To the editor:
I believe positive performance deserves to be recognized and, in this case, I am referring to the St. Mary’s High School head baseball coach, Derek Dana.
He led the Spartans to this year’s Massachusetts Division 2 state championship in early July, but it was the path the team took to get there that is worthy of notice.
St. Mary’s, with a 6-5 record at one point, was struggling to stay afloat. There were serious questions about pitching depth (beyond the team’s obvious ace), as well as some defensive holes, and a lack of consistent hitting; offensive firepower was not a strength.
Teams in this situation can easily flounder. Coach Dana somehow did a masterful job of building on the strengths of his team. He plugged defensive leaks and found ways to score runs.
To observe the Spartans play in the second half of the season and into the postseason was to see a team executing with confidence and believing in itself.
They made very few mistakes, ran the bases smartly and aggressively and seemed to know where to be and what to do in every situation. Nothing surprised them and they were very well coached.
I truly enjoyed watching this Spartans team play. There was a camaraderie or chemistry that these high school kids displayed: They clearly showed how much they believed in, and rooted for, each other.
In their final two games, Masconomet (North Championship) and Hopkinton (state title game), out-hit St. Mary’s. But statistics alone don’t decide baseball games.
This Spartan team found ways to win both games with a lot of credit going to the efforts put in by Coach Dana and his coaching staff throughout the year.
In my opinion, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and that is the true definition of a team. Congratulations, Coach Dana.
Russell Meade
Swampscott
