Daily Archives: May 26, 2008

May 26, 2008 · 10:15 pm

Ipswich High School Senior Athletes Discuss Sports

(Ipswich High School senior athletes Tess Falabella and Jon Loeb)

“I just can’t imagine not doing sports,” explained recent IHS graduate Tess Falabella. “I just love being active.”

For classmate Jon Loeb the sentiments were similar, “I always found some sports activity to do even if it wasn’t an organized sport.”

Tess was involved with soccer, basketball, and outdoor track at IHS. Jon did indoor track and tennis for four years and soccer for three years and cross-country this year.

Tess played on boys’ teams during her elementary school days. “In some places coaches don’t allow girls to be on boy’s teams but that was not my experience in Ipswich.”

Both athletes were coached early on by their fathers. “My father was usually the coach for soccer,” explained Jon.

“My dad coached me in basketball when I was little,” recalled Tess. “I was the only girl on the team. I also played soccer with Jon’s dad as the coach and enjoyed it a lot.”

Both athletes were able to handle the combined demands of sports and academics. “There were plenty of late nights especially during basketball season,” said Tess. “Time management was huge. I loved sports enough so that I made it work.”

Besides sports, Jon took part in school productions, band, and worked on weekends. “You just work on schoolwork afterwards and get as much as you can done.”

Jon is going to go to Tulane and Tess to Clemson. They are both realistic enough to know that playing sports for either of those Division 1 schools is unlikely.

“I’ll stay active with the intramural club sports,” said Jon. “I’m hoping that I’ll have more time to focus on academics my freshman year. I’ll be preparing for the rest of my life.”

Tess is ready to try a new sport at Clemson as well as continue to be active in a familiar one. “I have been in contact with the rowing coach,” she said. “I may be able to row for a novice team my freshman year and maybe that will develop into something. I will definitely be trying out for club soccer.”

Playing soccer in Ipswich was special for Tess. “Ending was hard,” she explained. “There were eight seniors on the team and we had played together for 12 years. We were a close-knit group and had special t-shirts made.”

Jon made mention of his enjoyment in being on the tennis team. “The coach (Tony Moschetto) is a standup comedian in real life and practiced his material on us. We may not have been the best team around but we probably had more fun than any other team.”

“There was great community support for the athletic teams in Ipswich, maybe more so than in other towns,” said Tess. “A lot of people attended the games and followed how we were doing. At school, many teachers would ask how things were going and knew about the teams.”

(Written for The Town Common and likely to appear in that weekly paper in late June or early July)

Memorial Day in Newburyport

(Newburyport City Councilors march in the Memorial Day parade)

(Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins addresses Memorial Day gathering in front of Newburyport City Hall)

(Tony Dube of the Newburyport High School band prepares to play Taps at the Veteran’s Cemetery on Memorial Day)

Triton Girls Star at Cape Ann League Open

Another meet. Another victory. That’s the way it has gone for the Triton girls outdoor track team (pictured above). Undefeated during the regular season the girls added the Cape Ann League Open championship to a truly remarkable season at windy Hamilton-Wenham on May 24th.

“It’s a thrill,” said Triton coach Joe Colbert reflecting on the victory. “It is certainly one of the top moments of my coaching career. This is a special group of hard-working kids. We’ve waited for this for a long time.” Someone on hand suggested that the last time Triton took the CAL Open was in the late 1980s.

“We won because we’ve got some stars but we also have depth,” was how Coach Colbert explained the outcome. The stars were certainly out, even on a Saturday afternoon, as Deanna Latham, Nikki Wurdeman, and Rachel Bourque dominated multiple events and combined for 74 of Triton’s 115 points on their own. The magnitude of those numbers is better understood when you realize that together the three girls outscored the full-squad final totals of every other competing school except for second place North Reading.

When the CAL Open was over Deanna Latham (pictured here) took five trips to the front during the awards ceremony. The first four trips were for medals and the final one was for her selection as MVP of the event. The sophomore took first in the long jump, high hurdles, and triple jump as well as second in the 200 meters.

Several other girls from the area did quite well. Newburyport’s Meghann Ronan won the high jump while teammate Kaitlyn Wallace finished second in the shot put and third in the discuss.

The top performer for Amesbury was Dawn Storek with a third in the javelin. For Ipswich, it was Molly Miller with a third in the high hurdles.

The Hamilton-Wenham boy’s team, like the Triton girls, remained undefeated.

The Triton boys finished fourth. Pete Rock was the team’s top point scorer. He won the long jump and finished second in the 400 meters behind the winner, Newburyport’s Tom Svirsky (pictured here).

Richie Pace also did well for Newburyport getting a first in the shot put and a second in the discus.

Other area firsts were by Amesbury’s Ben Lord (pole vault) (shown here) and Triton’s Kyle Devenish (triple jump).

Triton’s Billy Tindle took second in the high hurdles and fellow Viking Andrew Goodwin placed third in the mile.

Amesbury’s John Lannan tied for third in the pole vault and teammate Kevin Johnston was third in the 100 meters.

Newburyport got a third place finish from Thayer Adsit in the 800 meters while the top pointer scorer for Ipswich was Neil Verzins ending up third in the shot put.