April 10, 2023 – Story and photos by Ava DiCecca
Hingham’s girls’ team secured the win over Marshfield in their meet this past Thursday 87-49, while the boys’ team fell short 73-63. They both showed great promise for the rest of the season. Despite being a very young team that has had some unfortunate injuries, their long hours of practice clearly paid off as some new members, as well as some seasoned veterans, won their events and competed at a very high level.
Both the girls’ coach Bob Ritz and boys’ coach Fred Jewett have an optimistic view of their season going forward and were proud of the way their athletes fought.
“I’m super super excited about moving forward,” said Ritz following the meet. “There’s a lot of excitement and a lot of girls realizing ‘hey wow I can do this.’ It’s just this huge huge confidence boost for everyone so it is absolutely awesome to see.”
He commented that there are many girls trying new events and taking risks and for many, it paid off. He gave a shout-out to some of the top performers on the girls’ side, including junior Nina Crean who high jumped 5 feet; senior captain Emma Mills in the hurdles with a time of 14.58; and senior Elyse Jones with 4-07.00 in high jump and 13-10 in the long jump with minimal rest time. These girls competed incredibly as individuals but Coach Ritz never failed to mention that overall “it was a team effort.”
Equally as hopeful and enthusiastic for the season to come was Coach Jewett, who said he continues to be impressed by some of the upperclassmen and was very proud of his new athletes who put in the work to get themselves to the level of some of the older competitors. This shed a very positive light on the season going forward: “It’s been a real good learning experience…we did really well on learning and improving in many many areas and this is a good start for us. I see us being a really balanced and much stronger team in a few weeks.”
He also gave a shout-out to some of his top performers, like junior Brendan Burm who got a PR in the mile with an impressive time of 4:46.43; senior captain Griffin Coppola who won the 400; sophomore Colin McNamara who placed second in the 100; and a “true sprinter” sophomore Sam Reffue who won both the 100 and 200.
Coach Jewett put a large emphasis on mindset but also spoke to the hard work and character of both the staff and the athletes: “We have an excellent staff of assistant coaches and we’ve been at it for a long time together and they are very good teachers and coaches and the kids are very much invested. It’s a matter of just continuing the hard work and continuing the focus of becoming more competitive.”
Overall, it is clear that spirits and hopes are high coming off of their season opener full of strong individual performances and a great team effort. A mix of a few skilled veterans, many promising new faces, and dedicated coaches should make the Harbormen a force to be reckoned with this season.
