Lawrence Academy ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTION
Saturday, June 8, 2019
2019 INDUCTEES NATHANIEL HOLMES BISHOP CLASS OF 1852 THE 1959 BOYS’ VARSITY LACROSSE TEAM MICHELLE MCATEER CLASS OF 1999 RICHARD ROBY CLASS OF 2004 THE 2008 GIRLS’ VARSITY FIELD HOCKEY TEAM
Reunion Weekend 2019
ATHLETICS AT LA Athletics at Lawrence Academy have come a long way since James Lawrence donated the first gymnasium equipment in 1878. Used by both boys and girls, the gym — which also served as a study hall, theatre, and faculty meeting space — featured horizontal bars, dumbbells, Indian clubs, and the like. There were no fields until 1900, when Shumway Field opened, so outdoor “sports” were limited to walking and running. There was, however, a tennis court, which the Student Aid of June 1889 called “one of the pleasant features connected with our school.” Football had been played informally since around 1880, though the principal, Mr. Ball, quickly banned it because of the destruction it wrought on the lawns (he proposed croquet in its place!). With a new field created in 1901, however, the sport caught on quickly. Out of a total school enrollment of 28 boys, 13 were on the team during that first season. Baseball thrived in those days as well, and basketball became a team sport within a few years. The modern era of LA athletics really began with the arrival of young Norman Grant in 1929. He added lacrosse as a varsity sport, and in 1940, the school started construction of the Spaulding-Stearns Athletic Fields. By the end of that decade, the Fred C. Gray Building opened, providing the Academy’s first dedicated athletic facility. It included squash courts and a wrestling room; LA added the latter sport in 1950. The athletic program expanded again with the return to coeducation in 1971–’72, and the construction of the Stone Athletic Center in 1993 provided up-to-date facilities for both boys and girls. The Academy’s first year in the Independent School League, 1976, saw undefeated football and cross-country teams; the football team shared the ISL championship. That winter, moreover, the boys’ varsity hockey team won the ISL Keller Division title. Lawrence’s athletes in 1976 ushered in a new level of competition and recognition. Since that time, Lawrence Academy has celebrated numerous boys’ and girls’ championship teams in the ISL and the New England Division. In addition, many individual athletes have aspired to achieve greatness beyond their days at LA, in collegiate sports and with national teams, both as amateurs and professionals.
At this 2019 Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony, we recognize outstanding Lawrence Academy athletes from the old days and the new, carrying out the organization’s mission “to honor and perpetuate the memory of individuals and teams that have made outstanding contributions to the quality of LA athletics and have helped bring recognition, honor, and excellence to the Academy and its athletic program throughout its history.” As the mission statement concludes, “e Athletic Hall of Fame will highlight athletic character, sportsmanship, achievement, and pride and will strive to provide a positive link between the student-athletes of today and those of the past.” We welcome you on this happy occasion, as we honor members of the Lawrence community, living and deceased, who gave of their talents and helped ensure that their school on the hillside would forever remain “worthy of its great renown.”
COMMITTEE MEMBERS Kevin Potter, P ’13, ’15, athletic director, co-chair Geoff Harlan, P ’16, ’18, director of major gifts, co-chair Rob Moore, P ’04, ’06, ’09, associate head of school Caroline Heatley, assistant athletic director Beth Frissora ’95, president of the alumni council Rich Johnson ’74, alumnus Sean Sheehan ’87, director of college counseling Marianne (Crescenzi) Balfour ’88, alumni council member Caitlin O’Brien, director of alumni engagement and support Donna Mastrangelo P ’15, ’18, faculty Paul Husted ‘64, alumni council member Many thanks to the following members of the LA community who worked hard to establish, produce, and facilitate Lawrence Academy’s Athletic Hall of Fame: Dan Scheibe, head of school Dick Jeffers P ’84, ’86, Jeffers Heritage Center John Bishop, director of communications Jonny Gotlib, assistant director of communications Dale Cunningham, P ’13, assistant director of communications Joe Sheppard, P ’93, ’94, retired faculty, writer-at-large Joel Sugerman, director of theatre Zach Dawson, arts department chair Bob Kramer, assistant head of school for finance and operations
ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY O RDER
OF
P ROGRAM
LA Athletics: A Journey Through Time Opening Remarks Dan Scheibe, head of school Welcome Master of Ceremonies Richard Johnson ’74 curator for The Sports Museum, Boston, Mass. Facilitators and Presenters Richard Johnson ’74 Andrew Healy, faculty Donna Mastrangelo, faculty Kevin Wiercinski, faculty
Honoring Nathaniel Holmes Bishop 1852 e 1959 boys’ varsity lacrosse team Michelle McAteer 1999 Richard Roby 2004 e 2008 girls’ varsity field hockey team Closing Remarks Richard Johnson ’74
2014 INDUCTEES Raymond T. “Scooter” McLean ‘32 Victor Heyliger ‘33 William Flynn ‘35 Norman B. Grant, faculty Cindy Ryder Matthes ‘84 David A. Jensen ‘84 Laurie Baker ‘95 2015 INDUCTEES William J. Stewart Jr. ‘39 Thomas B. Warner ‘75 Richmond Baker, faculty Victoria Wellington Hanna ‘97 Craig MacDonald ‘95 Anthony Voce ‘00 The 1965 tennis team 2016 INDUCTEES Guillermo “Memo” Cantu ‘86 Jonathan Edwards ‘91 Patricia MacDougall White ‘93 Kristen Laggis Pedroli ‘95 The 1955 varsity football team 2017 INDUCTEES The Honorable Judge Harold B. Jackson Jr. ’57 The 1975 girls’ varsity soccer team Tasha V. Taiste ’95 Christopher M. Spatola ’97 2018 INDUCTEES The 1972 boys’ varsity soccer team Stephen H. Heinze ’88 Edward J. (Ted) Crowley ’89 Heather Goehringer Causey ’89
2019 INDUCTEE
NATHANIEL HOLMES BISHOP CLASS OF 1852 O UTDOORSMAN
Born in Medford, Mass., in 1837, Nathaniel Bishop enrolled in the Classical Department at Lawrence Academy in the fall of 1852, having spent the summer trekking 300 miles through the Green Mountains of Vermont. Once settled at LA, where he apparently spent barely a year, he established the Pedestrian Club, which made hiking excursions, totaling some 160 miles, to local destinations. He was also president of the Debating Society, which published a student newspaper, The Gleaner. His consuming curiosity about the world around him, his love of the outdoors, and his natural athleticism took him away from Groton to far corners of the earth. He sailed to South America, then hiked alone for 1,000 miles from Buenos Aires, Argentina over the Andes Mountains into Chile; he canoed from Québec down the St. Lawrence River across Lake Champlain, “essentially providing a pre-survey of what would become known as the Inland Waterway to Florida,” as Bev Rodrigues noted in a profile of Bishop in the Academy Journal. Another time, he travelled 2,600 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, down the Monongahela, along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and across Florida’s rivers to the Atlantic. The list of his exploits is long, and he chronicled them all in engaging and well-written books “teeming with information,” as one reader put it. Nathaniel Bishop wasn’t a three-sport varsity captain during his short time at LA, nor was he a standout in any particular sport, for there weren’t any athletic teams at the young Academy in those days. Rather, he was a passionate outdoorsman, explorer and natural athlete — and it is his remarkable exploits that have earned him a special niche in LA’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
LAWRENCE ACADEMY
ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME JUNE 8, 2019
2019 INDUCTEES THE 1959 BOYS’ VARSITY LACROSSE TEAM Coached by the legendary Norman Grant, the ’59 lacrosse team won seven out of nine games, losing only to Tabor and Deerfield; two of their defeated opponents were college freshman teams from Tufts and M.I.T. It was Mr. Grant’s “best season ever,” according to the NCAA Lacrosse Guide; at its end, the team was awarded the Charles E. Marsters Trophy, given “for the greatest improvement and good sportsmanship.” Captain Jerry Scott ’59 attributes the team’s success to “good teamwork.” “All were committed to helping the team win,” he says, “regardless of his individual role. Norm Grant ran a tight ship. He kept us focused on the fundamentals.” Teammate Al Gordon ’59 adds, “Our team had a lot of depth, a lot of maturity and experience from other sports. Many had played lacrosse together for two, three, and four years. In the off-season, several of us would use the squash courts to practice our shots. Then, come spring, ball toss was seen around every dorm. These ‘extra practices’ contributed to the coordination on the field.” A heartfelt tribute to his teammates and to the game came from Ted Packard ’59, who wrote, “Several times [during my daily walk], just for the fun of it and the exercise, I spin around and keep moving, as if a halfback were challenging me for the ball… Sixty years after I last played lacrosse, I practice the maneuver. I miss the game. It is the best.” For a memorable championship, for setting an example of exceptional play, sportsmanship and team loyalty, for loving the game beyond the prize, we gratefully welcome the 1959 varsity lacrosse team into the Lawrence Academy Athletic Hall of Fame. LAWRENCE ACADEMY
ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME JUNE 8, 2019
2019 INDUCTEE
MICHELLE MCATEER CLASS OF 1999 S OCCER / H OCKEY / S OFTBALL
Over her three years at Lawrence, Michelle, known to her friends as Mac, personified the student-athlete. A captain in three varsity sports, she was also an honor student, an award-winning dorm proctor, and a regular member of SABA — Students Against Boring Assemblies — who gave us many a laugh on Friday mornings. Michelle’s athletic career at LA is legendary. In soccer, she was, in the words of coach Donna Mastrangelo, “an inspirational leader on and off the field [and] an outstanding role model for our female athletes.” All-League and Player of the Year in both hockey and softball, she was elected to the all-NEPSAC softball team, the first person in the league to win the Triple Crown. At Graduation, Michelle won both the Richmond Baker Award and the Norman and Catherine Grant Award, two of the most respected prizes for student-athletes. She was also honored with the Proctor Award and the May Sarton Poetry Prize. More honors followed at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, where Michelle served as assistant captain on a hockey team that won three national titles. She was named the team’s Most Valuable Player in the 2001–02 season, while also earning WCHA All-Academic Team and AWHCA All-American Scholar honors three times each. Michelle was the first Bulldog to win a WCHA Postgraduate Scholarship, earning the award in 2003. Now in her ninth year as women’s hockey coach at Augsburg College, Michelle has coached professionally since graduation from UMD. Last year she led her team to its third consecutive 13-plus win season and third consecutive MIAC post-season playoff appearance. For a lifetime of athletic accomplishment, leadership, and dedication both to teammates and to those she coaches, we welcome Michelle McAteer into the Lawrence Academy Athletic Hall of Fame. LAWRENCE ACADEMY
ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME JUNE 8, 2019
2019 INDUCTEE
RICHARD ROBY CLASS OF 2004 B ASKETBALL
When the tall and slender athlete from southern California arrived at LA in the fall of 2000, the school was continuing its emergence on the NEPSAC basketball scene. According to Coach Kevin Wiercinski, “He was always in control, modest and soft-spoken, but deep down he was as competitive as any player the Spartans’ program has ever had. His competitive nature made him one of the most feared players in New England.” During his four years at LA, the team won at least 20 games each year, with a record of 26 -1 in 2002. In that year, they won both New England and ISL championships, and were ISL champions again in 2004. When his LA career ended, Rich had amassed more than 1,500 points, making him the second all-time leading scorer in school history. Named ISL All-League three times, he was a League MVP as a senior, and was honored with the Boston Globe All-Scholastic Selection and as Gatorade Player of the Year for Massachusetts — LA’s first ever for boys’ basketball. At the University of Colorado, Rich averaged 17 points and 5.5 rebounds during his four-year career, to become the Buffaloes’ all-time leading scorer. After graduation he embarked on a globe-spanning professional career: over the next nine years he would play for professional teams in Israel, France, the U.S., Mexico, South Korea, and Japan, before signing with Team Colorado of The Basketball Tournament on ESPN. It takes a rare degree of dedication and love for a sport to give your life to it, and Rich Roby personifies those qualities. For what he gave to Lawrence Academy, and for what he has given to the sport of basketball in the years since he left the elm tree-shaded hillside, we welcome him with pride into the Lawrence Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.
LAWRENCE ACADEMY
ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME JUNE 8, 2019
2019 INDUCTEES
THE 2008 GIRLS’ VARSITY FIELD HOCKEY TEAM As co-captain Brenna Morrissey ’09 put it, field hockey teams are often made up of a motley crew of athletes, many of whom are ice hockey players who don’t want to play soccer in the fall. They are complemented by a smaller number of talented athletes whose first sport is field hockey. The 2008 varsity team was no exception to this rule: “a couple of talented field hockey players and a lot of raw athletes,” according to Brenna. Historically, the sport had not been one of LA’s strongest, but serendipity can do remarkable things — in this case, the serendipity provided by the chemistry between a group of talented athletes and superb, dedicated coaches, Eileen Keever Somers and Michelle Lamarre-Waldie. Early in the fall, after a tough practice, Keever called a rare team meeting. “Do you all realize how GOOD you are?” she asked them. Keever made the team realize that they could actually win the ISL that year. Team spirit soared, and win the league they did, wearing a different crazy headband for every game, as Fran McNierney ’10 recalled. Their final record of 19 wins, no losses, and one tie brought them not only the ISL championship; they were also the 2008 Class B New England Champions. Talent, dedication, love of the sport, pride in doing something well: all these combined to make champions of the 2008 varsity field hockey team, and to earn them an honored place in the Lawrence Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.
LAWRENCE ACADEMY
ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME JUNE 8, 2019
To set the cause above renown, To love the game beyond the prize From Clifton Chapel, by Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938)