Brendan Kent reflects on fall season

Published in the November 16, 2020 edition.

By DAN PAWLOWSKI

WAKEFIELD — The remainder of the Wakefield Memorial High School fall sports season has been cancelled. 

With the decision to move WMHS to a full remote schedule for the next two weeks, all in-person extracurricular activities, including athletics, were suspended. 

Wakefield was scheduled to play one more game against Burlington in boys’ and girls’ soccer and field hockey. Those games, scheduled for this Saturday, Nov. 21, are cancelled.

The decision to scale back the high school’s schedule and return to a fully remote model was due to an uptick in positive COVID cases over this past weekend, according to athletic director Brendan Kent. 

“The decision was made to cancel the final week of the fall sports season as a safety precaution,” said Kent. 

As was the case with most schools in the Middlesex League and across the state, Wakefield had varying degrees of success in regards to playing fall sports. 

No team was able to complete a full season but all were able to play the majority of their games. 

But to those on field, success was defined by just getting a chance to play.

“All in all, while reflecting back on the fall season, I thought it was a great success,” said Kent. “Our students really needed it after everything they have gone through over the past nine months. I thought the fall season really helped our students in a lot of ways: mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially. To me, the measuring stick for success this past season was not determined by the number of wins and losses, it was more about providing healthy activities for our kids, that they love to do. Success this year is so much more about the health of our students, than it is about trophies and banners.”

“This season was a testament to the leadership of our coaches here at the high school, as well as the efforts and cooperation of our student-athletes and parents to follow COVID-19 protocols throughout the season.”

Kent was quick to point out that playing sports in a pandemic was a total community effort. 

“I want to thank everyone that had a hand in making this past season work. In addition to thanking our coaches, student-athletes, and parents, I also want to thank our athletic trainer, Sue Courchesne, as well as our school nurses Lisa Giberti and Rita Perlin for helping develop and oversee our COVID-19 safety protocols. I also want to thank our WPS school administration for their ongoing support throughout the season: superintendent Doug Lyons, principal Amy McLeod, and assistant principals Joe Mullaney and Gerrilyn Trafficante. I want to thank my assistant Danny Lumb for all of his work behind the scenes, as well as all of our school game-day staff that helped enforce our safety protocols. I also want to thank Ryan Boyd and his crew at WCAT for live streaming our games on TV each weekend, so that our fans could safely watch from home. Speaking of media coverage, we are so lucky to have the best sports reporter in the business here in Wakefield (Dan Pawlowski) to keep all of our fans up-to-date each day with his outstanding coverage in the Wakefield Daily Item. Last but not least, I want to thank everyone at the town level that help us out every sports season: Steve Maio (town administrator), Dan McGrath (recreation director), Dennis Fazio (field supervisor), and the entire DPW.

“This was a total community effort this past fall, and for anyone that I left out above, please know that all of our student-athletes at Wakefield HS are extremely grateful for your help and support.

“At this point in time, we are going to shift our focus from the fall sports season to the winter sports season, which will undoubtedly present a whole new list of obstacles since they are all indoor sports. While the challenge of coming up with safe ways to conduct winter sports is certainly going to be difficult, we are up to the task, and we are going to put every effort possible to come up with creative and safe ways to provide healthy opportunities for our students.”