Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tewksbury High football duo will play at Gillette Stadium on Friday night.
It's been more than two decades since Tewksbury High football coach Brian Aylward played in the Shriner's Football Classic, but he clearly remembers that feelings that players experience when they're chosen to compete with the best in the annual summer high school football showcase. "You can tell how special it is from the minute you show up at the first practice," said Aylward, who played in the 1987 game, a few weeks after he graduated from Tewksbury High. "All the linemen are big kids and they all can run. A lot of the starting quarterbacks you know aren't even playing quarterback, they're playing defense. It seems like everybody there's a great athlete. It's a real honor." A pair of 2011 Tewksbury High graduates, running back Anthony …
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Dozens are honored at Tewksbury High School's annual athletic awards banquet.
It's not often that you see either Leanne Tucker, Ally Greene or Anthony Arcari moving slowly. On Thursday night, however, all three of these Tewksbury High star athletes were a step behind their usual pace because their arms were full of hardware. Tucker and Greene shared the 2010-2011 Tewksbury Memorial High School Outstanding Female Athlete Award while Arcari took home the 2010-2011 Charles R. Hazel Outstanding Male Athlete Award at the school's annual athletic awards banquet held at the U.S. Bunting Club in Lowell. Arcari, Greene and Tucker were three of dozens of athletes honored on a night that also marked the final athletic banquet for long-time soccer and track coach Steve Levine, who will retire at the end of this school year. …
Monday, May 30, 2011
TMHS girls track team finishes ninth, boys finish 11th at Division 2 state championships.
Watery eyes and frustrated looks were far more prevalent than smiles and fist pumps for the Tewksbury High boys and girls track teams at the MIAA Division 2 championship meet at Bridgewater State University on Saturday. Richard Kirby and Andrea Caprio provided the two brightest moments on a day that saw the TMHS girls team finish in ninth place and the boys team finish 11th. Kirby had an outstanding meet, setting a school record in the 400-meter hurdles and taking third place in the pole vault, while Caprio captured second place in the javelin. Kirby ran the 400-meter hurdles in 55.83 seconds to put his name in the Tewksbury record books. He finished fourth in the competition in that event. Needham's Peter Farlow won the race in 55.31 …
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tewksbury high will send 32 athletes to the Division 2 State Championship meet at Bridgewater State University on Saturday.
It's a very big stage, where nerves can take over or heroes can emerge, but Tewksbury High School will load up a bus with 32 talented athletes early Saturday morning and head down to Bridgewater State University to compete in the Division 2 state track and field championships. "You never know," said TMHS boys coach Steve Levine. "It's a big meet with a lot of pressure and it's pretty chaotic down there. State meets are hard to predict. It depends on what day it is." Tewksbury, however, has at least four athletes with credentials that indicate that they can handle the pressure of the big stage. All-American middle distance runner Leanne Tucker is the defending Division 2 state champion in the 800-meter run. She won the Division 2 title last…
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Richard Kirby's record-setting performance in the 400-meter hurdles leads to strong Tewksbury showing.
Tewksbury High all-purpose man Richard Kirby had his sights set on two possible first place finishes at the Merrimack Valley Conference track and field championships in Lowell Saturday night. So when the first opportunity -- in the pole vault -- didn't bear fruit, Kirby took it out on the competition. The senior sprinter/hurdler/jumper/vaulter blew away the field in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, setting a new meet record with a time of 56.34 seconds, to lead Tewksbury to a fourth place finish in the meet. "He and I were both a little disappointed in his pole vault results," TMHS coach Steve Levine said after Kirby took fourth in that event at 12'0". "But I told him to shake it off, because he had another event to run. And he did. He…
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tewksbury High boys track team beats Billerica to give retiring coach Steve Levine an MVC championship in his final dual meet.
Steve Levine went out with a bang. In more ways than one. The Tewksbury High coaching legend, who has announced his retirment in June as a physical education teacher and a coach after 35 years on the job, watched his team clinch the 2011 Merrimack Valley Conference Division 2 championship with a 87.5-57.5 victory over Billerica on Monday, and as usual, he didn't go quietly. As the runners lined up for the final race of Monday's dual meet, race official Jack Lang of Chelmsford summoned Levine to the starting line, handed him the starter's pistol and allowed Levine the honor of starting the mile relay. "It was a special moment," Levine said. "I couldn't believe the emotions that hit me when Jack handed me that gun. "And of course, we went …
Thursday, May 12, 2011
TMHS boys track team improves to 5-0 with 112-33 win over Middies.
Revenge is known as a dish best served cold and Tewksbury High's Anthony Arcari let his rivalry with Dracut High's Keith Hamel chill for exactly three months before settling the score Wednesday afternoon at Dracut High. Arcari, the 2011 Merrimack Valley Conference 55-meter dash champion bested Hamel, the 2011 Division 2 state 55-meter dash champion, in a much anticipated 100-meter showdown, sparking Tewksbury to a lopsided 112-33 win over Dracut Wednesday. Back on Feb. 11, Arcari beat Hamel at the wire in the 55-meter dash at the MVC Indoor Track championship meet. But Arcari pulled a hamstring muscle as he out-leaned Hamel over the final five meters, and was unable to compete in the Division 2 state meet a week later. With his biggest …
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tewksbury High track and football star will participate in both sports in college.
Merrimack Valley Conference track and football fans will have four more years to watch Tewksbury High's Anthony Arcari strut his stuff on local playing fields, as Arcari has chosen Merrimack College in nearby North Andover as his home for the next four years. Arcari, who was one of the top running backs in the MVC last fall and who has ranked as one of the top sprinters in the state for the past year, on Tuesday signed a national letter of intent to play for third-year coach John Perry at Merrimack in the fall. "We're really excited about having Anthony come to Merrimack," Perry said. "He obviously had a great high school career and we think he'll be a great addition to our program." Arcari's rare combination of speed and power caught the …
Bits of knowledge to help make you the smartest person at your high school reunion.
Here are five pieces of information to help make you the smartest person at the coffee shop. 1. Today’s Forecast: According to the NWS, there is a chance of showers, mainly between 1p.m. and 3 p.m. Cloudy, with a high near 62. North wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 45. North wind between 8 and 10 mph. 2. Tuesday’s Winning Mass. Lottery Numbers: MegaMillions -- 11-16-34-40-51 Megaball 34 Megaplier x4 MassCash – 1-11-13-24-31 Daily Numbers -- Midday: 0-6-8-1 Evening: 8-0-8-0 3. By the Numbers: 3.50. A true scholar-athlete, that is the GPA Anthony Arcari of Tewksbury High is expected to graduate with. He announced Tuesday he will attend Merrimack College on a football/…
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Tewksbury crushes Methuen, 87-58 on a day filled with state qualifiers and personal bests.
With 35 years of coaching under his belt, it takes a lot to get Tewksbury High boys track coach Steve Levine all worked up. But Levine's Redmen did just that Monday afternoon in Methuen, as the TMHS tracksters posted more personal bests and state qualifying times and distances than Levine could keep track of while steam rolling Methuen, 87-58. The win puts Tewksbury, now 2-0 in Merrimack Valley Conference Division 2 meets, in position to capture yet another league crown in the coming weeks. "It was a great, great meet by so many kids," Levine said. "We told the kids before the meet that the cream of the crop steps forward in big meets like this one, and they sure did today." Dan Sugrue, Ryan Vibber, Anthony Arcari and Richard Kirby were …
Rick Spencer
10:33 pm on Thursday, June 2, 2011
Jim: There were many other deserving athletes recognized at the athletic awards banquet last night and I would have loved to have mentioned them all, but there is only so much you can include in one article before you lull your reading audience to sleep. As it is, this article was probably the longest one I've written for Patch so far. Since it was a senior week banquet, I stuck primarily to the … more ›