This past Wednesday, the HHS sailing team met at the South Shore Country Club for their end of season banquet, marking the end of what was truly an unprecedented showing this year from one of the High School’s most successful, yet little known teams. As their fearless leader, Head Coach Joseph “Joe” Griffin Jr, congratulated the team on their hard work and named the next season’s captains, he couldn’t help reflecting on the growth the team has undergone within the past few years as he said farewell to the senior class of sailors who, as he humbly states, are “largely responsible for recruiting the current team”.
Ellie Smith, a graduating senior this year at HHS and one of the sailing team’s two senior captains agrees with Joe, stating, “It’s amazing how much our team has grown since my freshman year, we started out with eight people and have grown to twenty, allowing us a full varsity and JV roster and really giving us the opportunity to practice team racing more and improve our skills as a team. I think building our team up allowed us to rise from Division B to A, and eventually win A. This year was a really huge accomplishment that I think we have been working towards for a long time.” Ellie also went on to describe how the organic growth of the sailing team sets it apart from other competitors teams, uniquely positioning them for success in the future, stating, “I’m also particularly impressed with our girls team, we are three year consecutive winners of an all-women’s team regatta and our varsity is primarily all girls which is really unique for a team like ours. I know the team will do really well in the coming years and I am excited to see their future accomplishments.”
However, beyond the recruitment of the current team by the senior class, everyone on the team acknowledges that the other big part of the team’s success has been the positive culture cultivated by Coach Joe Griffin, whose efforts at working just as hard with the burgeoning JV team in recent years as he does with the varsity have been instrumental in the overall team’s health and success. Audrey Smith, a sophomore at HHS who will begin the next sailing season as a captain, states “Our Coach really values strengthening all aspects of our team, especially the JV team. This year we had the opportunity to race a varsity meet with three JV skippers, which we won. This would not have been possible without Joe and his amazing coaching skills. He tries hard to make new sailors feel included and integrates them into practice with the upperclassmen, like how he did for me this year and last year. It really speaks to how our team has grown and will continue to grow in the future years with many classes of super talented sailors.”
Such a combination of competent team members and coaching style has culminated in this season, which Coach Joe and others on the team view as not an isolated success, but as the result of years of hard work and improvement of the team as a whole. Even if you do not take their word for it, the results speak for themselves. Chris Hoppe, a junior at HHS, and the only one of the team’s three captains who will remain for next year, states, “We had our strongest season in decades. The team placed first at the keelboat kickoff event at courageous sailing, won the Linda Juliano team race tournament, got second in B division at the O’Day qualifier, second in A division at the Mass State championship, and won second in the Mercury silver fleet at the Zimba Championship, as well as being the Mass Bay League team race champions and Making the NESSA Terk Trophy for the first time in many years.”
Ultimately, despite losing four of the best sailors on the team with the graduation of the sailing team’s pivotal senior class, the remaining members of the team remain optimistic for their future, as the work done this season has already begun to mold the leaders of the team for next year. Caroline O’Hara, a junior at HHS who will join Chris Hoppe and Audrey Smith as captains next year, states, “Despite the fact that we will sadly be losing four of our varsity sailors next year, I am sure that our hard work this year and all of the time we have put in as a team this past season towards the development of our team will be able to keep our team moving forward. I am so excited to carry on the team the seniors have worked so hard to build.”
