Smith carries on tradition
As a recent in-person ceremony suggests, the tradition of Shea High football players taking their talents to URI is in good hands with Jaylen Smith fulfilling the role that was previously held by Momodou Mbye
Shea standout is taking the torch from
previous star
• At a time when social distancing guidelines remain paramount, it’s nice to see some built-in flexibility that you might say was done in the name of a symbolic passing-of-the-torch.
On a recent weekday at Cranston Country Club, two of the better players to cut their teeth with the Shea High football program posed for a picture. Quick background information: One has exhausted his college football eligibility while the other must wait a little longer before taking to the gridiron in a collegiate setting.
Momodou Mbye and Jaylen Smith were on hand to pick up their respective awards courtesy of the Providence Gridiron Club. Mbye received the Hometown Hero Award while Smith took home the Francis “Monk” Maznicki Award that goes to the state’s top high school running back. Smith was also recognized as the Division I-A Back of the Year.
The sequence in Cranston incorporated the past, colliding head-on with the present, and left room for future possibilities … a Raider-to-Rhody tale to be more exact.
“It couldn’t have worked out any better,” said Shea High football coach Dino Campopiano, an individual who can provide evidence as to how Mbye and Smith proved to be a cut above the rest. “Two wonderful kids.”
Mbye starred at Shea before going on to earn high marks with the University of Rhode Island football team. He went from roster invitee, to starting safety, to full scholarship recipient, to team co-captain. In a career with the Rams that wrapped up last fall, Mbye totaled nine interceptions and 193 tackles.
“Obviously Momodou has been so successful which doesn’t surprise me. He’s just an unbelievable individual on and off the field,” stated Campopiano.
Now, it’s Smith’s turn to become the latest Shea import to join URI.
Smith earned an athletic scholarship on the strength of his ability to make defenders miss, thus his road to seeing his college football dream come
true proved to be much smoother than Mbye’s. Still, there’s no denying that when it comes to carving out a niche in a college setting, Mbye raised the bar to impressive heights for the next Shea Raider to emulate.
Not to worry, says Campopiano, who noted that Smith is cut from the same cloth as Mbye.
“Jaylen is a tremendous football player and always did well in school,” said the coach.
Mbye and Smith may not have suited up for the Raiders simultaneously, but Campopiano noted, “I do know that they talk and that they’re friendly.”
Now, the time has come for the next member of the Shea-to-URI pipeline to take the pigskin and run with it.
• A Cumberland native and 2016 graduate of Mount St. Charles, Kate Foley’s final season with the William Smith College women’s team saw her earn the Mary Hosking Tennis Award that’s handed out to the player deemed worthy enough by her teammates to be named Most Valuable Player. Foley departs the college ranks as a twotime team MVP honoree.
A double major in biology and environmental studies, Foley also made her presence known in the classroom. She was tabbed as a 2020 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete, the criteria including a GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale for the current academic year.
• Burrillville native Giana Savastano, a senior-to-be defenseman on the Providence College women’s hockey team, was announced recently by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) as an All-American Scholar at the NCAA Division I level.
The criteria was revamped due to COVID-19 with Savastano earning the academic recognition based on attaining at least a 3.75 GPA for the fall 2019 semester and participating in 40 percent of their school’s games. A sociology major, Savastano appeared in 28 games for the Friars last season.
• What I’m thinking in the event R.I. high school football gets pushed off to 2021: If it’s permissible under the coronavirus protocol, perhaps teams can huddle up for a 7-on-7 pass league that takes place sometime in the fall.
There would be no need to strap on the pads, plus it would allow coaches to implement basic principles of their offensive/ defensive schemes. Similar to Injury Fund football, teams can gather at one venue and space the games out in an effort to minimize the number of folks on-site at a given time.
Remember, this is just a thought.
• PawSox hitting coach Rich Gedman on Friday said that, “He’s not sure he would want to be Jeter Downs.” That’s baseball code for managing high expectations that come from with the person you’re traded for. In the case of Downs, the 22-year-old was the key prospect the Red Sox obtained in the Mookie Betts deal with the Dodgers.
“In terms of athletic ability and work ethic, he’s certainly on the right track,” said Gedman. “It was like he was trying to prove something back in spring training and showed signs of getting frustrated. Once he got [to McCoy Stadium last month], his approach has been rock solid. He understands that we are here to help get him to where he wants to go.”
Now and forever, Downs will be linked to Betts, a former MVP who recently signed one of the richest contracts in MLB history.
“Yes, it’s cool to be mentioned with him and be part of such a big trade. At the end of the day, I have to go out and do my job and so does he,” said Downs. “It’s still baseball. It doesn’t matter who you get traded for. Just go out and play the game and let everything else take care of itself.”
• Before the last person turns out the lights at McCoy Stadium, the PawSox should seriously look into enshrining the late Lou Schwechheimer into the club’s Hall of Fame.
Staging a formal ceremony at a ballpark where Schwechheimer worked for much of his adult life is probably out of the question. On the flip side, it would be incredibly awkward to honor Schwechheimer’s contributions to Pawtucket in an on-field celebration that’s held in Worcester.
If the honoring of Schwechheimer takes place privately with the team sending out a press release, that’s fine. The bottom line is that it would be appropriate for something to happen before the PawSox leave town.
• Speaking of the PawSox, full and partial season ticket holders were afforded the chance to swing by McCoy on Thursday and receive the bobbleheads and replica jerseys that would have been given away had there been a 2020 minor league season. Be on the lookout for information concerning future giveaway dates.
• If you have a better name than the “alternative training site” that’s being used by the Red Sox in reference to the players working out at McCoy, let me know. Every time I see the aforementioned reference, my immediate reaction is to look for prison bars and barbed wire.
•
Nothing
creates
a
pit-in-my-stomach feeling more than reading about sports media members losing their jobs, the latest brutal bloodletting taking place earlier this week when NBC Sports Boston let go of a number of writers and on-air talent. Every time the sports journalism world is rocked by disparaging news, it reminds me how fortunate I am to still have a forum to tell stories.
• Rest assured the R.I. Interscholastic League’s new power structure of Executive Director Mike Lunney and Assistant Executive Director Tom Marcello won’t forget their first week working together any time soon.
• This column would have been longer, but I think it’s best to end with what the Providence College men’s basketball Twitter account posted earlier this week: “Mask up now so we can suit up this winter.”