Apponequet coaches reflect after playoff defeats

Three Apponequet Regional High School teams finished their fall season with a brief postseason run. The cross country team competed in the division invitational but did not advance, and the field hockey and girls soccer lost their first playoff game. 

Daniel Rutledge, the cross country coach, and Walter Seaberg, coach of the girls soccer team, sat down with Nemasket Week reporter Grace Roche to reflect on their seasons. 

Cross Country

Q: How did your team feel at the division invitational and its subsequent loss? 

Rutledge:The course was very, very challenging. It was all up a hill at Northfield Mountain. On paper, they weren't their best times, but in these meets, the way in which they determine who moves on is by place, so it has nothing to do with time. Therefore,  we had some good performances. 

Our top runner for the boys came in 34th overall, which was one place away from moving to the all states meet. He missed it by one spot, but it's often very challenging to get into that meet. It's highly competitive. He's only a sophomore, so there's a good chance he'll make it next year. 

I think the team before was nervous because it was a course that we haven't seen before. We'd never been on the course, so there's definitely a sense of nervousness. Some teams drive out early, and they run the course a little bit and try to get used to it. But it was two and a half hours away, so we did not do that. And so I think the kids were a bit nervous going into it, but by the time they finished the meet, I mean, they were very much relieved, and I think mostly positive, because they ended up having a lot of fun.

Q: What was a highlight of the season?

Rutledge: We had some very memorable races, for sure. We had a very close meet against Dighton-Reboboth Regional High School at Apponequet. I think that was a very memorable race, because when races are that close, the kids know it and it adds a little bit more excitement to the finishes. I also think we had a really great senior night, which was against Old Rochester, and the parents did such a good job at creating posters and bringing food. So I think that was a really great night for the kids and for the community.

Q: What was the biggest takeaway of this season?

Rutledge: We have a very young team, so a lot of our up and coming runners learned a lot about themselves in terms of how they compete, and I also think that throughout the season, we were able to find our rhythm in terms of running as a team. It was really just a good building season. I think we're going to hopefully have some kids go into winter and spring, and by next year, we'll have a strong team, a competitive team.

Girls Soccer

Q: How did your team feel about making it to the playoffs? 

Seaberg: They were happy. They were happy that they finished where we finished. We didn't have to do a preliminary match so they were happy about that. They were happy that we were going to be at home for our first playoff game. 

And how did they feel about their subsequent loss?

 Seaberg:   They were sad. I had 13 seniors, and as far as I know, nobody's playing beyond this as far as college goes. They were a little sad, because it was basically their last match in their career.

What were some highlights of this season? 

 Seaberg:   I thought we did well. We didn't really have too many surprises in the sense of who we beat throughout the season — any upsets, if you will. We won the matches that we were supposed to win, in our opinion. Obviously that's why we play the games, because nothing is guaranteed. 

My center striker, Cece Levrault, ended her four year varsity career with 70 plus goals, so that was a nice accomplishment by her. That was nice to see. 

I mean, the highlights were just the overall season, that we did well. We finished 16-1-1 and then we lost the postseason. The overall record was 16-2-1, but so just the overall season itself was pretty much the highlight.

Q: Looking forward to next season, what's one thing that you want to keep the same, and one thing you plan to change.

Seaberg: We're going to be a young team so we will hopefully be able to gel with losing 13 seniors. I'm only going to have five seniors next year, and I think  five juniors, and then the rest are going to be all sophomores. I'm looking forward to seeing them grow together for the next few years, because most of them usually haven't played with the seniors, because of the age difference. 

What am I going to change? Hopefully to make more of a playoff run, but I'm not going to do it — it's going to be how the girls work.