coaches corner

It goes without saying, the ongoing pandemic created significant challenges regarding the staging of the athletic program at Belmont Hill this year. After a very successful fall season where the School offered athletics beyond the traditional fall sports – as well as five weeks of interscholastic scrimmages in cross country, football, and soccer – the task of moving on to the winter season presented new challenges. Gone was the ability to send the entire school outside every day for athletics. A new set of state guidelines governing winter sports was promulgated, which had to be digested and understood, and so began the charge of constructing our winter athletic offerings.

The goal, first and foremost, was to be able to offer winter sports in compliance with all state guidelines. At the same time, the ISL decided that traditional interscholastic league competition would not be possible. With these constraints in mind, the School worked out the ability to provide our traditional winter offerings (Alpine skiing, basketball, hockey, Nordic skiing, squash, and wrestling) and afford our boys a needed chance to exercise while also working on critical skill development in their winter sport of choice. As was the case in the fall, masks, hand hygiene, limiting the number of athletes in playing spaces, and frequent cleaning and disinfecting continued to be the norm. That, coupled with sport-specific rule modifications, allowed for our winter athletes to safely participate. These sport-specific rule modifications also helped clear the way for the ISL to allow member schools to schedule interscholastic scrimmages in basketball and hockey. We were excited to livestream our home scrimmages so that our community could see the boys compete.

The School’s motto of “Working Together” has truly been on display with respect to providing athletic opportunities to our students during the ongoing pandemic. It took a concerted effort day in and day out by students, parents, coaches, staff, and administrators to follow protocols and make the athletic program safe and fun. Special thanks to our coaches for creating an incredibly positive and rewarding experience for our student-athletes. I am incredibly proud of what the Belmont Hill community accomplished.

GEORGE TAHAN Athletic Director

Cross Country

JAKE DECAPRIO ’16, ADAM HARDER, AND MAYA JAROSTCHUK Co-Head Coaches

Certainly, and expectedly, COVID-19 protocols had some adverse impacts on the 2020 Belmont Hill cross country team’s season and overall experience for the boys on the squad. We were limited to practicing together just twice a week, there were no Friday-evening pre-race team dinners hosted by willing parents, we did not travel off-campus for weekly fall foliage over-distance jaunts, and both the league championship and New England championships were canceled, as were the majority of weekend races relative to a normal year.

That said, our young and determined group of runners made the most of what was available to us, attacking the workouts we were able to conduct with enthusiasm and unstinting effort. On days that we did not meet as a group, the boys completed over-distance and tempo runs individually and independently, certainly a testament to their dedication to improving as competitive harriers. Our two captains, Sreetej Digumarthi ’21 and James Donahue ’22, provided complementary leadership styles and positive role modeling for their teammates throughout the season. Digumarthi stoically persisted to train and compete to his best ability in spite of a nagging injury, and Donahue opted to compete in additional open elite races on his own, shattering the 15:30 5K barrier on the track on three occasions. Additionally, Abe Tolkoff ’21, a product of our Middle School program, was a steady performer and creative chronicler of images that he shared and creatively captioned for entertainment during our end-of-year virtual team banquet. For the first several weeks, it was not clear if we were going to be able to race against other teams at all, and in spite of that uncertainty, the boys were positive, competitive amongst themselves, and purposeful in their daily running, a testament to their mental toughness and competitiveness. Good news finally came along, and we were able to run several informal scrimmage races during the second half of the season, providing us with the opportunity to see how the boys could perform in actual race conditions.

Given the widely varying protocols from school-to-school and scheduling logistics, we wound up running primarily against Roxbury Latin and St. Sebastian’s, hosting two meets on our on-campus loop, and traveling to Nobles and Roxbury Latin for two other races. Miles Sandoski ’24 was consistently one of the top finishers overall, followed by Arec Keomurjian ’22 and Thomas Romney ’22, who pushed each other all season be it during interval training or on race days. While scoring was unofficial, and further confounded by the fact that some of our opponents ran only a limited cohort of their squads, we enjoyed several “wins” and our three “losses” were by the narrowest of margins, 1–2 points.

We are excited about what lies ahead for our core of returning runners from this year, also knowing that a few boys from this year’s Middle School squad showed great potential. Next year’s captains-elect are Donahue and Romney.

Football

CHRIS BUTLER, Head Coach

Led by senior captains Luke Bobo, Grant Litchfield, Cameron Reirden, and Ikenna Ugbaja, the varsity football team completed a successful 2020 season. Several other members of Form VI stepped into key starting roles and benefitted the team both on and off the field through their hard work. The fall presented the varsity football coaches and team with unprecedented challenges in maintaining player safety, while at the same time providing a football experience that was enjoyable and beneficial to the players. Under Mr. Tahan’s leadership, the Athletic Department worked tirelessly to provide the team, and all of the Belmont Hill fall athletes, with an opportunity to compete, and developed a series of protocols to keep everyone safe.

We were fortunate to step onto the field three times each week under the School’s revised athletic schedule. The practices were skill-based, and the players took advantage of these opportunities to improve themselves as football players. The team’s strong character showed, and in true Belmont Hill fashion the players worked incredibly hard and improved their skills throughout the fall. The team is extremely grateful to Mr. Chin, Ms. Ruys, and Mr. Negron for their painstaking efforts to help support the program and maintain player safety. Although the team could not play the traditional ISL season and schedule, we competed in four 7-on-7 passing scrimmages against St. Sebastian’s, Rivers, Nobles, and Roxbury Latin. These scrimmages provided the players a chance to compete in interscholastic competition on Saturdays this past fall and wear the Belmont Hill uniform. The coaching staff was incredibly proud of the team because of the intensity and hard work they put forth on the field each and every day. Although faced with significant adversity, their efforts never flagged, and this was a true reflection of their character and championship approach to life. The team not only made the best of a challenging situation, they excelled at it, and we are very grateful to the 2020 team for making the season such a success.

The captains-elect for the 2021 season are Michael Ahonen, Nolan Parchesky, and Henry Lodge. Finally, we want to thank the graduating players for their contributions to the Belmont Hill Football Program throughout their careers, and all that they accomplished while playing as part of the program. While we will miss them, the example they set, particularly this season, will continue to impact the program for years to come.

Soccer

JORGE MONTOYA, Head Coach

The varsity soccer team returned a strong cohort of seniors from last year’s NEPSAC quarterfinalist squad, but the COVID-19 pandemic forestalled a run at the top of the ISL this past fall. Despite the absence of a normal slate, thanks to the hard work of Athletic Director George Tahan and Greg Schneider, Ronald M. Druker ’62 Head of School, the team played four scrimmages against a group of other ISL day schools, concluding with a 2–1–1 mark. This year’s games kicked off under very different rules, with kick-ins replacing throw-ins, bans on slide tackling, shoulder-to-shoulder challenges, and heading. Of course, the boys had to adjust to masks as well, but the skill and determination remained constant.

The first match against St. Sebastian’s started slowly with a scoreless first half as the boys adjusted to the new rulebook, but they poured it on in the second period with three well-worked team goals to emerge comfortable 3–0 winners. A late penalty earned a 1–1 draw in a fiercely competitive, physical match against Rivers. But the undoubted highlight of the year came in a dramatic 2–1 comeback win against another perennial rival in Nobles. Belmont Hill fell behind in the first half, but rallied in a pulsating final 20 minutes, during which midfielder Will Lloyd ’23 volleyed home the equalizer then, moments later, after a contentious penalty award, goalkeeper Zach Dines ’22 made a diving stop to keep the scoreline level. With the clock winding down, forward Jayson Firmin ’21 burst through and fired home a late winner. The final match of the year resulted in a frustrating 1–0 defeat against Roxbury Latin, as Belmont Hill spent nearly the entire game on the attack, but could only produce a plethora of squandered chances including a last-minute penalty miss.

Defenders Matthew Britt-Webb ’21 and Will Dean ’21 shared the Coaches Award (MVP of the team), Firmin garnered the Sportsmanship Award, and defender Chris O’Connell ’21 earned the Most Improved Player Award. Next year’s captains-elect will be Lloyd and midfielder Max Carboni ’23.

The senior class concluded its Belmont Hill career with an enviable record of three double-digit victory seasons and ISL top-three finishes, as well as two NEPSAC appearances. Just as importantly, they displayed superb leadership in a challenging and turbulent environment this past fall and helped maintain and grow the squad’s strong traditions and character. Goalkeeper Alex Atalla; defenders Britt-Webb, Dean, Connor Monahan, Riley Shafer, and Erick Silva; midfielders Timmy McCormick, Will McGaughey, and Mateen Nickpour-Reyes; and forwards Firmin and Charlie Penzone have helped compose the backbone of the program for the past few years and brought a consistently high level of performance to practices and matches throughout the year, despite the unprecedented circumstances. A number of those boys will play in college, and we wish them the best in continuing their careers. This senior group never flagged in the face of adversity and consistently maintained high standards for the entire program across their tenure.