Stanley Chamblain – Everett Leader Herald

City overrides school committee, MIAA holds off winter sports

Plans to start tryouts, practice tabled until January due to rising Coronavirus numbers

By LORENZO RECUPERO

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Everett School Committee both formally agreed to allow winter sports at EHS to start but Everett’s governing bodies at City Hall put a hold on the planned start date of December 15.

The city is still in the red but Everett High School (EHS) had been given the green light to jump-start its Winter Sports season.

With authorization from the MIAA and a unanimous 8-0 vote from the Everett School Committee, Winter Sports at EHS will (prospectively) be allowed.

Instead, according to boy’s basketball coach Stanley Chamblain, the school committee and the city will reconvene after the holiday break to confirm the unanimous vote or deny it and cancel the Winter Sports season altogether.

Chamblain was a huge proponent of continuing play through the ongoing pandemic – with all the safeguards in place – as he believed a winter void of sports in Everett could have degenerative effects on the long-term health of Everett academics. His voice was heard loud and clear by the School Committee ahead of the unanimous vote.

Hoop dreams on hold at EHS

An array of shoe colors line the bench of Everett’s varsity girls basketball team during a game at Everett High School last season. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso)

Pandemic puts winter sports season on the bench, local towns virus rate too high

By LORENZO RECUPERO

The Monday after Thanksgiving is supposed to be the day high school basketball teams get to dig in.

In Everett, it’s marked the first official day of the winter sports season, when nets are set free and shots go flying.

This past Monday, though, Everett High School’s gymnasium remained shuttered to sports events, blocked by the ongoing pandemic still denying organized sports in the area.

Everett and other surrounding communities, including Chelsea and Revere, are still ‘Red Zone’ areas where COVID infection rates are too high to allow organized team sports within the public schools.

So, instead of athletes bouncing balls, the court at EHS remains scuff-less and is now being used as an E-Learning center to accommodate students who are unable to learn from home.

What would have been a day of excitement and try-outs turned into a day without basketball, a development something Head Coach Stanley Chamblain laments.

Postseason in sight, but not in form

By Lorenzo Recupero

Fresh off a 67-52 win over Malden High School Tuesday, Crimson Tide boys basketball is sitting pretty at 6-2 overall and undefeated in the GBL.

The Tide are now just 4 wins away from locking up a playoff spot, and even landed themselves in the Boston Globe’s top 10 HS basketball teams in the state, but head coach Stanley Chamblain isn’t satisfied with just getting his team to where they are currently.

“Our win over Malden was an ugly win,” said a displeased Chamblain, who has taken a Belichick- esque approach to this season in the sense a single win doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to improve upon. “I’ll take it the win, but we weren’t playing the brand of basketball I know we are capable of playing,” said Chamblain of his squads league-leading victory. “There was just a lack of urgency in our play that is uncharacteristic of our basketball team, but the luxury of basketball is you are in a position to quickly to play again within a couple days and correct those mistakes,” he said.

Continue reading Postseason in sight, but not in form

Boys basketball set for Tip-off

By Lorenzo Recupero

Just two years removed from playing in the Division 1 State Championship, and with another coach at the helm, Crimson Tide boys basketball is still competing at a high level.

Last year, Stanley Chamblain’s first as head coach, the Tide were able to lockup a playoff spot while snagging 14 Ws.

They didn’t make it to the biggest game of the year, but the team competed well enough to keep Everett’s playoff appearance streak alive at 6 consecutive and did it with a team comprised mostly of sophomores.

In their first official action this season, a scrimmage Monday against a tough Lowell High School team, coach Chamblain saw encouraging signs from a young team still developing its identity.

“We lost our scrimmage to Lowell, but our biggest positive from that game is how we showed our energy. We have a lot of kids who can play basketball on this team and they play it with a lot of energy,” said Chamblain.

Continue reading Boys basketball set for Tip-off