The Story
This weekend, Maddy Lucontoni is making history at the NH Division 1 Football state championships.
Come again?
She will become the first female kicker to start in any NH football state championship. Not too shabby, right?
Tell me more, tell me more!
That’s what WE said, so we asked Maddy some burning questions. Here’s the deal: in eighth grade, her mom asked her to participate in a football clinic being run for a BHS senior project. Now we can finally say that something good does come out of senior projects. Who would’ve thought it? And, as you probably guessed, it turned out that she has a knack for kicking.
Then what?
She tried out her freshman year, and kicked for the Freshman team. No big deal. Freshmen have to play on the Freshman team. Sophomore year, she was a solid kicker for JV. Once again, no big deal. Junior year, she was third string for varsity, the JV kicker, and once again, the Freshman kicker. Now, BIG freaking deal. She admits that the first string varsity kicker was good, but a junior on the freshmen team? Something seems wrong there…We’re dubbing that a “WTH?” moment.
But then she kicked happily ever after?
Nope! She worked her butt off. Maddy plays ice hockey during the football season, and the winter season, softball during the spring, and still lifts weights with all of the other football players. This past summer, she drove two hours to work with a college kicking coach for up to five hours at a time, then two hours back. All. Summer. Long. She wanted to be ready for this season. Don’t know about you, but we’d say that it paid off. From our calculations, she’s only missed 4 of her 59 PATs. That’s a 93% completion rate. We think she was ready.
Now, tell us what we really want to know
You can probably guess. It’s obviously not easy being the only girl in a “boys” sport. Some of the players acknowledge her presence and treat her like any other teammate, while others forget she’s there. Literally. Sophomore year, they forgot her at the school when going to an away game and the bus left without her. No one realized until she ran across the field during warm ups. Yep, our jaws were wide open too. Probably not the coaches’ proudest moment.
Please tell me you’re kidding
We wish we could. Coach Stank, it may be time for a buddy system. And that’s just one of the many problems of having a separate locker room. Maddy also has to wait up to half an hour after games to change, because the visiting teams use the girls’ locker room. And, once she finally gets in, she usually has to use her cell phone light to get dressed because the janitors forget she’s in there, and turn off the lights.
So why put up with it?
Well, one day of kicking training takes about 9 hours. And she did that the entire summer. We think it’s safe to say she loves kicking. As she put it, it’s “99% boredom, and 1% adrenaline.” We’re in agreement that it does seem like the best position. She goes on the field, scores, then gets to enjoy some field-side seats. But despite some “rough spots,” she considers the rest of the team as her brothers. She gave special props to Christian Bourgeois and Ethan Van Heerden for contributing to her kicking success, and Tim Galamaga for being a great captain.
The Runaway
Everyone needs to be there Saturday night to see Maddy make history. Because we love history. Need additional incentive? Maddy claims this is the best team BHS has ever had. Go root for her that one minute she’s on the field!
What to say…
When someone tells you that cheerleading is a sport…
Hey, what about Crew? Let’s make this clear. According to BHS, right now, Crew is a club, not a sport. BHS rowers are not athletes, they’re just very involved students. However, this past school board meeting, BHS administrators talked about the most important budget issues at the school: increasing computer science courses, increasing funding for the special needs program, and making crew an official sport. Let’s just say, it’s about dang time. According to some of our rowers, they work just as hard as, if not harder than, any recognized sport. They train until 6:30 most nights in the fall and spring, and their races take all day on the weekends. To be fair, the reason that it’s dubbed a club is because it’s so expensive. A new boat costs $45,000. A football costs $15. The school will now pay for official coaches and the uniforms. Baby steps. Frisbee Club, we wouldn’t be expecting anything soon.
When you’ve been lying in your bed wide awake at night…
Has something been missing from my life? This year’s BHS fall musical is Fiddler on the Roof, because Russian Jews are something missing from everyone’s life. We know it’s been keeping us up at night. The talented cast was led by performances by Rylan Lewandowski, Veronica Gikas, and Tigran Kotsinyan. They totally brought IB History to life. We were holding back our “L’chaims” during the song “To Life.” We definitely recommend going to see it this weekend . Go see it on Friday! But not Saturday－you have a prior commitment to go see Maddy make history.
When you’ve been yawning in the football stands all season…
You’re about to get the last and only chance at a good game on this Saturday. At least fingers crossed. We’re playing Pinkerton for the first time this entire season. No one really has a clue what’s going to happen, not even our sports guru, Roger Brown. But, you know who’s pretty cocky? Yep, Pinkerton. They gave us a piece of there mind on twitter. They offered to let us stay home next weekend. How kind of them! They already know the outcome isn’t in their favor. Why waste our time with a game?
Things to Know
For the Kind Souls of the School
BHS is starting Christmas season a little early. Don’t forget to bring in toys for the Toys for Tots charity campaign! Now, don’t let this fool you into thinking that Christmas is all about the giving. The winning advisory gets to wrap Mr. Hagen’s car in wrapping paper.
One Last Time
We’re finally done! Freshmen have intersession sign ups this Tuesday. But to be honest, we’re a little over the hype. We will state our small-but-still-very-helpful piece of advice one last time: sign up with friends.
For Our Lame Non-Subscribers
You should check out our updated guide to election winners. Do you think Chris Pappas won because of his policies? No! It’s because he’s very skilled with ice cream scoops. You guys have got to stay with it. (And you should SUBSCRIBE! Because what happens if we decide to do something crazy and send an email out on a day besides Monday? Like LAST WEEK. Yes, it’s anarchy, but anarchy that you’re missing out on.)