Back From The Brink, Wakefield Gymnasts Chase State Honors

WAKEFIELD - It's hard to say how close Wakefield High School came to ending its girls' gymnastics program. But it's easy to show how bad the Warriors were.

For 10 years Wakefield didn't win a single meet. In athletic director Brendan Kent's first year at Wakefield, the Warriors finished the 2015-16 season with no wins and roughly three gymnasts. One of those gymnasts was Courtney Collins, a seventh grader who received a waiver to compete on the high school varsity. Looking ahead that winter, Kent wasn't sure the program could survive.

How bad was it?

"Bad. Like really bad," said Collins, now a sophomore. "We didn't win anything. We were in last place in all the meets. We scored like 115 and now were scoring 140s."

Juniors Sophie Ell and Elise Rich, along with senior Casey Kearney, are the Warriors' captains. Ell and Rich remember the struggles of their freshman year when the Warriors went 0-7.

"There were only nine of us so everyone had to do everything," said Ell.

"We went into every meet knowing we were going to lose," said Rich.

If you like turnaround stories, you've come to the right place. On Saturday, Wakefield, with a roster now of 22 girls, will compete for a second straight year in the MIAA North Sectional championship. With a school record 140.135 average, the Warriors are seeded No. 4. If they can hold that position Wakefield will advance to the state championship the following week. The team that couldn't win for a decade went 7-1 this winter, losing only to Reading.

It's not a coincidence that for the past two years the team has been led by head coach Rachel Lucas and assistant Meg DeLory. The two were hired by Kent the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, just days before the start of practice for the 2017-18 season.

"My old boss still works at the [Melrose] Y and graduated high school with Brendan," said Lucas, who grew up in Melrose. "When [Wakefield] didn't have a gymnastics coach Brendan called my old boss and said 'do you know anyone who might want to coach.' She gave him my name and that's kinda how I fell into here. Meg and I got hired the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

"To be honest, I had no expectations. I had been away from coaching maybe like a year-and-a-half at that point. Brendan was in a position where he very much needed a coach. I had the time with my schedule so I figured, I'll do it, it's only a couple months commitment. It will be fun and I don't have to do it again next year. That's kind of what I said to Brendan as well."

But the start was anything but fun.

"The start of the season was really rough," said Lucas. "We came in here and the bars were not set up. We had missing pieces. We had to scramble and call a gym installation company and have them come in to install the bars. We were missing mats. It was a rough start. I think both of us started thinking, okay, if we survive this season that would be awesome. That was our goal, to survive."

It didn't take long to see results. In Wakefield's first meet, the Warriors beat Burlington, ending the decade-long losing streak. The win was especially meaningful to the seniors who were experiencing their first victory.

"They were all very excited," said Lucas. "They knew what a big deal it was. Once we won that first one, we all had the feeling, alright, if we won one, let's see how many we can win."

The answer was three more as Wakefield finished 4-3 and qualified for the North Sectional with a 134.6125 average. The improvement continued this winter as Wakefield set a team scoring record when it recorded a 141.6 in a win over Melrose to start the season. If captains Ell and Rich had been told during the dark days of their 0-7 freshman year that they'd be challenging for a state title as juniors, they knew what they'd say.

"We would not believe you," said Rich.

"It just wouldn't be possible," said Ell.

New coaches help, as does new equipment. An influx of talent helps as well.

"We got a lot of freshman last year, which helped us a lot," said Rich.

Two of those freshman were Lola Barrett and Giana Liotine and each ended up earning Middlesex League All-Star honors. Wakefield finished eighth in the MIAA North Sectional and Barrett was the team's top all-around finisher in ninth place. In last Monday's Mass Coaches Individual championships, Barrett finished 11th in the all-around and other Wakefield competitiors like Rich, Liotine, Molly Grady, and Syndey Yee were sprinkled throughout the results.

Practicing under banners hanging in the gym saluting the Middlesex League championship teams of 1994-95 and 1995-96, this group of Wakefield girls are hoping to create new banners. Can the program that was almost terminated just three years ago actually win a state title in 2019?

"Win the state championship would be a couple years down the road," said Lucas. "We had state individuals on Monday so we got a taste of what the other teams are like. There are some good teams out there. But I think we have a chance to hold our own, at least at sectionals, and get a chance to compete for that state championship, which would be fun. I think just even going to that meet would be a huge accomplishment for this team."

Imagine that. It's school vacation week and the Wakefield girls' gymnastics coach is being asked about winning a state title in 2019. No one could have seen that coming.