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Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Westford's Ryan Kyle clears the competition, shattering his own state record in 400 hurdles at Meet of Champions
Squaring off against the state's top competition at Fitchburg State, Kyle left the boys' 400 hurdles field in the dust a stunning time of 51.72 seconds, finishing nearly two full seconds ahead of runner-up Luke Lamar of Pembroke (53.43). Advertisement Kyle's time shaved another half-second off his own state record, and obliterated the previous Meet of Champions mark (53.53) set by New Bedford's Aaron Araujo in 2010. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'These last couple years, I've learned not to put limits on the times I can run or the achievements I can get,' Kyle said. 'Once I beat the state record at the league championships, I knew I could keep climbing. I don't know if I thought I'd beat that time by a second, but it definitely feels good to do so.' Natick's Nolan Cloutier clears 12-feet, 6-inches in pole vault, finishing seventh. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff The other state record Thursday came from Sharon junior Nina Kyei-Aboagye, who blazed to victory in the 200 (23.28 seconds) to edge out runner-up Breanna Braham of Dennis-Yarmouth (23.63). The two sprinters both smashed the meet record of 24.31, which had stood since 2019. Kyei-Aboagye's time marked a half-second personal best, and eclipsed the previous state record of 23.32 by four hundredths of a second. Advertisement 'Breanna always pushes me in every race, so I just knew what I had to do today,' Kyei-Aboagye said. 'It really helps to have someone else at that level, because you know where you have to be. You know she's going to be right there.' Central Catholic's Arianna DiPietro clears the bar in the high jump prelims. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff The punishing heat presented a major challenge for all the athletes, but no event faced a harder task than the 2-mile. Marblehead's Nate Assa knew the entire field would be weary of burning out due to the heat — and he planned to be aggressive early on. Sure enough, the race's moderate early pace played right into Assa's hands. He took the lead in the opening half-mile and gave it up, outlasting the pack in an impressive 9:14.52. 'I knew everyone would be kind of sluggish because of the heat, so I was really hoping to go fast off the gun,' Assa said. 'Coming off the turn 300 meters in, the clock was at 62 [seconds]. So I knew we were going slow, so I took over, and I led the whole race till the finish.' Fitchburg, MA- 6/5/25- Nicholas Begic of Lincoln-Sudbury, center, wins the 200-meter dash during the MIAA's Meet of Champions at Fitchburg State University on June 5, 2025. (Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff) Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff After securing a double-victory in the 400 and 400 hurdles at last year's outdoor Meet of Champions, North Reading senior Giuliana Ligor entered her final MIAA meet with high expectations. But Ligor knew she could not enter the 400 hurdles overconfident, especially given the recent emergence of Weston junior Solana Varela — who lost to Ligor by just 0.3 seconds at last week's Division 5 meet. Valera broke well and held an early advantage Thursday, but Ligor slammed the door around the final turn to win in 1:00.06, with Varela (1:02.13) placing second. Advertisement 'She's a very talented athlete,' Ligor said of Valera. 'I was excited to race her here, because I know her talent and level . . . it's been good to have a buddy to push me all season.' North Reading's Giuliana Ligor of North Reading races to a win in the 400-meter hurdles. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff Joseph Case's Ben Deady (left) and North Andover's Aidan McGarry have their sights set on the finish line. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff Milton's Chase Nixon of Milton arcs over the high-jump bar. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff Billerica's Nyrah Joseph competes in the high jump. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff Matty Wasserman can be reached at
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
From demanding parents to stressed-out students to the pressure to win, high school coaches face more challenges than ever
They're at Bishop Feehan in Attleboro to begin their MIAA certification with the Schmidt-led four-hour 'Fundamentals of Coaching.' Advertisement By the time class is dismissed, the coaches will be fully aware of what amounts to a state of crisis in their profession. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It's not the lousy pay, long hours, and myriad logistical issues that are anything new. It's this cultural moment, a time when winning has never been more highly prized and the $30 billion business of youth sports, combined with NIL compensation, has never been more transactional. Raising the degree of difficulty is trying to reach the adolescent brains of a post-COVID student-athlete population that is more stressed, vulnerable, and locked in on social media than ever. But above all else, it's the increasingly demanding parents concerned with their child's playing time or the team's success that successful longtime coaches agree are the toughest of all the challenges. Advertisement Trevor Gagnier, girls' basketball coach at Apponequet the last 15 years, has learned to lay out the program's foundation and expectations to parents and players before the season begins. 'If you don't do that early, that's how you get screwed,' said Gagnier. 'And if someone's telling you, 'No, everything's been perfect for the last 15 years,' well, tell me where he or she's coaching, because that doesn't usually happen.' Steve Dembowski has been coaching football for 32 years ― at Milton since 2015, and at Swampscott for more than 20 years prior. When he became a parent of a student-athlete, he realized he needed to engage with parents if he wanted them to be allies rather than foes. 'Something that's really changed, which I think haunts a lot of coaches, is that communication with athletes and their parents is even more important than ever and a lot of coaches still want to be old school ― 'I'm not gonna talk about the team or your kid,' ' said Dembowski. 'That's a mistake now, when you need to be open and honest with families.' When Milton football coach Steve Dembowski became a parent of a student-athlete, he realized he needed to engage with parents if he wanted them to be allies rather than foes. Barry Chin/Globe Staff To be demanding and not demeaning with student-athletes while keeping a team striving for excellence is the standard practice for current coaches. Adding what it takes to corral parents into a positive force and still maintain the passion is beyond exhausting for some. 'I'm an executive leadership coach, right, but some days I feel like a therapist because of the adult coaches that break down on calls with me because of the stress, the pressure, and the embarrassment of some of these situations that come up within the job,' said J.P. Nerbun, a former youth, high school, college, and semi-pro basketball coach who founded TOC Culture Consulting and is the author of 'The Coach's Guide to Sports Parents.' Advertisement Nerbun steers some of the coaches to therapy. He asks all of them to remember why they're there in the first place. 'The greatest challenge for coaches is to continue to know themselves, to know why they coach, to make sure that they are actually doing the work to become and behave in a way that produces an impact and helps people grow,' he said. That's a far cry from the 'my way or the highway' coaches who once ruled their roosts. Those are being weeded out, along with the extreme examples of the bad-apple coaches who grab the wrong kind of headlines for crossing the line from tough to abusive coaching. More than the X's and O's When the new breed of 'Ted Lasso'-like coaches understand their mission as well as the mind-sets of students and parents, the odds of a more positive and stable experience for all three legs of the youth sports stool should increase. Being an expert on the next best thing in the X's and O's of their particular sport is almost an afterthought for coaches these days. 'Even though the game is changing, coaches need to also recognize what is acceptable and what actually works better with the way they're interacting with their players,' said Jason Sacks, CEO of Positive Coaching Alliance, a national organization that trains and supports coaches. 'Sometimes coaches don't see that connection of, 'Hey, you know what? Guess what? Kids are different now. And you know what I need to do? I need to evolve as a coach and be able to meet them where they're at.' ' Advertisement They're at a place where athletes conditioned to the immediacy of social media want instant results, to know why they're being coached a particular way, and where they're not used to direct feedback and criticism. 'High school kids right now are under a tremendous amount of stress. Whether we think they're 'soft' or not doesn't matter,' said coaching development expert Karen Collins, a former collegiate field hockey and lacrosse athlete and coach and an associate professor at the University of New Hampshire. 'If you can build honest and earnest relationships with athletes where you're transparent and you back up what you say you're going to do, then that has opened up the window for you to be a 'tough coach,' and that's OK.' She pointed out that parents want what's best for their kids. Most do all they can to support their child's team and coach. It's a small minority who lose perspective. When they act out in the belief, for example, that their child needs more playing time, their behavior has an outsized impact on coaches. National data on retention of school coaches is scarce, but if perception and anecdotes add up to reality, then there aren't enough of them. Schmidt said flatly, 'There is a shortage of highly qualified candidates,' and said lately his applicant pool is 'less of the Pacific Ocean, more of the kiddie pool.' National surveys by the Aspen Institute, of coaches in 2022 and parents of student-athletes in 2024, found that 80 percent of both groups believed there was a shortage of high-caliber coaches. The percentage of coaches age 55 and older has grown over the last few years, which points to younger coaches leaving the profession. Advertisement Nipmuc AD Chris Schmidt said, 'There there is a shortage of highly qualified [coaching] candidates,' and added lately his applicant pool is 'less of the Pacific Ocean, more of the kiddie pool.' Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff And while 80 percent of the coaches surveyed reported feeling satisfied, the percentage was nearly matched by moderately, very, and extremely stressful experiences. As an academic paper published in 'Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators' pointed out last July, the coaches survey pointed to parents as 'key contributors' to that stress. Seventeen percent of school coaches reported that parents often or always criticize their performance, with barely more than half the coaches hearing appreciation. 'We hear about the problem parents all the time and so we exacerbate the problem, but it's those problems that are running coaches out of the profession, there's no doubt,' said Collins. 'I think if we took a step back and thought about, why are the parents so angry? It's because it's this same transactional thing ― they're worried about the potential for their child.' 'It's hard enough to find coaches' Tim Brillo is in his 15th year as AD at Ludlow and was a longtime coach of the girls' basketball team. Like Schmidt, he's one of the 20-plus certified instructors of the MIAA coaches certification clinic, which began in 1998 and is held 20 to 30 times throughout the year. Coaches hired prior to Aug. 1, 1998, do not have to take the course, and all first serving as a coach after July 1, 2005, must complete it, along with an approved first-aid course. 'In my conversations, coaches were run out by a group of parents simply because their kid wasn't getting playing time, and recently it was, 'We need to change the coach because it's the coach's fault,' ' said Brillo. 'It's hard enough to find coaches. Then, when you finally do find somebody that's willing to do it, there's these outside pressures and expectations on you from parents.' Advertisement Mastering that coach-athlete-parent triangle takes up most of the morning in Attleboro. There's also a section devoted to a long list of managerial concerns, such as an emergency care plan, field and dugout conditions, strength and conditioning, rules and regulations, and legal liability. One breakout group delves into, 'Why did you get into coaching?' Responses ranged from wanting to influence kids in a positive direction, love of the game, and those impacted by wonderful or awful coaches. 'Anyone talk about winning?' Schmidt asked. No hands. 'Of course we want to be successful, that's OK, but is that your focus? If your answer is yes, that's a problem,' said Schmidt. When the class ended, Corey Flynn, Winchester's assistant ultimate Frisbee coach, said he thought the course hit all the right notes. Flynn hadn't always appreciated the magnitude of a coach's job. 'We have about 60 players who are attached to like 100-plus family members, and then with various school administrators involved, you rapidly become the center of about 200 people that have very direct contact with you on a regular basis,' said Flynn. 'That's probably the thing that I was shocked by. I was like, 'Oh, this will be great. I'm going to show up, I'm going to coach kids,' and I didn't understand it's going to be a much bigger responsibility than that.' The responsibilities can feel daunting, said Flynn. Luckily, he has a solid foundation in order to not be overwhelmed. 'Most coaches are lying if they don't have days like, 'This train has left the station and I'm on it and I can't get off,' but the good news is that generally kids are awesome,' he said. 'You do it because it fulfills you and it helps amplify other people and all that stuff. That's so worth it. 'And most days you feel that side of it.' Michael Silverman can be reached at
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Westford's Maddie Smith wins friendly over Concord-Carlisle's Erika Redmond at MIAA North/Central/West golf sectional
Maddie Smith (left) is congratulated by friend and opponent Erika Redmond after winning the individual title at the MIAA North/Central/West sectional by one stroke. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe A friend broke the news after the round that Smith, who shot a 2-over-par 74, won the individual title and Redmond's 75 score was good for second place. Advertisement 'We're great friends,' Smith said. 'We play a lot of tournaments over the summer together. We're on the US National Development team for Massachusetts together. We play a lot of golf together. It's always a great time. So I was, honestly, when I looked at the tee sheet and saw I was playing with her, I was really excited.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Concord-Carlisle senior Erika Redmond went 3-over to finish second. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe Redmond and Smith played in the fall for their respective schools during the boys' golf season. Smith, whose sisters golf at Central Florida (Molly) and Georgia (Morgan), earned an The pair even teed off at The Haven during the boys' state tournament, aiding their performance Wednesday, even though the distances were longer and the pins were in different locations seven months ago. Advertisement 'It's definitely a completely different game,' Redmond said. Wellesley golfers (from left) Jenna Saini, Alika Lavu, Denise Pan, and Ruby Savarese teamed up to win the North/Central/West girls' golf sectional championship at The Haven Country Club in Boylston. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe On the team side, Wellesley won with a combined score of 358. Wachusett finished second (373) and Nashoba Regional (399) was third, edging out fourth-place Hopkinton's 400 for the final team spot at the state meet. Wellesley won it without placing a golfer in the top 15. Alika Lavu and Denise Pan tied for 16th with matching scores of 86, and Jenna Saini and Ruby Savarese both carded 93s. Related : 'We are lucky that we have a group of girls at the high school that really want to play golf,' Wellesley coach Ken Bateman said. 'We've had that for a number of years, and we kind of justbuild on that each year.' There will be 37 golfers and six schools, Wellesley's Denise Pan tees off on the fifth hole on her way to a tie for 16th place. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe Westfield's Lauren Connor finished fifth with a 6-over 78. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe Ruby Savarese helped Wellesley win the team title with her 93. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe Wellesley's Alika Lavu kicks up some turf as she follows through on a tee shot on the 17th hole. She finished at 14-over in a tie for 16th place. Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Schneider nearly unhittable as No. 8 MSSU upsets No. 1 UCM in MIAA quarters
In an unusual situation, Missouri Southern State University hosted a game at Warren Turner Field as the away team. The eighth-seeded Lions played host to home team and top-seed University of Central Missouri Thursday for the quarterfinal round of the MIAA tournament. Advertisement UCM, ranked third in the nation (38-11), struggled to find much offense as MSSU's Casey Stalzer and Owen Schneider combined to allow just two runs on four hits on the way to a 7-2 upset of the Mules. "Schneider was great. Obviously, he was the difference for us," MSSU head coach Bryce Darnell said. The lefty entered the game in the third inning with the bases full and only one out. Stalzer had pitched two scoreless frames but started to struggle in the third, allowing three hits and walking one batter as the Mules got a run across, making it 5-1. That's when Schneider came in. "When I came in, I was a little nervous. I faced these guys a couple weeks ago and didn't have my best stuff. I knew I had to come in with my better stuff and pick up my teammate Casey (Stalzer)," Schneider said. Advertisement His stuff was good enough to strike out UCM's Vance Tobol and Isaiah Keller to end the threat and preserve a 5-1 lead. The redshirt sophomore from Rockwood Summit High School in St. Louis went on to finish the game, limiting the opposition to just one hit. He walked three batters and struck out eight. It seemed he may have had some extra juice in the last couple of innings as he recorded four of his eight strikeouts then. On one of them in the eighth frame he let out a loud grunt as he fired a two-strike fastball to the outside part of the plate that Tobol watched go by for a called strike three by the home plate umpire. "It helped that I had my teammates behind me. I did get a little stronger as the game went on. I focused a little more, and I was locating all my pitches," Schneider said. Advertisement The lone hit from the Mules off of Schneider was a solo home run by Keller that made it 5-2 in the sixth inning. Schneider talked about the excitement of getting to be a part of a key victory for his team over a nationally ranked opponent. "It feels amazing. We'll knock out the one seed, and we ain't done yet," Schneider added. Up next for the Lions (28-24) will be the winner of No. 4-seed University of Central Oklahoma and No. 5-seed Rogers State University at 1 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. "Just try to get to the next day. Owen (Schneider) was just wonderful today (and) his ability to get inside on those right-handed hitters was a huge part of the success," Darnell said. Advertisement MORE FROM THE GAME UCM head coach Kyle Crookes elected to go with Jake Wilson as his starting pitcher. Wilson had not started a game all season. He made it through three innings but allowed five runs on six hits while walking two batters and hitting another. It all began in the first inning as the Lions used two hits to score three runs. Drew Townsend started things with a walk. Ethan Clark singled and then Brayden Luikart laid down a bunt for a single to load the bases. Then two runs were scored as Nate Mieszkowski was hit by a pitch and Jacob Filip walked. Treghan Parker grounded out to drive in the third run. "You start fast, and it's hard to beat a good team; when you get up 3-nothing early it makes a difference," Darnell said. Advertisement Darnell noted that the early lead could have played a factor in the way the Mules typically play aggressively on the base paths. He thinks trailing all game may dictate how aggressive Crookes and the Mules want to be. While UCM struggled to score, Crookes felt like his offense was doing good things at times through the early parts of the game. "I think for the first six innings, our offense was, as far as my perspective, I thought we did a great job. We just hit balls right at people," Crookes said. "(Nate) Mieszkowski made a bunch of good plays, you line out to the shortstop and line out a couple places. That's baseball. "Schneider did a good job commanding the zone. And I think he commanded the zone with one pitch. He went fastball in and fastball out and mixed in enough of a slider." Advertisement MSSU tacked on one in the second and another in the third to make it 5-0. Cy Darnell doubled to start the second and Drew Townsend singled to move him over 90 feet. Clark rolled into a double play that scored Darnell. A sacrifice fly from Blake Jones scored Mieszkowski in the third. "They're (UCM) going to keep coming so it's important to keep getting runs for sure," Darnell said. The last two runs for the Lions were freebies as well as Mieszkowski again got hit by a pitch with the sacks full in the seventh, and then Parker was walked with them loaded in the ninth. "I think the game boils down to the first inning and the inning when they (MSSU) scored the sixth run," Crookes noted. Advertisement UCM had swept MSSU in the regular season, outscoring the Lions 44-19 in three games. The Lions have now won consecutive MIAA tournament meetings against the Mules. "We were 2-2 against them last year. We've played them in this tournament three straight years. We've beat them twice. They're an awesome program. But, what I mean by that is our guys are ready to play," Darnell said. "Credit to our guys. Their competitive spirit was great today." Luikart led the Lions with three hits going 3 for 5 with two runs scored. Mieszkowski, Townsend, Filip and Darnell each added two hits. Mieszkowski and Parker led the team with two RBIs apiece. The Lions drew five walks to go along with 12 hits.
Boston Globe
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
When do the MIAA playoffs start? Your guide to the 2025 high school spring sports postseason.
Related : Starting the day after Memorial Day, the rest of the playoff field comes into focus. Brackets will be released Tuesday, May 27 for boys' volleyball and rugby, followed by the boys' and girls' lacrosse, softball, and baseball brackets on Wednesday, May 28. By Friday, May 30, every sport is slated to have begun its postseason. Related : Advertisement All tickets to the MIAA state championship games must be purchased digitally. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up MIAA tennis team tournament Wednesday, May 21: Cutoff date for regular-season games Friday, May 23: Bracket release Tuesday, May 27: Tournament begins (if both ADs agree, games can be played starting May 24) June 14-15: State finals at MIT USTA New England High School Individual Tennis Championship At Babson, Brandeis, Lexington High, and Newton South High Friday, May 23: Qualifying event May 24-25: Individual championships Golf Thursday, May 22: Cutoff date for regular season Wednesday, May 28: North/Central/West Sectional at The Haven Country Club in Boylston (8:30 a.m.) Wednesday, May 28: South Sectional at Maplegate Country Club in Bellingham (10 a.m.) Wednesday, June 4: State championship at Sandy Burr Country Club in Wayland (8:30 a.m.) Advertisement Track and Field Sunday, May 25: Cutoff date for regular season Thursday, May 29 and Saturday, May 31: Division 1 Championship at Tufts Division 2 Championship at Merrimack Division 5 Championship at Westfield State Friday, May 30 and Sunday, June 1: Division 3 Championship at Westfield State Division 4 Championship at Merrimack Division 6 Championship at Tufts Thursday, June 5 and Saturday, June 7: MIAA Meet of Champions at Fitchburg State Saturday, June 14: New England Outdoor Track & Field Championship at Willow Brook Park in New Britain, Conn. Boys' volleyball Friday, May 23: Cutoff date for regular season Tuesday, May 27: Bracket release Thursday, May 29: Tournament begins June 12-13: State championships at Billerica and Worcester North Rugby Saturday, May 24: Cutoff date for regular season Tuesday, May 27: Bracket release Thursday, May 29: Tournament begins Saturday, June 14: State championships at Curry College Lacrosse Monday, May 26: Cutoff date for regular season Wednesday, May 28: Bracket release Friday, May 30: Tournament begins (if both ADs agree, games can be played May 29) June 13-15: State championships (girls at Babson, boys TBD) Softball Monday, May 26: Cutoff date for regular season Wednesday, May 28: Bracket release Friday, May 30: Preliminary round begins (if both ADs agree, games can be played May 29) June 13-14: State championships at Worcester State and UMass Baseball Monday, May 26: Cutoff date for regular season Wednesday, May 28: Bracket release Friday, May 30: Preliminary round begins (if both ADs agree, games can be played May 29) June 1-2: Round of 32 June 4-5: Round of 16 June 7-8: Quarterfinals June 10-11: Semifinals June 13-14: State championships at Polar Park Advertisement Brendan Kurie can be reached at
