By Christopher Tremblay

Staff Sports Writer

For such a small school. and one that does not have the facilities that some of the larger schools have. Hopedale Jr.-Sr. High School continues to develop quality teams. Currently, the boys indoor track team is once again putting together a successful season and looking for its runners to perform well at the CMAC Championships.

Many Blue Raider athletes do not have access to the proper training facilities that other schools have, while some don’t even have a home field advantage as they do not having a league sanctioned field to play on. The track team doesn’t have a track to train on, so they prepare by running in the streets of Hopedale or in the school hallways.

“Sometimes you have to work for everything,” boys track coach Joe Drugan said. “That type of adversity makes you better when you sacrifice. All in all, Hopedale sports are spectacular and it’s a challenge as a coach that I am willing to accept to work on the details to make them better.”

With his athletes prevailing continually, the Coach looks to championships, noting that everything they do revolves around them. In the past, the Blue Raiders found themselves in the Dual Valley Conference (DVC) with six schools; nowadays they have been moved to one of many Central Massachusetts Athletic Conferences (CMAC), where the number of teams involved has now doubled.

Hopedale will head to the CMAC Championship meet in early February at the New Balance Center in Boston to compete against 12 other teams where they will see exactly what they are made of.

“The goal coming into the season is always to have the kids work on their personal bests and go from there, and they have been doing that on a weekly basis,” the Hopedale coach said. “If we can get in the CMAC Championship (team and/or  individuals), we will move into the State Tournament and possibly further. We have some kids who should be able to accomplish that, but we’re taking it week by week and day by day.”

Senior Captain Ari Levin will lead the Blue Raiders into the New Balance Center. The senior is currently ranked second in the state, a mere half inch short of the top shot-put thrower. Levins is currently throwing around 63-feet and, following his graduation, he will take his athletic skill to West Point Academy.

“Ari is one of the leaders of the team,” Drugan said. “He has a great deal of respect as a captain as well has having the knowledge that he brings to the sport.”

In addition to Levine throwing the shot put, his younger brother Eli, only an 8th grader, has been following in his older brother’s footstep. The younger Levine has already tossed the shot put an impressive 42-feet and, according to the coach, that is 10-15 feet above where most 8th graders are. Drugan also noted that the youngster will occasionally take part in some sprinting events for the team.

Junior Ben Stone, along with freshman Quinn Cook, have both been running pretty much neck-to-neck in the mile throughout the season. Stone has the better time with a 4:31 mile. Other athletes running in distance events for Hopedale are Captains Connor Fitzgibbons and Matt Stone, along with Sam Dalphe, Cederic Arthur, Charlie Keys and Jack Murphy. The group can primarily take on any distance event that is asked of them by their coach. 

“They’ll run the mile, 2-mile, 800, 1000 and both the 4x4 and 4x8 relays,” Drugan said. “They’re times are all within seconds of one another as they typically run together as a group.”

In moving from the DVC to the CMAC, Drugan didn’t see any change in his team.

“We’re a good team and will compete in every single meet,” he said. “We’re competitive and we have some young 7th and 8th graders working their way up. They haven’t reached their plateau yet, but they will be key for us down the road.”

As the team gets ready for the 12 team CMAC Championship, Drugan is not worried about the extra teams as he knows what his team is capable of. He firmly believes that his athletes will compete as they normally do, at a high rate. 

While the Patriots were preparing for Super Bowl 60, the Hopedale boys were leaving their competition in the dust as the Blue Raiders captured the CMAC Indoor Track and Field Championship pretty handily. Hopedale finished with 91.5 points and its nearest competitor, Whitinsville Christian, had 63.5 points giving the Blue Raiders a 28-point cushion.