While the Duxbury High School sports program enjoyed a banner year in 2008 with three State championships there were several other non-high school events and political decisions that affected the sports scene in town. Trying to single out which event was the most significant is certainly open to debate. Therefore, let’s get started and see if you agree with this writer.

 

Tough call for turf field

It was only a few weeks after the School Committee was presented with a check representing the cost of a new artificial turf field that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dropped a bomb on Duxbury’s plans. Handing down a ruling in the case of Seideman et al v. the City of Newton, the Court ruled that Community Preservation Funds could not be used to improve existing parks, but could only be used for the creation of new parks and recreation areas.
Duxbury’s Town Meeting voters approved the CPC funds for the artificial turf field at the high school in 2007, which would replace the existing natural grass field.
On October 8, turf committee member Peter Naton told the School Committee that the $1.1 million needed for the field had been raised, and the work would be completed in the spring. The bids on the project were due October 29; five days after the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling.
The timing is what prevented Duxbury from using the CPC funds, despite the 2007 Town Meeting vote, according to Town Counsel Robert Troy.
DHS Athletic Director Thom Holdgate said that the PRIDE Committee is looking at their options and aren’t ready to give up on the field quite yet. Troy noted in his memo that there is pending legislation on Beacon Hill that may change what CPC funds can be used on.
“The Town may elect to seek relief through a Special Act of the General Court,” Troy wrote. “I leave this decision to the Board of Selectmen.”

Morse strikes gold in U.S. national freestyle skiing Championships

Duxbury’s Michael Morse laid down a spectacular run to win a gold medal in the moguls competition of the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships at Deer Valley Resort in Park City in March.
Morse, who landed a back flip with an iron cross and a D-spin while listening to some tunes in his helmet, couldn’t believe he won a national title.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but it’s pretty amazing [to win the title]. I had a tough year and it feels good to lay down a run,” Morse said. “I was pretty amped to go. The moguls were a little bit firmer than they were in the morning, but I just tried to keep it together and let it run through the bottom.”
The following day Morse was at it again, adjusting to difficult conditions from the previous night’s storm, while capturing his second gold medal of the weekend by winning the head-to-head dual moguls championships
Morse, the dark horse contender coming into the weekend, flew down the course on Champion trail to Metallica playing in his helmet. He was particularly excited, since he had to stop skiing midway through the 2007 season because of recurring back pain. That came following the 2006 season when the Duxbury native, who made his first World Cup trip to Europe leading up to the Olympics, suffered a knee injury that ended his season.
Dragons wear D2 Super Bowl crown
An air of quiet confidence surrounded the Dragons as they went through their pre-game warm-up in the Patriot’s practice bubble prior to their Super Bowl match-up with defending Division IIA champion Gloucester, while the Fisherman were hooting and hollering at the other end of the field in hopes of frightening those ‘little rich kids’ from Duxbury.
But after 40 minutes of back-and-forth action, it was quite the opposite, as the Dragons did a little celebrating of their own after dismantling Gloucester in the second half to win their second Super Bowl title with a 46-26 win over the Fisherman.
The #6-ranked Dragons came into the game at 12-0 with all sorts glowing compliments from the Boston media, and by game’s end Duxbury’s performance may well have convinced those voting that the DIIA school was the best team in Massachusetts.
With an offensive arsenal that could attack from any spot on the field, and a smothering defense that always seemed to make the big stop at critical moments in a game, it was hard to imagine that any team was better than the Dragons, who finished at #3 in the final rankings.

Girls soccer takes state title

The Duxbury High School girls’ soccer team finished the second half of its regular season schedule with a 3-5-1 record in its last nine games; a sign that an early exit in post-season play was a strong possibility.
Selected as the #12 seed in the Division II South Sectional surely wasn’t a vote of confidence, but it got the Lady Dragons to the dance so they could strut their stuff.
Somewhere along the line Coach Emerson Coleman’s team got its rhythm, winning one-goal games over Holliston, Wellesley, Scituate, Oliver Ames, and Belmont to earn a shot in the State championship game against Wahconah Regional HS of Dalton.
Winning its third overtime game of the tournament, Duxbury won the Division II State title in November at Wachusett Regional HS in Holden with a 2-1 OT victory over the Warriors.
“If you had looked at us going into this tournament, I don’t think anyone would have picked us too win today,” said Coach Emerson Coleman. “They over-achieved. I told them earlier that they were winners just by getting here today.”

High five for boys’ lacrosse

He’s lived in the shadow of his famous brother since he took up the game of lacrosse, but now Gus Quinzani has his own niche in the hallowed history of Duxbury High School lacrosse.
Taking a pass from senior captain Scott Austin, Quinzani beat Billerica goaltender Pat O’Loughlin 56 seconds into sudden-death OT to give the Dragons a heart-stopping 14-13 win at Harvard Stadium on Wednesday night.
“Oh no, not again,” said Quinzani, as he reminisced about last year’s OT game with Billerica in the semifinals. “I wanted the game to end in regulation so we could show them we were the better team. They came out and worked so hard, and I don’t think we were ready for that fast-paced tempo.”
It is the fifth straight Division 1 lacrosse title for Duxbury, and the sixth in the last seven years, while also extending Duxbury’s unbeaten streak to 90 games against Massachusetts’ high school opponents.

Whipple triathlon champion

Duxbury’s Justine Whipple, the 22-year old Duxbury HS and Naval Academy graduate, won the gold medal at the 2008 FISU Triathlon World University Championship in Erdek, Turkey on June 29. A total of 129 athletes participated in the 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. Whipple turned in the second fastest bike and run to finish in 2:15.07. The Duxbury resident was also honored as the Marine Corps female Athlete of The Year at a Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame Induction luncheon ceremony at the Clubs at Quantico in Virginia in July.

Coach Pat Shea retires

Pat Shea, the varsity girls’ soccer coach at DHS for 30 years, announced her retirement from coaching prior to the 2008 season. Shea was the first and only coach of the girls’ soccer program and lead her team to two State titles and 18 league titles during her tenure.
“It was a very difficult decision. A lot of things went into it, but it was just time for me to retire,” said Shea.
DHS AD Thom Holdgate said the thought of retiring had been in the back of Shea’s head for a while. She gave up coaching girls’ golf in the spring, and soccer was her only sport left.
“I wanted to leave the program when it was at its top,” said Shea. “The kids in that program have both skill and character.”

Dragons stun Xaverian in season opener

It looked like Coach Dave Maimaron was going out on a limb by scheduling Division 1 powerhouse Xaverian for the Dragon’s home opener, but the Duxbury coach got the last laugh for those who doubted his decision.
Before a packed house on a beautiful Friday night in Duxbury, the Dragons pulled off one of the greatest wins in the program’s history with an exciting 27-24 come-from-behind win over the Hawks.
While running back Shane Dibona and QB Sean Cross were the media darlings in all the pre-season stories, it would be hard to believe that either player would question that it was a total team effort.
The number of key plays throughout the evening would be hard to chronicle, as the Dragons showed time and time again that they had a wide array of talent that could make the big plays when needed.
With dozens of area coaches in attendance, it was hard to believe they didn’t leave the field shaking their heads at the thought of playing the Dragons on their 2008 schedule.

Coleman takes over girls’ soccer program

A golden era in the girls’ soccer program at Duxbury High School came to an abrupt end this summer with the sudden announcement that Coach Pat Shea was retiring, putting the pressure on Athletic Director Thom Holdgate to find a suitable replacement with so little time before the start of the 2008 season.
Holdgate should be buying lottery tickets with every paycheck after landing one of the most-heralded high school soccer coaches in Massachusetts’ high school history last week.
Former Plymouth-Carver and Plymouth North coaching legend, Emerson Coleman, will take over the reigns of the DHS girls’ soccer team after 20-plus years of coaching boys and 10 years of Division 1 girls’ club soccer.
The owner and director of the Championship Soccer School, Coleman is a former Boston Globe Coach of The Year, a three-time EMass Coach of The Year, and the holder of a Division 1 State Championship and four South Sectional Championships.

DHS Hall of Fame elects its fourth class

The fourth class of inductees into the Duxbury High School Hall of Fame was named, bringing the number of Hall of Fame members to 20. The induction class of 2009 will be selected this winter, with a combined induction ceremony to take place in the spring of 2009.
The class of 2008 consists of Andy Bolster (’77), Andy Arnold (’78), Linda (Renner) Hartz (’80), Matt Cushing (’84), and Dave Seger (’99)
The selections were made by a committee of media members, DHS Athletic Director Thom Holdgate, former DHS coaches, and long-time observers of the Duxbury sports scene, who weighed the accomplishments of close to 20 finalists, before narrowing it down to the five selections.