Not all sports highlights show up in box scores
There are plenty of moments throughout a season that we report on and write about that end up online or in the pages of The Providence Journal. As much as we’d like to, we don’t get them all.
Sometimes stories get lost in the shuffle of the season. There can be timing issues. Sometimes stories are better in the moment than they are days later. Sometimes they are moments that seem significant until something bigger happens along the way.
These are five such moments/stories, among the many, from the fall that, even among all the great things I saw, will stick with me for a while.
A real lesson learned
What is a championship worth?
For the Chariho girls volleyball team and the Scituate boys soccer team, it wasn’t worth their integrity.
After winning titles last fall, both programs elected to move up a division. The Chargers went undefeated in their Division II title run in 2022, felt they had nothing left to prove, moved up and ended up getting to the semifinals of the State Championship tournament, where they lost to eventual champion North Kingstown.
The Spartans followed their D-IV title by moving up to D-III and going 140-2 before falling in an upset to Ponaganset in the semifinals.
Whenever realignment happens or teams get moved around, there are plenty who fight to stay in lower divisions, complaining about not being able to compete if they moved up, only to go undefeated or dominate on their way to a championship.
The Rhode Island Interscholastic League reminds all about its “educational-based athletics,” but it’s hard to take that seriously when you see teams going for their second straight Division II or III title.
In nearly every case, those are empty championships won because administrators or coaches wanted glory over teaching the kids an important lesson.
Chariho girls volleyball and Scituate boys soccer didn’t win championships this fall, but they got something better. They challenged themselves and don’t have to think about what could have been. And, hopefully, gave everyone an education about what high school athletics should be about.
‘Teo Time
The best play that happened in high school football this season didn’t show up in a box score.
Mateo Oliver, a special-needs student at Mount Pleasant, had the chance to get on the field in an October game against East Greenwich and carried the ball into the end zone on a conversion play before celebrating with teammates as he ran off the field.
With the Kilties’ victory well in hand following a Benji Soe 73-yard, fourthquarter touchdown run, Mount Pleasant athletic director Paul Rao put the plan in action. He took a pair of shoulder pads from a player who had been injured earlier in the game and helped Oliver strap on his helmet.
Rao told head coach Jay Addison that Oliver was suited up to go in but both agreed the situation had to be right.
After Mount Pleasant came up with a stop, Soe created the perfect opportunity after he ripped off another 73-yard touchdown run.
Addison called for a timeout and Rao motioned for East Greenwich head coach John George to meet him at midfield. Rao explained the situation and George nodded approvingly before walking back to the sideline to inform his team of the plan.
Oliver went out and lined up in the backfield, took a handoff from teammate Adonai Lopez and carried the ball into the end zone. His teammates hurried to join him in celebration and huddle around screaming “’Teo.”
Running off the field, Oliver’s face beamed. He pointed toward a Providence Journal photographer as he ran toward the sideline before doing Cam Newton’s “Superman” celebration with his teammates.
Mount Pleasant won the game over East Greenwich, but on this night, everybody won.
A Grace-ful finish
My favorite interview of the season was with Grace Iannuzzi, a senior on the Cumberland girls volleyball team, during the moments after the Clippers’ lost to East Providence in the Division II final.
It was a rough match for Cumberland and Iannuzzi knew it. The Clippers didn’t have their “A game” and that’s the part that stung the most.
“No team can outwork us,” Iannuzzi said, “so to see somebody else win a championships when we were just having an off day is what hurts the most.”
For two minutes, Iannuzzi offered deep, well-thought-out answers as she fought off both tears and laughter. I’m always impressed when kids are willing to talk in their worst moments, but I was there for Iannuzzi’s most painful moment earlier in the season.
In the third set in an October match against EP, Iannuzzi’s foot and angle did something that caused a tremendous amount of pain. It was easy to excuse the words coming out of her mouth because it did not look good. There’s nothing worse than seeing a young athlete suffer an injury during play, more so when it’s a senior and you’re pretty sure it might end the season.
The slightest movement caused Iannuzzi tremendous pain. I thought her season was over.
Luckily for Iannuzzi, it wasn’t. She got healthy, got back on the court and help Cumberland reach its first title match since 2011. There wasn’t a storybook ending but the journey was a tale unto itself.
And her interview was one I’ll certainly never forget.
Putting the saint in St. Raphael
Khamari Brown is a beast on the field. He’s been one of the state’s best linemen since his sophomore year and, when it comes to making the most of your talent, Brown has done just that.
But that’s not what makes him special.
During St. Raphael’s Thanksgiving Eve game against Moses Brown, Brown’s leadership on the sideline was apparent. The Saints were young, but Brown was there offering help in the way seniors are supposed to — looking his teammates in the eye, calmly explaining what he saw and offering a way to fix it for the next time. He never placed the blame on teammates. He used the word “we” a lot.
After the loss to the Quakers, Brown was there for all of his teammates who needed to be consoled. After he was done with his group, he walked over and congratulated several Moses Brown players.
He wasn’t putting on a show or doing it in hopes someone noticed. Brown did this because he’s a genuinely good human being.
Last year, after St. Raphael defeated Westerly in the semifinals, Bulldog running back Zack Tuck was injured, as much emotionally as physically, on the game’s final play. As coaches checked on him, the teams did their postgame handshake, and when those were over, the Saints ran to their sideline to celebrate their Super Bowl berth.
Brown didn’t join them. Instead, he walked over to Tuck, knelt down next to him and put a hand on his chest to check on his health and offer what looked like words of heartfelt consolation.
It’s been a delight watching Brown play over the years and develop into an All-State player, but I’m excited for what’s next in this young man’s life. Whatever he does, he’s going to be a success. Whatever he does, he’s going to change lives for others in a positive manner.
And when that happens, it’ll be easy to look back to his days on the football field and say that we saw it coming maybe before he did.
A game-changer
The postgame championship awards ceremony can be tough for losing teams. You’re minutes away from the toughest loss of your life and then you have to try to muster a smile for cameras as your presented a plaque you would rather not have.
After the Chariho field hockey team lost to Lincoln in the Division II title game, Chargers’ captain Chaia Elwell, the lone senior captain, was losing a battle against her emotions as she was presented the plaque. A coach tried to console her, to no avail.
That’s when RIIL assistant executive director Tom Marcello helped turn her frown upside down.
He stepped in, motioned toward her team and shouted — in a tone that all parents have in their arsenal during potentially awkward moments — something along the lines of: “Come on, guys; don’t leave her up there by herself.”
Chariho’s entire roster sprinted over to join Elwell. The senior laughed and cracked a smile as the team took a picture together and turned what was a one-person commiseration into a celebration for a team that was playing in a game that wasn’t on its radar at the start of the season.
Marcello has kids of his own and, prior to working for the RIIL, was an administrator and coach at Ponaganset High School. Over his career, he undoubtedly has dealt with student-athletes in distress and understands when a kid needs a lifeline. He threw one to Elwell when she needed it most and turned a potentially tough moment into one of the sweetest of the season.