Ross stands out
Ex-Clipper earned all-CAA honors at Northeastern
Cumberland soccer star wins college honor
A little of this, a little of that …
• Cumberland native Julianne Ross neatly summed up her freshman soccer season at Northeastern University with words befitting a bright red bow.
“Fun, hard work, and competitive,” she said while attending a recent Cumberland High girls basketball game at the Wellness Center. “You come in and you’re young and looking to prove something all the time, but you also know your teammates will push you through anything. That made it so much easier.
“You instantly have friends,” Ross added. “It’s like you have your own little sorority.”
Thanks to that groundswell of support, Ross emerged as a staple on the backline for Northeastern in her rookie season. She was the only freshman on the All-Colonial Athletic Association First Team as she locked down the defensive half and added two goals of her own in 22 games (21 starts). Ross also earned a spot on the AllCAA Rookie Team.
Talk about fitting in and doing so in relative short order.
“You go from playing on your high school and club teams to college and it’s definitely a lot more fast-paced. All the girls are bigger, faster, and stronger because they’re working out more than you did in high school,” said Ross. “Playing in the CAA, the challenge was there every game to try and stop the best forwards. Knowing that I was a freshman, teams probably wanted to attack me because I was new.”
Besides her teammates welcoming her with open arms, Ross credits the month-long preseason in the summer heading into Northeastern’s first game. The time allowed her to get comfortable with the position that best matched up with the Huskies’ coaching philosophy. Ross lined up at center fullback, a far cry from the forward spot that enabled her to become one of the state’s top goal scorers during her high school career.
“You’re the last resort and making sure that nothing comes in,” said Ross about the mantra she carried to the field for each game this past fall with the Huskies.
Ross did score in her second college game off a corner kick that she headed in. “All my practice on corners during high school paid off there,” she said with a laugh.
Getting on a plane to travel for soccer games represented new territory for the 5-5 Ross. Northeastern made a two-game swing through Texas in early September in addition to visiting CAA rivals Elon and James Madison. As one of the newcomers, Ross had to lug the equipment bags through the airport. Not surprisingly, she’s looking forward to handing off that task to next year’s freshman group.
“It’s more like you’re traveling with a bunch of your friends,” said Ross.
Finding time to study on the road was paramount and at times a challenge, Ross admitted. There were many plane rides where the books would be open.
“The thing that made it easier was having my teammates study around me. That gave me motivation,” said Ross, who shared the same exact class schedule as one of her fellow Northeastern freshmen. “I would rely on her and ask, ‘Do we have something due the next day?’ I wasn’t nervous about my classes because I always had someone to talk to and study with.”
Ross hasn’t declared a major yet, though she is interested in biomedical engineering. She will return to school on Jan. 7 and began training with an eye towards the 2018 college soccer season and what’s on the docket during spring break. From March 2-10, the Huskies will travel to Barcelona, Spain and Montpellier, France. The trip will consist of two friendly matches, one in each city, as well as cultural excursions, city tours and recreational team bonding.
“We’re losing five seniors, but we have an eight-player class coming in,” Ross said. “It’s a good break to come home after finals and regroup before getting back into soccer and school.”
• Summer may seem like an eternity away, yet Dante Baldelli is already set as far as his baseball plans. The Cumberland native and Boston College sophomore will be playing for the Wareham Gatemen of the prestigious Cape Cod League.
• Congratulations to North Smithfield boys volleyball head coach Jeff Crins for being named HockomockSports.com Volleyball Coach of the Year this past fall. Crins led North Attleboro to a 15-1 league record and 18-3 record overall. His team made it to the sectional semifinals, where they lost to Barnstable.
• Former St. Raphael football standout Stanley Dunbar has added another coaching stop. He is joining the Rhode Island 7-on-7 Legacy, a three-month off-season developmental football program that includes a 15-game schedule. Dunbar will work with the defense and run the speed and agility program.
Dunbar spent this past season as an assistant coach at Dean College after spending the 2016 campaign as a graduate assistant at American International.
• Minor League Baseball President Pat O’Conner didn’t come off in the best light last week in an interview conducted with Baseball America. To summarize, O’Conner came across as someone who cares very little about the players who are trying to realize their dream of reaching the majors.
The long days that minor-league players must often contend with were trivialized by O’Connor when he mentioned what a player’s day consists of upon arriving at the ballpark at 2 p.m. for a 7 o’clock game. They spend from 2-3 p.m. playing cards and have even more downtime while the other team is taking on-field batting practice.
The pregame food spread that appear in clubhouses are symbols of generosity, says O’Connor. What he forgets is that his players pay clubhouse dues, some of which no doubt goes toward the financing of the food.
At a time when minor-league players, particularly at the lower levels, are trying to earn a wage that doesn’t boil down to less than minimum wage, it must be extremely frustrating to read comments and remarks from the president who clearly isn’t on their side.
• Programming note: my own personal lookback to 2017 will run in the Tuesday, Jan. 2 edition. We’ll revisit the people and moments that made the past 12 months a jam-packed experience and promise to produce a final-cut product that’s befitting of all the stories we’ve had the privilege of chronicling.
• We keep hearing that Kevin Walker is the favorite to replace Bob Kipper as the next PawSox pitching coach. Walker has been in the Red Sox organization since 2009 and has served as Double-A Portland’s pitching coach over the past three seasons.