Sports 04-05-2017

RhS sports Roundup

RHS baseball team hoping to open season

“Rain, rain, — and cold, wind, and snow – go away…” has been the common refrain of coaches and athletes thus far in the spring sports season of 2017.

For the Revere High baseball team, the unseasonably unspring-like weather (even by the low standards for us hardy Eastern Massachusetts natives) has meant no pre-season scrimmages (this past weekend’s attempt at a scrimmage with East Boston was snowed-out) and a dearth of outdoor practice sessions.

Yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) scheduled season-opener at Woburn was postponed in advance until Saturday because of the deluge that was expected and, barring a sudden reversal of weather fortune, the Patriots’ contest at Bedford tomorrow (Thursday) also most likely will be put off for another day.

For new RHS head coach Ron Jordan, the lack of meaningful practices (the team has been confined to the RHS fieldhouse) and scrimmages has meant that he still has decisions to make regarding the final shape of his 2017 squad.

“The spring has not been ideal, but we’re making the best of it,” said Jordan. “All in all, things have been going well, I think we will have a solid team defensively and that we’ll be able to use our speed. We have a lot of athletic players on our roster and if we can be fundamentally sound, we should be competitive with everybody we play.”

Jordan has yet to formalize his final varsity squad and said he expects that a number of players will see action on both the junior varsity and varsity levels early in the season so that he can get a good look at everybody

“We have a number of talented young players, but unfortunately we have not had a chance to evaluate them outdoors under game conditions,” said Jordan. “So we’ll have to wait until the season starts to see what they can do.”

One certainty for Jordan is that sophomore pitcher Matt Cravotta will get the call for Opening Day with Hector Zevala figuring to be the number two man in the rotation.

“We have a lot of young players with live arms,” noted Jordan, citing sophomore southpaw Frank Sims and Joey Gendreau, among others. “You never can have enough pitching, especially if the schedule gets backed up because of bad weather, so we’ll be giving everybody a chance to show us what they can do.”

A new wrinkle for 2017 is that the Patriot baseball program will be welcoming its former foes from what was left of the Greater Boston League, from which Revere departed in 2006. Everett, Malden, Medford, and Somerville will become full-fledged members of the Northeastern Conference, which now will consist of 16 schools. For this inaugural season, every team will play the other once for 15 league games. Revere’s remaining five games on its schedule will come against Woburn (2), Bedford, and two opponents in the Wilmington Tourney on the last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) of the season.

The Patriots will open their NEC schedule Monday at Peabody and then will host Malden next Wednesday.

 

Many questions for RHS softball team

The poor weather that has befallen the spring sports season has left Revere High head baseball coach Joe Ciccarello in an unusual quandary for his program on the eve of the 2017 season-opener tomorrow (Thursday) against Waltham.

“We typically have a large number of returning starters, but we lost a lot of our all-star players to graduation,” said Ciccarello, “and thanks to the poor weather, which has confined us to indoor practices except for some scrimmages that we were able to put together on the turf field, we still have a lot of question marks for the coming season.

“We have a lot of new girls to the team who are battling for starting roles and we probably will be shifting some of our returning players to new positions,” added Cicarello.

Revere scrimmaged two rivals this past week, Belmont and Melrose, and Ciccarello was pleased with the limited play that he saw. “We hit the ball really well in the Belmont game and played well defensively against Melrose,” said Ciccarello. “But we have yet to give our younger girls a true test under game conditions, so there still is a lot that’s up in the air.”

The one area where the Lady Patriots should be solid will be in the all-important  pitching department, with sophomore Olivia McManus returning after a strong freshman season and freshman Eve Lescovitch performing impressively in the pre-season.

A positive aspect for the coming season will be the Lady Patriots’ permanent new home for the entire year at the St. Mary’s field complex, which has completed its $5 million renovation project.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” said Ciccarello. “They did a great job.”

Another change for the 2017 season will be the addition to the Northeastern Conference of the four last-standing schools — Everett, Malden, Medford, and Somerville — from the once-proud Greater Boston League of which Revere was a member for about 50 years until departing for the NEC in 2006 .

Ciccarello and his crew will play all 15 NEC foes once. They will meet Waltham and New Bedford twice each and take on Cambridge and Belmont once for a challenging 21-game schedule.

After the Waltham game tomorrow at St. Mary’s, the Lady Patriots will trek to New Bedford Saturday (that contest will be a so-called exclusion game for purposes of Revere’s record for state tourney-qualifying purposes) and then will open their NEC schedule Monday when they entertain Peabody. They will play at Malden next Wednesday — all of which is subject of course, to the whims of Mother Nature.

 

RHS girls track team opens season with win

 

The Revere High girls outdoor track & field team won its opening meet of the 2017 season with an 80-56 triumph over Everett Monday afternoon at Harry Della Russo Stadium.

“It was a great way to start our season,” said RHS head coach Antonio LaBruna. “We relied heavily on our returning runners, particularly our captains, to score for us. There is definitely a lot to improve on across the board and we need to continue to develop depth in order to stay competitive within our division.”

The Lady Patriots took first place in nine individual events. The first-place finishers for Revere were:

Helen Perez (400M Hurdles) 74.7

Leila Cesic (2 Mile) 14:30.1

Rachel Shanbar (Shot-put) 30’-4”

Helen Perez (Long Jump) 13’-8”

Sam Myrtil (Javelin) 101’-11.5”

Majiadah Louis (100M) 14.5

Hannah Fitzpatrick (Mile) 6:23

Helen Perez (400M) 68.6

Hannah Fitzpatrick (800M) 2:45

Claritza Vasquez (200M) 29.2

Adding three points to the Revere side of the scoresheet with second-place finishes were:

Monica Posada (2 Mile) 14:30.1

Sam Myrtil (Shot-put) 29’-2.5”

Rachel Shanbar (Discus) 73’-11”

Claritza Vasquez (High Jump) 4’-4”

Claritza Vasquez (Long Jump) 13’4 1/2

Hannah Fitzpatrick (Triple Jump) 30’-11.5”

Pamela Gonzalez (800M) 2:49.6

Contributing single points for the Lady Patriots with third-place performances were:

Rania Bensadok (400M Hurdles) 91.5

Olivia Novoselsky (2 Mile) 16:25.9

Janine So (Discus) 63’-9.5”

Elizabeth Hurley (High Jump) 4’-2”

Pamela Gonzalez (Long Jump) 12’-11.5”

Arielys Garcia (Javelin) 74’-4.5”

Jamie Jones (100M) 15.2

Gabby O’Brien (Mile) 8:08.1

Marie Bernier (200M) 31.5

The strong Revere effort included a number of highlights. Sam Myrtil qualified for the D-1 State Meet with a javelin throw of 101’-11.5”. “Sam has a tremendous arm and is new to the event, so there is definitely a high ceiling for her to reach,” said LaBruna. “It’s going to be fun working with her this season.”

Helen Perez scored 15 points, winning all three of her events. “Helen is our most versatile runner,” noted LaBruna. “She excels in the mid-distance events, but can hurdle, run sprints, and even distance when needed. A stress fracture kept her out most of our indoor season, so I was thrilled to see her get off to a great start.”

LaBruna and his crew will be back in action next Wednesday when they will take on Marblehead.