St. Mary's teams going for glory this weekend

By Steve Krause / The Daily Item

LYNN - St. Mary's High School has been on the brink - for several years - of something truly special in local sports.

The Spartans have won multiple championships in girls hockey and softball, and have been close - sometimes painfully so - to the top in football, boys hockey, boys soccer and girls basketball.

But this winter, the school has hit the mother lode. Saturday, three of the Spartans' winter teams will play for MIAA North Sectional championships. The fourth - three-time defending Division 1 state champs girls hockey team - won't be playing after Thursday night's 3-2 overtime loss to Hingham in Stoneham.

But the Lynn-Winthrop-Saugus combination girls hockey squad, the Lady Bulldogs, will be carrying the city's banner against that very same Hingham squad in the Division 1 state semifinal in Stoneham on Sunday at 3 p.m.

"It's obviously great for the school to see so many programs thriving," says boys hockey coach Mark Lee, one of three coaches who also attended St. Mary's. "It's a credit to what we're doing here. And it's amazing to see so many kids pulling for one another."

The festivities get off the ground at 2 p.m. Saturday when the girls basketball team meets Stoneham in the Division 3 North final at Lowell's Tsongas Arena. It continues at 3:45 with the boys Division 4 North final against Winthrop (Vikings coach Dave Brown is also a St. Mary's graduate).

And it concludes at 7:40 Saturday night when the boys hockey team vies for the Division 1 North title against Wakefield at the Chelmsford Forum.

If any of the aforementioned teams have flown under the radar all winter, it's been boys basketball, which ended the regular season in a three-way tie for the Catholic Central League/Large title.

"We had expectations to go far, at the beginning of the season," said senior Nick Gagliolo, who is the team's leading scorer. "But the biggest thing for us was to win our first tournament game. We'd never won one as long as I've been here."

A decade ago, the boys and girls teams won twin Division 4 state titles under coaches Artie Gribbons (girls) and Mike O'Brien (boys, who went back-to-back in 2001 and 2002). Kevin Moran, who took the program over when O'Brien stepped down, has slowly built it back, with players such as Gagliolo, Rosanto Campbell and Matt Manning.

"I'm happy to be at the only school in the state that has all four winter sports teams competing for championships," said Campbell. "I had high expectations that we'd make it this far."

So did Manning.

"We definitely wanted to be in a league title and then the Christmas tournament," he said (English won the Boverini, however). "At times, it's been a struggle, especially at the end of the season, but we had almost a week off before our first tournament game and we regrouped."

St. Mary's girls coach Jeff Newhall says both basketball teams have been relative surprises.

"Both our hockey teams have traditions of going deep in tournaments," Newhall said. "Not so much our basketball teams."

After exiting the Division 3 tournament in the sectional semifinal both in 2009 and last year (losing to Pentucket both times), the Spartans finally broke the barrier Wednesday night. Making it even better, they beat Pentucket, 62-60.

"I can't even tell you how that feels," said Cassi Amenta, one of four seniors whose leadership has been invaluable to Newhall. "You couldn't even put it into words."

That wasn't the only hurdle the Lady Spartans had to climb. They hadn't won a league title in girls basketball of any kind since 1987 until they won the CCL/Large, uncontested, this year.

"That's all I saw, all year, was that banner on the wall that said '1987, league champions,'" said guard Kirsten Ferrari, whose shooting has helped propel the Spartans to Saturday's final. "Now, next year, it'll say 2011."

"It makes us feel as if we've done something positive for the school," says Molly Carey, who made it back from the ACL tear she suffered in lacrosse last spring to play in the last five regular-season games.

Without Carey, and graduated senior Bria Tiro, the Spartans - even with their nucleus - had to hunt around for two players to fill the void. They found one in freshman Brianna Rudolph, a guard who moved in from Medford, and the other in Jennie Mucciarone.

"They both fit in right away," said center Tori Faieta, the all-time scoring leader in St. Mary's girls hoop history.

The boys hockey team, like the girls basketball squad, won its league for the first time ever. It also made the Super 8 play-in game, losing to Central Catholic, 3-1.

"We're proud of that," said Lee "It didn't work out, so we're moving on. We're also proud to be in the Division 1 North final for the second straight year."

The Spartans want to do more than just be there this time.

"We've improved every year from the year before," said player Cam Kennedy of Lynn. "The next step is to go all the way.

"We were close last year (losing in the sectional final to Arlington Catholic), but we're all a year older. We didn't lose a lot from last year's team."

Kennedy definitely absorbs how special this all is.

"It's pretty cool," he said. "I've gone to the school three years, and for everyone to be this involved and wishing everyone well ... it's cool."