South Meadow School’s victory in the Winter Slam basketball tournament on Sunday was just the latest in a series of big wins for the Pumas as SMS administration work to build an athletics program that could rival any middle school in the state.
This fall, SMS was undefeated in Tri-County League play in both boys’ and girls’ soccer; the boys won out in the playoffs and took home the championship, while the girls made the semifinals. The Pumas’ field hockey team was Tri-County runner-up after losing in the finals to Boynton, their cross-country runners fared well at the state meet and their volleyball team won an in-season tournament title. Now in the winter season, both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams are 7-3, second in the Tri-County League, and on Sunday, the boys were crowned Winter Slam champions after knocking off Boynton (the girls’ bracket was canceled due to weather).
“They’ve progressed greatly this season,” SMS Athletic Director Sara Norby said. “They’re growing every day. The thing with both teams is they’re playing together. They are a huge group of friends now, which wasn’t the case when they first started. And our coaches are really pushing sportsmanship and how to be good people, not only how to be good players, which is making a big difference.”
Since taking over as Athletic Director last school year, Norby, along with Principal Tim Conway, has prioritized coaching hires with collegiate playing or coaching experience when possible. Now, their coaching roster includes Jordan Levesque (Castleton), Julia Donovan (Plymouth State), Shannon Finnegan (Assumption) and Jefferson Allen (Franklin Pierce).
Credit: BEN CONANT / For the Ledger-Transcript
“[The goal is] an athletic program that is sustainable,” Norby said, “that we’re seeing kids grow, that they will be able to compete at higher levels, high school, college, et cetera. So it’s really just making it so we have high-level coaches, a lot of games, trying to give them as many opportunities as possible. We have the [Winter Slam] tournament to play, we’re doing more reaching out to colleges to do connections and community things, to build the program back to what it was when I first started years ago.”
Not only has the SMS community seen success on the courts and fields, but it’s evident in the classrooms and the hallways, too, thanks in part to the higher standards Puma student-athletes are held to — no grades below a C and no behavior referrals.
“I do grade checks every two weeks,” Norby said, “and I have players coming to me the minute they get a low grade and asking how can they fix it in order to play. So it’s making them more aware. They’re trying harder, they’re pushing through different obstacles in school that they have that before they might have just let overtake them, but now they’re really working through them and persevering. We’ve seen behavior referrals drop. So it’s making a huge impact overall in the school.”