Monomoy Boys Soccer, Field Hockey Teams Honored In Halftime Celebration

HARWICH – The 2023 Monomoy boys soccer and field hockey teams will go down in history after posting historic state championship runs during the fall season.

Both teams were in attendance Friday night for a special halftime celebration during the boys basketball team’s 61-44 victory over Cohasset. Boys soccer coach Keith Clark and field hockey coach Kyle Cappallo both addressed the packed crowd before each team was awarded plaques commemorating their state championship appearances. Monomoy athletic director Karen Guillemette said the plaques will be placed in the school’s trophy case.

“It’s great because the season ends and you’re really high on how things went but you don’t really get a chance [to celebrate],” Clark said. “It was really a suggestion by [boys basketball] coach McCarthy and he thought this would be a good night to do it. It’s great because it was really the student body who was supporting us. I felt like we were the home team everywhere we went.”

Clark and the boys soccer team was the biggest surprise of the Division 4 state tournament. After entering the postseason as the No. 9 seed, the Sharks advanced all the way to the state championship following four wins, including road victories over No. 8 Frontier (2-1), No. 1 Cohasset (3-2) and No. 5 Gardner (1-0).

Although the team finished 16-4-3 after ultimately suffering a 1-0 loss to second-seeded Lynnfield in the state championship, it marked the first time in school history that the program appeared in a state final. Clark said the historic postseason run wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the school’s student body, parents and community members, many of whom were in the crowd Friday night to celebrate the team once again.

“Any time you have success, whether it’s academically or on the athletic field, it helps bring the community together and the student body comes together,” Clark said.

Junior captain Ryan Laramee said Friday’s halftime ceremony was especially sweet because it came against Cohasset.

“I thought it was great, most importantly because it was against Cohasset,” he said. “That was my favorite game.”

Clark said he was proud of the way the team handled itself on the road in hostile environments that were infiltrated with Monomoy fans each step of the way.

“The team represented the school and the community with class and distinction with their perseverance as we went on the road to upset the eighth-ranked team, the fifth-ranked team and the first-ranked team in an epic come-from-behind 3-2 victory at Cohasset,” Clark said. “It felt like we were the home team with the great support we had from the student body, the community and the parents. I couldn’t be more proud of the boys.”

Like Clark, Cappallo said it was nice to have an opportunity to celebrate the field hockey program’s first state championship appearance after a few months of reflection.

“It’s exciting,” Cappallo said. “It’s been a good few months off to get away from hockey a little bit, but it’s nice to see the support. I’ve always thought — even before I was a coach — that there’s no school district on the Cape that supports the field hockey program more than Monomoy does.”

The Sharks field hockey team entered the Division 4 state tournament as the No. 3 seed and upended No. 30 Brookfield (10-0), No. 14 Nantucket (4-0), No. 11 Clinton (3-0) and No. 2 Manchester Essex (2-1) to reach the state final. Although the squad fell to Uxbridge, 4-0, in the championship, the team’s 17-3-3 campaign will long be remembered.

The couple weeks of state tournament action was especially meaningful because the two teams were able to share the excitement with each other. Even after losing its state championship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the field hockey team took a detour to Scituate High to be in the crowd and root on the boys soccer team in its championship that night.

“That’s kind of rare for a lot of schools to have teams supporting each other like that,” Cappallo said. “We are kind of a smaller school student body-wise, so I think it’s encouraging. And coming to a game like this and seeing how many people come out to support the team is encouraging. I think the girls are really fortunate to be a part of something like that.”

Senior field hockey captain Susannah Brown said it has been awesome to be a part of such a special period for Monomoy athletics.

“We’ve been honored a couple of times throughout the year, right after the season at the banquet, Fall Sports Awards Night, and then my work [the Seal Pub in Harwich Center] put on a night for us and boys soccer, which was really nice,” said Brown, who will attend and play field hockey and lacrosse at Johnson and Wales next year. “But to be able to do it in front of the whole community setting was really special. The team camaraderie is definitely there.”

The special night wouldn’t have been possible without McCarthy, the first-year boys basketball coach who pitched the idea to Guillemette.

“I feel like coming over here, this place is a family,” McCarthy said. “It’s a community and people show up for each other. I asked [Clark] and I asked our AD if we could try to pull it off for both teams because I want to make it a family where we go see them and they come see us in the wintertime.

“When you get two teams like that with their families and their parents in the building and you have that type of energy and our kids put on that type of display, it doesn’t get any better than that.”