“Around the Oval’’
“Oval’’ Sidebar: Smithfield girls’ track, ‘72: the dawn of acceptance
By BOB LEDDY (TAFWA)
R.I. Track & Field Foundation
10 June – – For the Smithfield High girls’ outdoor track program, the afternoon of June 6, 2015 was loaded with significance. To begin with, the Sentinels topped an unusually strong statewide field – including powerhouses Classical, Hope and La Salle – to capture the state team championship. Adding weight to that accomplishment was the fact that the Smithfield girls hadn’t won a state title since 1972 – the inaugural year for girls’ outdoor track in Rhode Island. Smithfield’s victory also marked the first time in 24 years that a Class C track program claimed a state crown.
Head coach John Marchand was breathless – and nearly speechless – as his team mobbed him at the conclusion of the 2015 State Outdoor championship at Brown Stadium.
“I can honestly say that June 6 was the greatest day of my life because it was so special,’’ Marchand said in a recent interview. “The positive energy around this team was incredible.’’
Of course, none of Marchand’s team competing at this year’s State Meet were alive when – on the afternoon of June 3, 1972 – the first all-girls RIIL track championship was staged at the Smithfield High School track. (The boys’ meet was held that day at the Brown Stadium.) Cindy Neal, who also served as the Sentinel girls’ basketball coach, piloted the track squad. The meet included a softball throw (Sentinel Sue Raposa threw 177-6 for fourth place), and Smithfield tallied 40.5 points over (now-closed) Warren Town High School, which finished with 32. (See sidebar article).
Forty-three years passed before the Sentinels again mounted the winner’s podium, and no one was more aware of the moment than Coach Marchand. “I have never been involved with a greater collective effort, and probably never will again,’’ he said. “I was blessed to be part of a fantastic team of wonderfully gifted athletes, dedicated hard-working coached; more importantly, quality people.’’
Smithfield entered the ’15 States with talent across the board, particularly in the field events. The Sentinels received gold-medal performances from junior Meagan Malloy in the hammer, junior Alyssa Colbert in the javelin and senior Stephanie Mattson in the long jump. (Colbert placed third in the shot, fourth in the discus). Other key Sentinel contributors included: Mattson in the 400 meters; Morgan Mc Donald (high jump); Mattson and Chloe Holowachuk (triple jump); Olivia Holowachuk and Analise England (javelin); Lauren Hindley (discus).
Over the past three decades, John Marchand has become a coaching institution at Smithfield. A Cumberland High graduate (Class of ’87), he competed for head coach Tom Kenwood on the track team, and continued his competitive career while at Springfield College. He has coached the Sentinel outdoor girls’ program for 23 years, and piloted indoor track since 1993, in program started by coach John Sliney. Marchand has been coaching Sentinel girls’ cross country for the past 19 years. (He began as an assistant to Bruce Ewart, and took over the program nine years ago.)
“After winning the Class B [cross country title] last year, we were moved back down to Class C, where we will compete against several talented, well-coached teams including East Greenwich,’’ Marchand said of his prospects this fall. “Although we lost several top senior runners to graduation, we also have a strong returning group, led by junior Sydney Bagus and sophomore Una Treanor.’’
“Around the Oval’’ Sidebar
SENTINELS’ THEN-COACH NEAL AT FRONTIER OF GIRLS’ SPORTS
Cindy Neal, one of the pioneers in helping to incept girls’ prep athletics into the R.I. Interscholastic League (RIIL), coached the Smithfield girls’ track team in the early ‘70s, as well as the school’s similarly nascent girls’ basketball program. She retired this spring as longtime athletic director at Bay View Academy. Neal’s recollections of that time:
“Back in 1970, I was a new teacher at Smithfield High. At the time we only had the following sports for girls: cross country, field hockey, basketball and softball. Girls’ sports were not accepted into the RIIL until 1972. Until that time, girls’ high school champions were organized and run by the Rhode Island Association for Girls’ and Women in Sport (RIAGWS). Smithfield won the RIAGWS outdoor track title in 1971.
“In 1970 a group of female athletes at Smithfield approached me about starting a girls’ track team for the spring. There were at least 25 of 30 girls who wanted something athletic to do in the spring competitively, and softball was not of interest to them. The school agreed to allow this to take place, as long as it would not cost a lot of money to do so. I agreed to coach the team.
“The first two [or] three years, their gym suits were their uniforms; most wore sneakers, since track shoes in girls’ sizes were not readily available. I knew something about training and conditioning, but very little about the individual events, so I bought books and badgered the boys’ track coach for information. It turns out we had some excellent athletes. We had sprinters, middle distance runners. Throwing the softball was an event because [as was widely believed at the time] ‘throwing the javelin would be too dangerous.’
“In the 1970-71 school year we won the first-ever state title won by any girls’ or boys’ team, in any sport, at Smithfield High. Of course, it was not highly recognized because it was not a RIIL-sponsored championship, but a RIAGWS-sponsored event. [Girls on the track team] were elated when they received a nylon windbreaker around the 15th of June recognizing their accomplishment. Even though it was 90 degrees out, they wore it in school for an entire week.
“In 1972 the RIIL began sponsoring girls’ sports. It just so happened that the largely the same group of girls who won the 1971 Outdoor Girls’ Track Championship also won the first league girls’ basketball championship, and repeated [that spring] as girls’ track champions. Our strong performers included Margaret “Bootie’’ Conaty in the middle distance events. Heidi Allen and Cyndi Johnson in sprints, June Bissell high and long jump.’’ (For her part, Raposa later traded the softball for a javelin).
Oval Notes: At that ’72 State Meet, Allen placed third in the 50-year and 100-yard dashes, and fourth in the long jump; Johnson fifth in the 220-yard dash; Conaty second in the 880-yard run . . . Smithfield’s main rivals back then were Warren, North Kingstown and Barrington High Schoo