May 21, 2024- Story by Ava DiCecca, photos by Joshua Ross
Despite this season continuing the string of building years and young rosters for both the boys and girls track teams, they have been extremely successful and have found ways to seamlessly fill in the gaps left by graduated upperclassmen. This flexibility and versatility in both teams has allowed them to overcome many obstacles this season and even top some very strong teams while being relatively small in numbers. This year, the boys won the Patriot League meet topping Marshfield and getting redemption for a close loss earlier in the season. In the same meet, the girls placed second with a strong performance coming off of an undefeated season. This season has been filled with many great accomplishments and as they still have the Divisional meet coming up, there are even more chances for further success in the postseason.
As always, both programs were led by a strong coaching staff, head coach Fred Jewett leading the charge on the boys side and head coach Bob Ritz on the girls, who helped them to grow and meet goals all season. On both sides as well, the addition of some assistant coaches has boosted effectiveness and allowed for even more instructional areas to be covered on a more individual level. Both coaches mentioned how crucial these additions have been and how their athletes have stepped up to the expectations set by all coaches. Captains on both sides have been keys to success as well, leading by example and providing encouragement for their teammates to meet these goals and expectations.
Coach Ritz spoke to what the keys to his teams success this season have been as well as what their focus will be going into the rest of the postseason. Ritz complimented some of his top returners this season including Meghan Koenen, Catherine Salem, senior Nina Crean and junior Clare Lowther who he stated has been extremely versatile this season, filling whatever gaps the team needed and scoring big points in many different events. While he praised many of his veterans, he also complemented the new team members who have had a big impact this season, “We’ve had a big push of freshmen this year in the sprinting and jumping events in particular that have not only stepped up and scored varsity points but have scored in the Patriot League meet as well.” Ritz also began looking ahead into the postseason meets in the near future stating that their “mindset is trying to continue to build on what we have built through this season so hopefully getting a bunch of personal bests and continuing to get more and more people to qualify not only for the division 2 meet but for the Meet of Champions… so just trying to prolong the postseason as much as we can.”
On the boys side, Coach Jewett had a similar outlook both reflecting on the season so far and looking toward further success in their upcoming meet. Jewett stated, “all in all we are really pleased with how the season has gone” and he was excited about the success they found this year. He complimented his captains Matt Kelly and AJ Barret who he believes have “done a great job of leading the kids.” When asked what the keys to their success this season have been he commented, “It’s a combination of a couple of things. First of all they work very hard in practice, they are very focused on what they have to do in order to get better, and they don’t just come to practice and go home without really thinking about it. Number two is we’ve really got a team that’s learned since they were younger how to compete. One of those things in the last couple years that we are really happy about is that our teams never have a really bad day. They come into each meet wanting to do better, wanting to get personal bests, and they work really hard to do that. Three they support one another. We have a philosophy of mutual respect and positive coaching here at Hingham that we have had for over 20 years and the kids know that we are here to help them and that they are here to help themselves and each other.” He believes that positive reinforcement will be crucial in continuing their success in the postseason and through these three main components, the program will continue to be successful and well adapted to any change in make-up.
On both teams, the willingness to step into new roles for the good of the team will be instrumental to their success in the postseason and in seasons to come. As both programs look to work their way out of rebuilding years and have a couple more veterans on their roster, they will lean on their dedicated and hard working teams who have made what could have been difficult seasons incredibly successful. They will continue to foster these traits in their athletes in order to continue a strong and resilient program that will be successful for years to come.