Interaction between players and officials tends to be pretty limited.
There is the pre-game fist-bump in some sports when lineups are announced, and obviously there is some banter during games, but certainly nothing too memorable for either side most of the time. Well, Greenfield High School cross country and track & field athlete Sarah O’Sullivan might be the exception. The senior was recently chosen as one of 20 finalists for a scholarship rewarded by the New England chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance. The PCA is a national non-profit “working to develop ‘Better Athletes, Better People’ by partnering with youth and high school athletic programs to provide young athletes with a positive, character-building youth-sports experience.”
O’Sullivan competed against roughly 1,500 other individuals to be named one of the 20 finalists. Each athlete had to write three essays and got selected based on how they met three criteria: personal mastery (making oneself better), leadership (making one’s teammates better) and honoring the game (making the game better). Athletes must also have a grade-point-average of at least 2.5, and they also needed to include a recommendation from a teacher, coach and teammate.
In meeting the criteria when it came to the essay, O’Sullivan spoke about her interactions with the officials, which showed the way she makes the game better. O’Sullivan spoke mainly about her time competing in track, where she said athletes have plenty of time to talk to officials.
“I feel like track is one of those sports where you are competing against yourself more than everyone else,” she said. “You get the opportunity to interact with officials and athletes on other teams more than in other sports. Track is smaller and more centered around each event.”
O’Sullivan competes in the pole vault and said she routinely has the same officials scoring the event. She said that at bigger meets she enjoys helping set up the pole vault, which takes some time.
“It can get complicated setting up the pole vault,” O’Sullivan said. “I just love getting to interact with officials. I think we take them for granted.”
As for the folks writing recommendations, O’Sullivan chose her cross country and pole vault coach Stu Elliott, history teacher Tracy Creek, and teammate and sister Amy O’Sullivan.
“I chose my sister because, out of everyone, she knows me the best as a competitor,” Sarah O’Sullivan said. “But even after she sent it, she didn’t let me read it.”
Being a finalist gives O’Sullivan the chance to win one of three or four scholarships awarded, and the amount of those is based on the income of the area you live in, ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. She was also given the chance to go to Fenway Park on Aug. 31 to be honored at a Boston Red Sox game, but that happened to also be the first day of school in Greenfield, so she was unable to attend. Still, she received a shirt and a book for being a finalist.
O’Sullivan has also played hockey her entire life, most recently playing with the New England Junior Falcons. This winter, she will know longer play for the Falcons because the U-19 team is not a full-season team. Instead, she is hoping to play with the Pioneer Valley Vipers, a women’s hockey team that plays out of Collins-Moylan Arena in Greenfield.
As for her future, she is not sure where she will be spending the scholarship money should she win it, because she has not chosen her college yet. She does know one thing: she would like to study accounting. She said her mother, Kathleen O’Sullivan, comes from a family of accountants, so she grew up around accounting firms. She also said that she loved taking Amy Charboneau’s accounting class at the high school, which helped solidify her decision.
“I like math and numbers and the complexity and organization of it,” she said.
But before any of that, O’Sullivan is going to finish out her senior year at GHS. What a senior year it has already been. The girls’ cross country team is unbeaten at 9-0 and has a huge meet against another unbeaten squad, Mohawk Trail Regional High School, one week from today. That meet will be at Highland Park in Greenfield at 3:45 p.m. and will decide the North Division title.
“Cross country is going really great,” O’Sullivan said. “We have a really great team this year. We brought back most of our core from last year, losing Claire Abelson, and we have Mohawk coming up, which we are excited about.”
And in keeping with the positive theme, O’Sullivan admitted that while it would be incredible to beat Mohawk and win the league crown, she won’t be doing it out of any sort of dislike for the very talented Warrior runners.
“I think both teams are looking forward to the opportunity to compete against really good runners,” she said. “Mohawk has great athletes and they are really nice. I got to know some of them through student council.”
With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder O’Sullivan was recognized by the Positive Coaching Alliance.
The Celebration of Life for Earl McGraw is scheduled to take place Oct. 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Mullins Center in Amherst.
The venue was chosen because Earl, who passed away on Sept. 21 after a battle with lung cancer, loved basketball, and it also provides a large enough place for the community to celebrate his life.
Renting the Mullins Center was not cheap — according to a post on the Earl’s Updates Facebook page it cost $6,500 — so now a number of fundraising campaigns are being introduced.
One of those is a helmet drive that will take place Sunday in Northfield at the intersection of Routes 10 and 63 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Members of the Franklin County Technical School football team will be standing at the intersection looking for donations.
Also, on Friday night at Turners Falls High School, when the Indians host the Franklin Tech football team at 7, a “Coin Drive” will take place. Students from both schools will get the coin drive started during lunch on Friday, and the rest of the community can chip in at the football game.
Jeff Seymour (class of 2004), Chris Seymour (2007), Chris Bourbeau (2006) and Adam McCarthy (2006) won the inaugural Turners Falls Alumni Association Golf Tournament Saturday at Thomas Memorial Golf & Country Club in Turners Falls.
The tournament honored Thomas Memorial for its years of service and commitment to youth golf in the area, which includes hosting both the Turners Falls and Franklin Tech golf teams.
The tournament featured 40 golfers from Turners Falls, ranging in graduation years from 1964 through 2015. Chris Seymour was closest to the pin on No. 7, Peter Burek (1986) was closest on No. 9, and Bourbeau was closest to the line on No. 6.
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder sportswriter. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.com. Like him on Facebook and leave your feedback at www.facebook.com/jaybutynski.