Corry savors Tolman’s 1977 state title victory
Tigers won lone state title with five-point victory
SEEKONK — Kate Corry admits being on vacation in New Hampshire when she first heard the unusual, unexpected message/request on her cellphone.
“Hi, Kate. Hope all is well. Just wondering if you’d like to take part in a feature series we’re writing on former local student-athletes and/or coaches. We’re asking them to reveal their most memorable or exciting game, match or meet of their career. You up for it?”
The current Shea athletic director never returned the call, yet when contacted again, she laughed, then explained she didn’t because she was so conflicted – and for good reason. She didn’t know whether to select a special moment 43 years ago, when she was a Tolman basketball team co-captain with All-State honoree Christine Poulin Carney, or one in which she coached a squad to an incredible effort in a playoff match.
She reasoned she had spent so much more time over the years mentoring children (including her own) and teens, that should be the road she should follow.
“We certainly were nervous going into it; we knew St. Xavier was very good, and I believe it had won the state championship the year before.”
— Kate Corry
Her husband, Brian, however, teased her, saying “Kate, you never talk about your own glory. Let your kids know about it!”
In the end, she split the difference, selecting her own personal dreamcome-true and one in which her Raiders boys volleyball team nearly achieved the same.
Her first most memorable contest begins and ends on March 16, 1977, when Corry (then Kate Johnson) was a Tolman senior guard. That season, the Tigers cruised to a 14-0 mark before rolling into the state championship game against perennial power St. Xavier’s of Providence.
That was held at Providence College’s Alumni Hall.
“We certainly were nervous going into it; we knew St. Xavier was very good, and I believe it had won the state championship the year before,” Corry recalled. “We knew they had good shooters, though I think we had the height advantage. I was a guard, and the point was Darlene Folan, a junior that year. Christine Poulin played forward with another senior, Josette Fecteau, and our center was a junior, Betty Brochu.
“We knew St. Xavier loved to run, so our head coach, Janet Jarbeau, told us our game plan was to slow them down, make them work the ball up the floor and not allow them any easy buckets. Darlene and I had the job of harassing their guards, not allow them free reign to run and pass.
“I guess you could say we were the favorites going in because we hadn’t lost all year, and our closest game that season was against Classical; we won that, 58-35. That was before we had any divisions in the state; we used to play our games against other schools based on geography, so we knew nothing about the teams in southern Rhode Island.
“I remember we were a little family with St. Xavier’s because our coach, Miss Jarbeau, played there, and Fran Duffy, who was from Pawtucket, she was on that team. I also knew their coach, Joe Conley, because I had him in school when I was at St. Leo’s in eighth grade. Looking back, all the ties to Pawtucket were amazing.”
Corry remembers Tolman had jumped out to a 29-23 halftime cushion, and that a key statistic came from the free-throw line, where the Tigers had sunk 13 of 16.
“According to an article I read, St. Xavier took its only lead at 17-16, but shortly thereafter, Chris (Poulin) went down; she had rolled her ankle early in the second quarter,” she noted. “We were all holding our breath because Chris was our leading scorer.
“She ended up limping off the court, so Kathy Kando came in for her; Miss Jarbeau looked at her ankle, told her she rolled it, so Chris iced it and Coach wrapped it up. The good news was we didn’t miss a beat. Chris was out three or four minutes, but then she came back in and hit a shot, and that put us up, 25-17.
“I know we went up, 46-37, halfway through the fourth quarter, and we were just trying to hang on, continue to play tough defense and harass them, and we ended up winning, 52-47,” she continued. “When the final buzzer sounded, it was just sheer exuberance. All the girls were jumping around. Back then, we didn’t have JV teams, most schools didn’t, so we had 15-16 girls on our varsity team. But even the girls who didn’t play much, all the subs, they
“I had experienced that joy and camaraderie, the things that go with a state championship. Those kids didn’t quite get there, but they were a tight group. They got along so well and worked really hard. They were all so dedicated.”
were as excited as all of us. Everyone who had put the time in practice after practice, they celebrated. It was a real thrill.
“It was so satisfying because of all the things we went through as a team. It was a very proud moment for all of us. It meant the culmination of a lot of hard work, but the most important thing was accomplishing something so big with your teammates.
“We were always together,” she added. “We’d meet at the John Street courts in the summer for pick-up games. We spent time together at school and after school and on the weekends; we were all friends. And Miss Jarbeau, she was a fantastic lady and a great coach.
“When we went into that season, I don’t think we were dreaming that big – winning the state title; we were just a bunch of girls from Pawtucket. We knew we were good, but we also knew we hadn’t really been tested before the St. Xavier game.
“Winning it all was something very special; I don’t like to talk about it that much, but it’s always there. It never goes away. I will say if I see an old teammate, we’ll just kind of look at each other, and you know what the other one is thinking, so we smile at each other. You know we remember.”
So does former teammate and friend Poulin, who later married former Cumberland High hoop star Jim Carney (both she and Corry now reside in Seekonk): “When I think of that day, I just think about our team and us being so connected. We all knew from the beginning we wanted to make the state playoffs and win the state championship.
“We also always wanted it to be against St. Xavier’s because they had an outstanding team; we knew Frances Duffy was a heckuva player, but we had a lot of good players, too. Darlene was a phenomenal point guard, and she made everyone on our team better with her ball-handling. She was so sharp, had so many assists.
“And Kate, she was super smart on the court, our team leader,” Poulin continued. “She ran the floor with a lot of discipline; she knew what we were going to run at all times, got us to be on the same page. She definitely was our team leader. She wasn’t really emotional, always in the moment, but she was a key cog in our run.”
She also noted Fecteau “gave 150 percent every time she played” and that Brochu “had a lot of good inside moves and did a great job of rebounding.”
Other integral players were senior subs Mary Coderre and Ann Fitzpatrick, not to mention junior Karen Dzialo.
“I’ll never forget that day,” Poulin (Carney) said. “(Former PC star Joe Hassett was sitting in the front row, and some of the other Friars were there, too. There I was, a 17-year-old kid, playing at Alumni Hall in front of a packed house with the chance of a lifetime with girls who were family, and it was just unbelievable.
“It all was so surreal, and we as a team, we loved each other like sisters. I know why Kate chose that game; I would’ve, too.”
When asked if she still thinks about that game, that season, often, Corry immediately answered positively.
“I do, and I think it’s because the position I hold now as an AD and (sometimes a) coach,” she said. “I mean, my kids played sports, so I’ve coached them, and I’ve coached at both Tolman and Shea for years.
“I don’t use that experience per se to teach the kids; I don’t tell them about us winning the state championship, but some of the things our coaches taught us? Sure, I’ll use them. Things like making a true commitment to the program, working hard, sportsmanship, having grace when you lose, all of those things are so important.”
As for her most memorable contest during her lengthy coaching career, Corry claimed the selection was simple – the Raiders’ boys’ volleyball team qualifying for a 1999 Division II semifinal match opposite La Salle at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Vin Cullen Field House in Warwick.
“It was only the third year for the program, but we had qualified for the playoffs, and we were playing La Salle, a team that had been around for a while and had a tradition of being a very solid team,” Corry said. “We ended up losing that match, but the whole point was we were still brand new and had got to that point so fast. That validated Shea as a good program, and that was important.”
Before the campaign started, Corry, as head coach, had enlisted Christina Daily as her valued assistant, and both knew they had some talent returning in senior captain Jason Pereira, fellow classmates Edwin Arroyave and Ivair Chantre and juniors Angel Troncoso and Leandro Rodriques.
“We started slowly that season, but started improving and came on strong,” she remembered. “We had gone down to Westerly for a regular-season match, and they were a powerhouse, but we took them to five games. We were a pesky group, one that wouldn’t give up without a fight. Those kids were grinders.
“I remember before the match against La Salle, the kids were very nervous, but Chris and I calmed them down; I remember telling them that, ‘Hey, we belong here based on record, and the way we’ve played this year,” she continued. “I also reminded them we were playing our best volleyball of the year.
“We may have lost, but we also proved to everybody we did belong there, and it’s because of all the work the kids put in. You know, I was talking to Chris (last Tuesday) and told her, ‘I don’t think I remember all the details of that match as well as I should, but that’s because I think I was wound so tight as a coach.’”
That’s because that season, her own memories of the Tolman state championship season had come flooding back.
“I just wanted it so badly for them; I knew what it meant because I had been there. I had experienced that joy and camaraderie, the things that go with a state championship. Those kids didn’t quite get there, but they were a tight group. They got along so well and worked really hard. They were all so dedicated.”
— Kate Corry