‘Wiggle Walk’ a fun path to exercise

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McKay Arts Academy students had gigantic smiles on their faces while staring down at the hallway floor.

There’s a reason to be excited because of those floors, as McKay and Fitchburg State University teamed up to create a hallway full of adventure dubbed the “Wiggle Walk.”

Bright and colorful stickers litter the downstairs hallway floors with exercise adventures like the crab crawl, hopscotch, follow the letters, the tree pose, toe to heel and so much more to open the students’ minds to adventure and intrigue.

“It’s a way for the kids to get it out, get the wiggles out,” said McKay Arts Academy K-1 special education teacher Allison Nealy.

The Wiggle Walk, also known as sensory walks or movement walks, has been a huge hit with the students, says McKay Principal Mark Pierce.

“I think it has been great to see the kids and how they use it,” he said. “It’s brand new to me, and it’s amazing how the kids are already attracted to it and use it every day.”

The teachers are getting into moving more during the school day, too.

“I have as many adults doing this as kids,” said McKay Assistant Principal Jonathan Flavhan, who took a particular liking to the tree pose.

The need to get up and move during the day for children is such a necessity.

“It’s more of a structured walk, the kids are not just running down the hall,” Nealy said. “ The kids want to do this. We’re seeing some benefits are helping behaviors, helping kids sit still, helping kids with their fine motor and gross motor. It’s beneficial all around.”

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Repairs planned at Fitchburg’s South Street Elementary School

Portions of South Street Elementary School were built nearly 80 years ago and its old age is starting to show; but steps to address some of the building’s shortcomings are moving forward.

On Tuesday, the Finance Committee approved about $115,000 in spending to enter into the schematic design phase to potentially replace the aging roof of the west wing and the boilers in the south wing of the facility.

According to Superintendent Robert Jokela, the upgrades are much needed improvement at South Street.

“The boilers have reached the end of their useful life, and they will be replaced with more energy efficient units,” he said. “ The slate roof is original, 1940, to the West building, and needs replacing.”

The building complex consists of four wings that were built over the course of three decades, starting in 1940.

The original buildings were used as the campus for Holy Family High School until it was acquired by the Fitchburg School Department in the 1990s.

The west building was constructed as a free standing, four-story convent with a basement in 1940. The north building was built in the 1950s, the south building in the 1960s, and the east building in the 1990s.

It is important to note each wing contains a separate, independently operating boiler room.

According to Jokela, it will cost about $40,000 to complete the design study for the boilers, and about $75,000 for the roof.

Fitchburg Public Schools will be partnering with the Massachusetts School Buildings Authority’s Accelerated Repair program, which would potentially reimburse certain aspects of the project at 80%.

Funding for the project is required within 90 days after the Building Authority approves the project scope and budget based on the design.

Jokela said they hope to start the construction process in the summer of 2020.

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$300K grant to boost FHS fieldhouse

The High School building and fieldhouse will soon shine a bit brighter thanks to a nearly $300,000 boost in funding from the state’s Green Communities program, which will pay for the installation of energy efficient lights at the facility.

On Tuesday, the state Department of Energy Resources awarded Green Communities competitive grants totaling about $15 million to cities and towns across the commonwealth. It is the largest award in the Green Communities program history.

“These grants help municipalities reduce energy use and costs by way of clean energy projects in municipal buildings, facilities, and schools,” said Sen. Dean Tran in a Facebook post. Fitchburg School Committee member Sally Cragin said the funding will help the district move toward its goal of making every school building better.

“That is a huge goal,” she said. “But it is possible with leadership and follow- through and this announcement makes me smile. Very exciting for out biggest school building.”

The high school will be receiving approximately $250,000 from the grant to retrofit the building will LED lights.

According to A. J. Tourigny, the chief of staff to the mayor, the focus will be on updating the fixtures in classrooms, administrative offices, and the field house.

In addition to the grant, Unitil will be providing the school with about $ 50,000 in utility incentives to go toward the project. The additional sum brings the entire project total to about $300,000.

Tourigny says the project will help the School Department save about $20,000 a year in utility bills.

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FATV’s generosity will aid Red Raiders

Thanks to a donation of a new public address sound system by Fitchburg Access Television, the voice of announcer Chris Woods will be loud and clear on Friday night when the Fitchburg High football team hosts Tantasqua at historic Crocker Field.

“The generous donation from FATV will help modernize the facilities at Crocker Field and improve the fan experience for those attending games,” said Fitchburg Athletic Director Craig Antocci. “ We want people to visit Crocker Field and experience the atmosphere of inter- scholastic sports in one of the iconic stadiums in the country. There was a time when Crocker Field would be standing room only on Friday nights in the fall, and hopefully with generous gifts like this one and a competitive product on the field, we can create that type of atmosphere again.

“In the future it is our ( Crocker Field Restoration Committee) aim to continue to develop partnerships with the local business community that will allow us to target and action even larger upgrades to the facility. Thanks again to Nathan Glenny and Fitchburg Access Television for contributing to the best urban school district in the state.”

Gone are the days of a distorted speaker billowing into the hills of Northern Worcester County.

The new installation, a $ 20,000 investment from FATV, is the local non- profit’s way of demonstrating how working together for a stronger community can take shape.

“The board of directors unanimously voted in favor of making a donation to the Crocker Field Restoration Committee, an effort we all felt helps maintain one of Fitchburg’s downtown gems,” said Glenny, FATV’s vice president of the board of directors.

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Anthony Oquendo, Tom DiGeronimo have Fitchburg off and running

The Fitchburg High football team opened its 2019 campaign in thrilling fashion, pulling out a 35-28 victory on the road over West Springfield on Friday thanks to running back Anthony Oquendo’s goahead touchdown with 9.3 seconds left in regulation.

Oquendo scored three times, and totaled 233 yards on the ground on 22 carries.

Third-year Fitchburg coach Tom DiGeronimo said he credited his team for hanging in to the very end.

“Our kids did a great job of dealing with adversity,” he said. “We didn’t panic, made plays when we had to make plays, and we really responded to some difficult situations that we put ourselves in.”

Many of those difficult situations were penalties, something DiGeronimo said his team will work on this week ahead of this Friday’s matchup with Tantasqua.

The Red Raiders racked up an impressive 480 total yards on the ground, led by Oquendo, who is only a sophomore. “He’s very humble, very quiet, very competitive and an extremely hard worker,” DiGeronimo said. “He’s very unselfish.”

An example of Oquendo’s unselfishness showed during the the game, when DiGeronimo subbed him out.

“The first thing he said to me was how great the kids did who came in for him,” DiGeronimo said. “He’s a great kid to coach and a team player — as good as a football player as he is, he’s that much better of a kid.”

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McCall returns to Red Raider roots

When Chris Woods, the legendary track and field coach at Fitchburg High School, had
nominated James McCall for the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006, he wrote, “James desires to give back to the community that aided in his development so greatly.”

And since McCall graduated, he has — as he was wont to say during his high school days — oh- most definitely done that, serving as a 15-year veteran of the police department; he has also been an assistant football, assistant track, and assistant basketball coach at his alma mater.

He’s been a mentor, a sounding board. A friend. A guiding influence in the lives of hundreds of young men.

On Monday afternoon, he added a new title, a coveted title, to his giving- back resume.

First- year Fitchburg Athletic Director Craig Antocci announced that McCall, a 1995 FHS graduate and an FHS Hall of Famer, will be the school’s 10th head boys’ basketball coach since 1915, the sixth in the 21st Century — and the second African- American head coach of a major varsity sports program in the school’s glorious athletic history.

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Fitchburg’s Romero joins advisory committee

As a three- sport athlete at Fitchburg High School, junior Rachel Romero continues to develop her leadership skills on and off the field.

Romero has now been given the chance to mentor other high school athletes, as she was recently named to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Student Advisory Committee.

According to the MIAA, this committee is comprised of students who participated in the New England Student Leadership Conference (NESLC) and/or the MIAA Student Ambassador program. Student Advisory Committee members attend seasonal meetings with the Educational Athletics Committee and help facilitate student and captains leadership workshops throughout the school year. In addition, these students are asked to participate in various
association activities and provide continual feedback from the perspective of students on how to improve the educational athletic offerings of the MIAA.

Romero is one of 19 students on the committee through six different districts in the state. She is also joined by Fitchburg High senior and returning committee member, Luis Aldarondo.

“ I was completely surprised because the interview was scary,” said Romero. “ It was like four people against me, so it was intimidating but it was super awesome because I didn’t think it was
going to happen like that. Since Luis is already on the committee, I didn’t think they would take two people from the same school. It was rough, but at the same time I was happy and excited.”

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Fitchburg Outlasts No. 11 West Springfield, 35-28

Blame it on the full orange moon. Or maybe on Friday the 13th.

Whatever the cause, Clark Field was the scene of a fast, furious, and downright exhausting high school football game decided in the last nine seconds where the visiting Red Raiders of Fitchburg outlasted the West Springfield Terriers, 35-28.

What will be remembered most by the boisterous gathering will be the never-ending line of yellow flags from start to finish.

Officials penalized the two teams a combined 38 times totaling 303 yards (190 on Fitchburg, 113 on West Side).

While the infractions created a wave of frustration on both sidelines and throughout the stands, the two schools combined for over 740 yards total offense and a frenetic final five minutes leading to a fantastic finish.

Fitchburg, which pounded out 480 yards rushing, refused to panic tied with 2:19 to go and unleashed a volley on the ground behind splendid sophomore Anthony Oquendo (22 carries, 233 yards, three touchdowns). On the decisive 75-yard march, Fitchburg rolled through the West Side defense on carries of 13 and 22 yards by Dunkin Poytress (6 carries /51 yards), and Oquendo (12 and 20 yards).

On a sweep right, Oquendo reached the pylon before the wave of defenders for his third touchdown with 9.3 seconds remaining. Kicker Justin Comesana drilled his fifth straight extra point and the celebration on the Fitchburg sideline began.

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Where are they now: Former Fitchburg High lineman Keith Leavitt treasures home

Before Keith Leavitt’s son was born, he had about 10 photos in his phone.

“Now,” the very proud papa said, “I have about a million.”

Leavitt and his wife, Erin, welcomed Jaxson, their first child, into the world last November. At 9 months old, Jaxson is starting to discover every corner of the family’s Fitchburg home. “He’s crawling around like a mad man,” Leavitt said with a laugh.

Twenty-one years ago this fall, Leavitt was wreaking his own kind of havoc on Crocker Field and other area gridirons as a two-way, titanic senior lineman for Fitchburg High, and sorting through stacks of college recruiting letters. Leavitt ultimately played at Boston College, where he earned his degree in sociology.

During his playing days, Leavitt stood out because of his stature — 6 feet, 7 inches, and, as a senior at BC, 340 pounds — and those well-chronicled size 18 shoes, and also because of his humility, kindheartedness and unselfishness.

“Keith is a coach’s dream,” Leavitt’s Fitchburg High coach Ray Cosenza once said. “He’s just a role model of the school.”

Leavitt, 38, has worked as a probation officer at the Worcester courthouse since 2006.

Read more here.

Local Sports Notebook

Still buzzing over Anthony Oquendo’s TD run to lift Fitchburg to its first win of the season, Monty Tech’s thrilling triple overtime win over Keefe Tech, and Oakmont’s big win over Gardner. Interesting to note the federation rules that now govern Massachusetts high school football: there is a running clock in the second half. If the point spread is at 42 points at any time in the
third quarter, either entering it or during it, the clock runs. If it’s at 30 at any time in the fourth, either entering it or during it, the clock runs. That certainly makes up for the additional four minutes added on.

We’re also hearing that Fitchburg-West Springfield game was nearly three and- a- half hours long. Plus the drive back along the Pike and north from Worcester.

Also buzzing about Fitchburg’s 4 – 0 field hockey win over St. Bernard’s Friday afternoon. Would like to see this group gain additional confidence. Congrats to coach Jenn Scott and her team.

A group of inmates over at MCI Shirley went over to Fitchburg’s Amiott Field earlier last week and did some work cleaning up the overgrowth at the Red Raider football team’s practice facility. Some of the trees had grown in over on the northern side of the field, and the crew got rid of it all.

Pictures posted on the Fitchburg Public Schools’ social media accounts on Wednesday showed the work that had been done, revealing a short stone wall. And that’s when I learned that Amiott Field had a stone wall there.

Another FHS field beautification project? Beaulac Brothers Landscaping, co-owned by Mike Beaulac ( FHS 1994) and Jamie Beaulac ( the Mighty Class of 1996), and Steve Bean’s Hilltop Landscaping donated time and materials a couple of weeks ago to help sculpt an area near the first base visitors’ dugout at the Fitchburg High baseball field, turning into a viewing area.

I call dibs on the corner.

One of the cool things that new Fitchburg athletic director Craig Antocci has instituted so far? Male and Female Student- Athlete of the Week Awards. And as it turns out, it’s something that he has reinstituted. “ That’s a throwback to Doug Grutchfield,” Antocci said during Sunday morning’s edition of the Scholastic Sports Zone on WPKZ (105.3 FM). “ When we were
transitioning the athletic office from Ray (Cosenza) to myself, we were sifting through piles of stuff that collects in the office, and Doug was the first athletic director to sit in the office I have now.

“I came across these plaques that were Red Raider Achievement Awards. I asked Coach, ‘ What were these used for?’” Antocci said that Cosenza relayed that they were used as Athlete of the
Week awards.

“Great idea,” he said. “ We have kids that are working so hard out there, and for an urban school, we don’t always get recognized for (more than) wins or losses … I thought it was a great opportunity to recognize these kids, who are some of Fitchburg’s Finest through a social media venue that goes out to the community, so we can be proud of these kids for the work they are putting in.

“It’s taken off; the criteria for that? We’re looking at kids who are working hard in the classroom, kids who understand they are student- athletes, that are looking to lend a helping hand to any of their teammates, and being positive role models.”

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