranks and on WGSA’s fields, especially at Bird School.
   Thanks to hard work both on the fundraising and constructing side of things, almost overnight the field at Bird School has become nearly state of the art, with a batting cage joining the pitching cage along right field, a press box and announcer’s booth going up behind home plate, and a beautiful new scoreboard standing behind left field.
   Thanks to donations, fund raising and the willingness of members to roll up their sleeves, costs were handled totally by the organization, with the town having to pay nothing.
   “This will be fantastic for the years to come,” offers WGSA’s first-year president, Bruce Cochrane. “We’ll have an intercom system for championship games, and both the younger kids and the high school …

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   Things are looking up for Blessed Sacrament basketball and it’s not just because there’s usually a hoop hanging over everyone’s heads.
   In one of the best years ever for the local parochial elementary school, two different teams – one male and one female – were battling for a state CYO title on the Milton High School court Sunday.
   The teams split in their efforts to take the season one game further, with the seventh-and-eighth grade boys losing to Fidelity House from St. Agnes of Arlington, and the fifth-and-sixth grade girls knocking off Immaculate Conception of Revere earlier in the day.
The boys’ express was finally derailed by a team of mostly eighth-graders with too many weapons of mass hoop destruction, leading to an 80-58 final score.
   A balanced Aggie squad was able to burn the Sacrament team both inside and out, and the predominantly seventh-grade BSS squad was hurting inside without injured center Patrick Nicholson, who suffered a concussion the game before and was relegated to the bench.
Despite being heavy underdogs, however, the BSS boys used relentless full-court defense in the second half to put a healthy scare into St. Agnes, getting a deficit that climbed to 24 down to 13 with 8:32 left.
   Fidelity House was able to race to a 39-24 bulge by the break thanks to their inside-outside game.
   Matt Woods, who led all scorers with 24, and Joey Kervick (12 points) were tossing shots in from outside, and when they missed, center Justin Dall was scoring most of his 18 on putbacks. The trio combined for 30 of Fidelity’s 39 first-half points.
   BSS, meanwhile, was relying on the fast break, with slick ball-handler Ryan Fogarty dishing ff assists and scoring three baskets. Oliver Howe also scored six points.
   The 15-point Fidelity lead quickly ballooned to 20 to start the second half as Woods drilled a three-pointer a half minute in and Aaron Swenson, who has 12 of his 14 in the second half, scored a bucket.
   Paul Regan snapped a 10-point run when he made both free throws with 13:23 left, but Fidelity scored six straight points to go ahead 50-26 with 12:28 left, the last basket coming when Dall put back his own miss.
   It looked like the game was about over, but there was still plenty of fire left in the Sacrament kids. With 12:02 left Regan, who finished with nine, scored on a runner from the left wing.
A defensive board followed, leading to a hoop by Simon Howe (8 points). With 11 minutes to go Dall again put back his own miss but excellent defensive pressure by Mike DiCalogero (4 points) forced a guard to cough up the ball and he ran it back for another hoop.
   That hoop licked of a nine-point BSS run that included a lot of floor burn for young DiCal and Simon Howe.
   With 9:29 left Oliver Howe, who led BSS with 12, picked a guard’s pocket and brought it back for a lay-up off the glass, and a half minute later Regan buried a three-pointer from the top of the key.
   Moments later Regan came back and stole a pass, setting up Simon Howe for a bucket that trimmed the Fidelity lead to 52-39 with 8:32 left.
   If the bigger Revere kids had been taking the smaller and younger Walpole kids for granted, they learned during a timeout with 8:21 left that it wasn’t a wise idea.
   The teams traded hoops the next couple of minutes, and with 7:05 left, thanks to two baskets by Simon Howe and an Oliver Howe jumper set up by his twin brother, the deficit was still only 13 with BSS trailing, 58-45.
   It was with 6:24 left, after BSS again cut it to 13 (60-47) that Fidelity “got good Woods on the ball.”
   The prolific bomber started a run of four three pointers when he dropped one in from the left corner, and moments later, he hit one from left wing. Moments later he buried yet another from the right corner, putting Fidelity up, 71-50.
   Fidelity’s lead peaked at 26 (76-50) with 3:24 left when Sabian Jenkins canned his own trey from the top of the key, and the charging Sacrament boys had finally run out of steam.
   Despite the score it was a good run for a program that had never gotten that far before.
   “We were missing Nicholson,” offered Coach John DiCalogero. “He’s a big wide body, and a great player. We started five seventh graders from a predominantly seventh-grade team. I thought we played well, but the first half they had the seventh-grade jitters. They staged a late comeback which says a lot for this team.”
   After the late comeback, following a switch to a 3-2 zone by BSS, Fidelity started going heavily to Woods on the outside and pulled away.
   “They were beating us off the screens,” said DiCalogero. “They were driving through the screens. I’m very proud of them though, it was a great season. This was the first time we were ever South Shore Parochial League champions, and it was the first time we ever made it out of the first round. To make it to the finals was a huge accomplishment.”
   The accomplishment was even bigger earlier in the day for the girls, who earned the right to represent Massachusetts in the New England championship this weekend, held in Hartford, Connecticut.
   The team coached by Frank Foley and Bob Fogarty is also making history, extending a run that began last year when it was the first ever fourth grade girls’ team to come out of Blessed Sacrament.
   The talented group of girls were winners from the get-go, having gone unbeaten (7-0) in their first season last winter.
   This year the squad was 10-1, ironically, its only loss was to the other Blessed Sacrament team in the Parochial League.
    The other team lost in the first round, but this group proved able to “clean up” by opening with its first of two wins over an Immaculate Conception team, this one from Newburyport.
   The opening round was fairly tough, however, as a BSS team of mainly fifth graders (and one in the fourth grad) fell behind by as many as 12 to an older team in the first half before storming back for a two-point win.
   They led from the get-go in a 20-point win over St. Raphael’s of Medford, but ran into trouble against the Immaculate Conception of Revere. BSS was down by four at halftime before reverting to a full-court press the rest of the way, and turned a four-point deficit into a 41-26 win.
   “That was a team effort, and the press worked,” offered Foley.
   BSS outscored Immaculate 27-8 in the pivotal second half despite the fact it was an all fifth-grade team in a fifth and sixth grade league.
   Hopefully it can continue to keep the pressure on in the next round.
 

Read “Hoop tourney is twice Blessed” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

   Perseverance pays off. Just ask the members of this year’s Walpole Youth Football B squad.
For three years, they struggled in the most successful system in the league, only winning a couple of games. This Walpole Pride met its nadir just last fall when, as a “C” team, they suffered through a winless season, rare for Walpole.
   A lot of players on a lot of teams anywhere would have said that’s enough, cashed in their chips, and tried another sport.
   Not these guys. After all they’re called the Pride for a reason, and to a man they came back to the gridiron wars this past fall with the hopes of at least winning a game.
   They did much more. In one of the best turnarounds ever by a Walpole football team, the “B” shut down Weymouth in a showdown at the end of the season to secure not only third place behind unbeaten champion Natick and Norwood, but also their first winning season as a team, with a 6-4 record.
   The 7-0 shutout November 9 was their second, and the sixth time the Pride defense had held an opponent to a touchdown or less. The only teams to score more than once on them were Natick, which averaged 24.4 points a game to lead all teams in the league at every level, and archrival Norwood.
   Walpole actually came within a hair of 8-2 as they were beaten by a field goal, 3-0 in their opener with Framingham (which the Pride took in the rematch, 22-6), and were beaten by Natick on the second-to-last play in an 18-12 loss.
   The 19-14 win over Norwood at Turco Field October 5 was the high point of the season, but the 7-0 victory over Weymouth, battling for third in the finale with the Pride, was also special.
   “This group had only two or three wins in three years,” explained Head Coach Bill Hickey. “They’ve run into some tough luck. But Kyle Raftery stepped up and had a great year, and Nathan Cameron played well. He’s a good athlete.
   “But the biggest challenge on a team is to have a decent offensive line, and you need kids who want to work hard at it. We show the kids the game films, and watch them Wednesday nights. They’re a great teaching tool, because films don’t lie.”
   They won quite a few games on defense this year; in fact they led the league in points against, just like the league champion “A” and “C” squads did. Among the highlights were shutting down Natick’s latest Flutie phenom until he ran back a ball about 50 yards for that game-winning touchdown. Another big defensive play was the fumble recovery by Cameron, brother of Walpole High Captain Chris, to secure the Norwood win.
   It was the secondary that shone in the finale, however. Walpole picked off three passes against the Wildcats to shut down their air attack and preserve the shutout.
   The game started out as a classic defensive tug-of-war. Raftery, the big back also known as “the Bulldog,” was getting his yards but the big Weymouth line was steeling itself just enough to keep him from reaching paydirt. Walpole was also getting key yards out of Cameron, adding speed to Raftery’s power.
   Perhaps the biggest defensive series for the Pride came at the start of the second quarter. It started out with Weymouth marching the ball from its own territory to Walpole’s 5-yard line on a series of runs up the middle behind the massive line.
   The drive, however, was slowed by big tackles by Mike Fortin, brother of former Rebel Steve.
As soon as the Wildcats reached the Walpole five the Pride defense found another gear. On second and goal the quarterback pumped to pass, but was chased out of the pocket by Jake Ciavattone. He chased him into the waiting arms of Chris Whitmore, who took him down, and when Weymouth threw an illegal block at the Pride, they were pushed back to the 15.
   Kenny Uhlar fought through the line on the next play to take down a back with only a one-yard gain, despite having his facemask pulled. The call pushed Weymouth back more, to a second-and-29 situation.
   Weymouth went to the air on the next one but Colton Mitchell stepped in front for the interception, ending the threat.
   With Erik Jansen quarterbacking the offense and hitting Connor Moriarty with a pass, the Pride ran out the first-half clock. The backfield also got some big blocks from Mike St. Germaine.
   The second half started with Weymouth driving once more, but a pass on second and two was picked off by Cameron at midfield. Starting from Weymouth’s 45, Raftery ran left for six yards, and then took a pitch to the right, broke a tackle at the 30, and ran the ball 24 yards to the Wildcat 15.
   Unlike Weymouth, Walpole didn’t shoot itself in the foot in the red zone. An eight-yard Cameron carry, a Raftery sweep and another Cameron carry brought the ball to the two and from there, Raftery took it up the middle.
   “Kyle’s our heart and soul,” offered Hickey. “We could see it in him that he didn’t want to lose.”
Despite a bobbled hike, quarterback Cory Waite was able to work out a conversion pass with Bobby Ivatts and the Pride led, 7-0.
   The fourth quarter began with Weymouth again marching the ball downfield, getting to the Walpole 27 on fourth and three. Again they gave the ball to their biggest back, but Ivatts made the stop of the game, flattening him a yard short of the first down.
   Weymouth had two more possessions to try to even the score. The first ended with Cameron intercepting another pass, this time in the left flat.
   An 18-yard plunge through right guard by Raftery helped bring the ball deep into Weymouth territory, and by the time they had the ball they were back at their 21. The coup de grace came as the game wore down, with Whitmore sacking a beaten Weymouth signal caller.
   “At halftime,” offered Hickey, “We challenged them. We told them that five and five was a good record, but not a winning record. You want to show progress. Then they stepped up to the challenge.”
   The interesting thing about the team is that it was taken over by veteran coaches Hickey, Terry Hanley, John Collins, John Toti and T.K. Kelliher, who don’t even have anyone left in the program but just love working with the kids. George Sarnie, who moved up from the “C” level, is the only one with someone still playing.
   “That actually works well,” said Hickey. “We told the kids in the beginning that they each had a clean slate, it was a fresh start.”
   And an exciting finish.
   Congratulations to Erik Jansen, Jorda Escoban, Harrison Berkland, Nate Cameron, Billy Mitchell, Jobe Celentano, Connor Moriarty, Bobby Ivatts, Pat Demers, Cory Waite, Mike Fortin, Kyle Raftery, Will Krumpholz, Nick Cordopatri, Andrew elley, Chris Whitmore, Colton Mitchell, Keny Uhlar, Matt Ordway, Hunter Nemec, Robby Boush, Trevor Wassel, Mike St. Germaine, Kyle Robbins, Danny Aldrich, Adam “AJ” Quinlan and Jake Ciavattone for the best turnaround in Walpole Youth Football history.
 

Longtime administrators of Walpole football always like it when somebody who went through the program returns to give something back to it.
   They’ve got to love the O’Connell family, as all three brothers – Sean, Jay and Ryan – have teamed to lead what is now the “D” squad that includes Sean’s young son, Chris.
   Sean, who has coached Walpole youth lacrosse for years, ever since older son Sean got involved, decided to give youth football coaching a crack when Chris, a starting “E” player two years ago, said he wanted to play.
   The O’Connell base is a Mecca of football, as the family actually formed its own fantasy football league that it still enjoys. Wanting to keep family solidarity intact Sean, 35, asked 32-year-old Jonathan, or Jay, and 23-year-old Ryan if they wanted to work with him and the kids. Along with “adopted brother” Paul Cain, they have led their charges through 4-4 and 6-1-1 “E” seasons, and are hoping for another winning year in their first season as a “D” squad.
   Most importantly, they all agree however, is that the kids learn, play hard and enjoy themselves. They all carry the Walpole credo that athletics can pave the way to important things, but is not the most important thing.
   “In the youth program, we stress to the kids that school work comes first,” says Sean. “Football won’t be there forever, and academics are just as important as athletics. Athletics are great, but they go hand in hand with academics.”
   The trio, of course, learned that growing up in Walpole, where it is taught at every level to girls and boys alike. Thus along with football knowledge, they are bringing back their life knowledge to share with the youngsters.
   The football knowledge runs the gamut of Walpole High School’s success in the sport, which is among the best in the state. Three different coaches have led Rebels to Super Bowls, and the O’Connell clan has played for all three.
   “We’ve seen every regime in Walpole,” says Ryan, who played with NFL prospect Brian Mandeville. “Sean played under Coach Lee, while Jay played for Coach Lee and Coach Grant. I started out when Chuck Grant was here, and then I played under Coach Villa.”
   All three Walpole generals – Lee, rant and Villa – maintained the same team credos: hard work pays off, respect yourselves and your opponents, learn as much as you can about as many positions as you can, and support your teammates. They also instilled the ideals of a team being as close as a family.
   “One thing we took from Walpole football is that when you play here, it’s not a team feel but more of a family feel,” explains Sean. “It was something special to play ball here. We want the youth kids to feel that too.”
   Sean played three years under Coach John Lee, the architect of the Walpole legacy, graduating in 1992. As a sophomore the defensive end played on the unbeaten 1989 team that shocked Brockton, 6-2, in the Super Bowl and set a school record by allowing only 23 points in 11 games. The 1990 squad was unbeaten until getting edged by Winchester in the Super Bowl, 23-16, and his senior season, New England’s top-ranked team rolled past Lincoln-Sudbury, 27-7, set a team record with a 12-0 slate and handed Lee his 200th career win.
   Jay, who graduated in 1995, was also part of memorable squads in his four years as a Rebel, including the one that set the league record for consecutive wins and state record for consecutive winning seasons (24), both in 1992. His senior year the wide receiver’s Rebels were 9-2 and still league champions.
   Ryan, a running back and inside linebacker, played for Grant in his last season, the team 8-3 in 2000 despite being riddled by major injuries, and for Villa in his first year, when the Rebels were 7-4.
   Having played numerous positions helps the brothers cover the coaching bases: Jay coordinates the offense and Ryan the defense, while Sean is head coach and works with the offensive line. Cain is sometimes the glue that keeps things together.
   “As much fun as I have with my brothers, Paul, who’s been with us all three years, we couldn’t do it without him,” declares Sean. “He’s our adopted brother, and sometimes our referee.”
All three have a coach’s mentality and attention to detail that has turned their unit into a winner that enjoys the game.
   “We’re trying to do a good job of keeping the tradition going,” says Ryan. “We want to teach the kids that hard work is rewarded. Drilling the basics into you are things you get in Walpole; you get the basics down. Then it’s up to you. We’re not the biggest kids and we’re not the fastest kids, but we in Walpole try to be the toughest kids, and don’t want to lose. As Coach Lee always said, ‘we don’t rebuild, we reload,’ and that starts in the youth leagues.”
   Jay, who played college ball at Salve Regina, sees it as a continuation of what started years ago under Lee.
   “We enjoy it,” offers Jay of the years of volunteer work. “I know a lot of the guys who are still coaching at the high school, and some of my coaches are still up there, like Barry Greener. We learned a lot from them, and we just want to pass that on.”