The Smith Academy field hockey team won the Western Mass. title after the death of Bethany McMenimen.
(J. ANTHONY ROBERTS)
HATFIELD - On a Thursday afternoon, Nov. 8, one day before the Western Massachusetts Division 2 field hockey championship game, 14 pony-tailed players and one gray-haired coach were practicing in their home gym at Smith Academy.
At times, the coach, known to generations of athletes in this tiny town as "Miss Webb," was the familiar taskmaster. During a two-on-one stickhandling drill when a shot flew far wide, she barked out, "Guys, come on, let's not waste this time. Let's go! Finish!"
During a break, though, Sherry Webb willingly allowed for moments of playful adolescence. She encouraged players to flick field hockey balls into the empty bucket of Scoop Away cat litter. As an overzealous attempt sailed toward two players sipping water in the bleachers, Webb yelled, "Incoming!"
With the seasonlong goal of "winning Western Mass." so close at hand, the team might have been expected to be practicing outside on the home field. After all, it seemed to be a perfectly nice day.
Except, that is, for the numbing fact that the players had just come from the funeral of teammate Bethany McMenimen. One week before, the 14-year-old collapsed of an apparent cardiac arrhythmia at the end of practice - a chilling scene witnessed by the entire team. Ever since, the field has been off limits.
"It doesn't even seem real in some ways," said Aly Czerniak, one of two seniors for Smith. "It happened, but it's so shocking."
"We're definitely planning to go back [to the field] eventually, maybe after the season . . . "
As her voice trailed off, the team's other senior, Abby Belden, finished the thought: "But now it's just not right."
Winning legacy
Hatfield is a proud agricultural community of 3,500 people. In early November, visitors can still purchase butternut squash from roadside stands, paying on the honor system. A sign at the First Congregational Church advertises a roast pork supper. Outside Smith Academy, the public school of 200 students from grades 7-12, orange-brown foliage pirouettes to earth, scraping onto the walkway.
The first thing visible upon entering the school's front lobby is six cases jammed with athletic trophies, some dating to the 1920s. The lobby feeds into the gym, where the cinder-block walls are covered with purple banners. All represent teams with triumphant memories.
Field hockey is a source of particular pride at Smith. The school counts as alums former Olympian Judy Strong ('78), and Kelly Dostal ('01), who became the national player of the year at Wake Forest, leading the Demon Deacons to three NCAA titles.
Sherry Webb has been the matriarch of the field hockey family for 34 years, all of them winning seasons. She has presided over a slew of league titles, five Western Mass. championships, and two state crowns.
For many years, Webb was the only physical education teacher in town, teaching also at the elementary school, and coaching high school field hockey, basketball, and softball. She has taped the ankles of many of her current players' parents.
In the 1980s, she became the school's athletic director and gave up coaching basketball. In the '90s, she gave up softball, a team she had led to two state titles. Field hockey, though, remains her baby.
"It's the hardest sport to play," she insists. "The girls own it. No one else gets it. It's a powerful, powerful bond."
Even so, it hasn't been easy to maintain a high-level program. Eight years ago, the school added girls' soccer. As a proponent of opportunity for girls in sports, Webb supported the move, but she knew the talent drain from field hockey was inevitable. This year it became severe as Smith had to drop its junior varsity team. With just two seniors and two juniors, Webb fielded a roster of 15 varsity players.
That gave a rare opportunity to a ninth-grader who had never played the game, a brown-haired comet of energy by the name of Bethany McMenimen.
Determined efforts
McMenimen came from Holyoke, one of about two dozen School Choice students at Smith. (The School Choice program allows students to select a school other than the one in their neighborhood.) She had a rough go of it in her family. After her father died five years ago, she went to live with her older sister, Leanne, brother-in-law Jesse Fortier, and their two young daughters, Hannah and Olivia.
In fifth grade, she started attending school in Hatfield. Two years later she blazed into Smith Academy, determined to soak up every piece of the small-school experience. She poured herself into classes, stating her goal of becoming a reproductive endocrinologist. After school, there was McMenimen, writing for the school newspaper. Singing in the choir. Acting. Joining the Model United Nations.
Art teacher Julie Muellejans was startled when this particularly petite seventh-grader showed up at the first meeting for the school yearbook. The room was filled with juniors and seniors, those invested in preserving high school memories.
"I had never had a seventh-grader participate before," Muellejans recalled. "But she just jumped right in, very naturally and unself-consciously. She would go running off - literally - to get things accomplished. She had a lot of zeal in everything she did."
McMenimen often expressed to Webb her desire to play field hockey, but it was hard for her family to make that commitment, given the long commute. This year, they relented, and the 14-year-old attacked the new activity with all of her considerable energy. Proudly, she donned her No. 7 uniform and joined the fray.
On the nights before games, the Falcons would often have team dinners in Hatfield. To make this work for McMenimen, Webb often drove her to the dinner. During one such journey, McMenimen asked, "Miss Webb, do you think they like me?"
"Of course they like you. They like you a lot."
"Are you sure, Miss Webb?"
"Yes, Bethany, I'm sure."
"That's funny, because, you know . . . I'm a little quirky."
'We knew we were in trouble'
In late October, Smith finished its regular season with a 10-6-2 record. The Falcons drew a first-round bye in the playoffs, and had several days to prepare for a semifinal game against South Hadley Tuesday, Nov. 6.
At the end of practice Thursday, Nov. 1, Webb had the team run its customary lap around the field. Right at the end, McMenimen collapsed. At first, Webb, used to McMenimen's humor, yelled, "Bethany - get up!" When she didn't respond, Webb raced over and grabbed her player's wrist.
"We knew we were in trouble," Webb said days later in a hushed voice. "Big trouble."
In a blur, she called 911, performed mouth to mouth, did chest compressions. Soon piercing sirens filled the air, the police, the ambulance with the defibrillator. Webb accompanied principal Scott Goldman to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, and later to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, while the shaken players headed into the school, crying to teachers, "Where's Miss Webb? Why isn't Miss Webb here? We need Miss Webb!"
On Friday, after anguished consultation with doctors, the family decided to end life support and gave permission to Goldman to communicate that to students. McMenimen died later that afternoon.
The surreal weekend began with a candlelight vigil Friday night. On Saturday and Sunday, Webb stayed with the team at one player's house or another, making a memory book for the family, bracelets, armbands, and pink tie-dye shirts. They cried and hugged and held on the best they could.
"If any of you feel that we can't go forward [with the playoffs], we won't," Webb told her players. "It's that simple."
Everyone wanted to play. Noting McMenimen's number, Webb told her players, "It's going to take seven goals to win this tournament."
Tuesday's semifinal game was scoreless for most of the first half. Then a wild mix of wind and rain and snow whipped over the field. The Falcons scored one goal. Then another. And another. By the end, it was 5-0. Back at Smith Academy that night, Webb and several players saw a shooting star. "It was," she said, "the freakiest thing."
Wednesday was exhausting: school, practice, and Bethany's wake. Thursday was worse: the funeral, a team lunch, and then the indoor practice - perhaps the final one of the year.
At the end, Webb drew her brood around her at center court. She spoke for a minute, then said, "What's your job tonight?"
They called out in unison, "Sleep!"
No one looked more tired than Sherry Webb.
Best in the West
School seemed to last forever before the Western Mass. championship game Nov. 9. When the last bell rang, the players began decorating the bus, soaping each window with hearts and stars and messages like "Sisters Forev!" They then rumbled down to Westfield State College, site of the championship game, to play top-seeded Greenfield.
Hatfield families huddled together on aluminum bleachers, clutching cups of coffee, rooting their hearts out for players in purple uniforms and black leggings. The game proceeded with its thousand little forays and zigzags. Passes across the goal mouth led to long "oohs" of disappointment or relief.
Through the first half, Smith had the best of the play, but the game remained scoreless.
Eleven and a half minutes into the second half there was a flurry in front of the Smith net, and then a sickening clank.
The Falcons were down, 1-0.
"We were all like, 'Oh no, oh no,' " Belden later reflected. "But Aly [Czerniak] and I pulled the team together and said, 'Guys, we've done this before. Just don't give up.' "
Less than a minute later, the score was tied as Sarah Wickles ripped a rebound past the Greenfield goalie. A few minutes later, there was Wickles again, cleaning up a clearing pass on the far side. Just like that, Smith Academy was ahead, 2-1.
When time ran out, Webb remained on the sideline, letting the players have their celebration on the field. They hugged each other, tears streaming down the glitter they had put on their faces. Many pointed index fingers to the sky. Then they came sprinting across the field, flying into Miss Webb with everything they had.
"This team," Webb said, choking back the emotion. "I've had a lot of special teams, but what these young women have had to overcome in the last week is just unimaginable."
Coming up just short
On Monday, in the semifinals of the state tournament, Smith faced Central Mass. champion Quaboag Regional, an undefeated squad that had allowed only one goal all season. The Falcons did manage to score, but they proved no match for Quaboag, falling, 6-1. They would have needed the magic seven to win.
Quaboag plays for the state title today against Eastern Mass. champion Canton.
Webb and her players returned to school Tuesday, an unforgettable season now behind them.
"It feels weird," said Belden, sitting in the gym at the end of the day. "To just go off and go home doesn't feel right."
Belden said she will be looking after her younger teammates all year, checking in, making sure everyone is OK.
"Next year they will be a strong team because they've gone through so much," she said. "They'll build off tragic things, but they'll also build off a Western Mass. championship, which is great."
The memory of Bethany McMenimen, Webb said, will be indelible. "I've heard people use that French phrase 'joie de vivre' -- she just had it," said Webb. "She touched so many lives in such a short amount of time. She was just ready to go. Bring it on."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
