Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Winter 2007 | Page 11

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THORNTON ATHLETICS:

Getting Middle Grades
into the Game
As Thornton Academy paved
the way for its 132 new students in
grades 6 through 8 to arrive this
fall, countless hours were spent in
the previous year making plans,
remodeling Thornton’s former industrial arts building into a stateof-the-art middle school, hiring
talented middle school faculty and
staff, and designing a top-notch academic curriculum, complete with
extracurricular activities. But the
planning and development didn’t
stop at the classroom. Thanks to
the careful consideration and commitment of administrators, faculty
and staff, this year Thornton Academy also welcomed several new
athletic teams in grades 6 through
8 to its rosters.
This fall, Thornton Academy’s
middle school program welcomed
a boys and a girls soccer team.
This winter, the middle school
boys and girls are competing
in basketball. And this spring,
Thornton will welcome new teams
in baseball and softball for the
middle grades.
“Obviously, the planning
started well over a year ago, before
school got started. We had to apply
to the league and put the development processes in place,” says
Thornton Academy Director of
Athletics Dick Agreste.
All of Thornton’s middle
school athletic teams compete in
the Southern Maine Middle School
Athletic Conference (SMMAC),
which hosts public and independent middle school teams from a
wide geographic region, including
Biddeford, Saco, Acton, Sanford,
Kennebunk, Bonney Eagle and
Shapleigh.
Offering such athletic opportunities to Thornton’s newest
students have given them an outlet
to compete outside the classroom, but also the opportunity to
become immediate members of
Thornton’s long history and tradition of athletics and to feel and
understand what Thornton pride is

all about.
“In any athletic program you
want to get kids to be exposed
to benefits of participating in a
team sport,” says Agreste. “Of
course, our middle school athletic
program also provides excellent
feeder to our athletics program at
the high school level.”
Because this is the first year
Thornton has had a middle school
program and, consequently, a
middle school athletic program,
the decision was made to let all
students who came out for a team
have the opportunity to play.
In its first season, Thornton’s
middle school boys soccer team
had 16 players representing all
three grades, while the middle
school girls soccer team boasted
15 players from grades 7 and 8.
Coaching the boys soccer team
this year was Ryan Hersey, seventh
and eighth grade science/reading
teacher. Before coming to Thornton, Hersey had prior coaching
experience and played soccer himself in college. Although Hersey
was uncertain what to expect from
Thornton’s middle school boys
team during their first season, He
knew he could draw from his previous experience coaching another
startup team.
“It was fun to see our students
in another setting outside of the
classroom, and to have the opportunity to connect with them on a
new level,” adds Hersey.
This fall, Tracie Saucier True
’95, seventh and eighth grade
mathematics/reading teacher, took
the helm as Thornton’s first middle school girls soccer coach. True
also brought coaching experience
with her to Thornton this year.
She also played soccer throughout
high school and college. Looking
back, True says participating in
athletics was one of her favorite
high school experiences and that
she understands the impact sports
can make on a student.
“Athletics can make such

Members of
the Thornton’s
middle school
boys soccer team
huddle around
Coach Ryan
Hersey during a
game.

Thornton middle
school basketball
player McKenzie
Labbe ‘13 shares
the play strategy
during a game.

a difference for students of all
abilities,” says True. “It allows for
students who may not excel in academics the chance to shine.”
This winter, Thornton’s middle
school students are competing
for the first time in boys and girls
basketball, boasting a boys team
of 12 players from grades 7 and
8 girls team of 12 players from
grades 6 – 8.
The startup of the middle
school boys basketball team has
brought back former Thornton
basketball coach Marc Gagne to
the court. Gagne, a 20-year veteran
teacher at Thornton, currently
teaches history at the high school
level and serves as chair of his
department. During his tenure,
Gagne has coached football and
basketball at the high school level.
“When the opportunity for the
middle school’s basketball coach
became available, it made sense
for me to explore it and get involved again, this time with much
younger students,” says Gagne.
“We tell all our students to get involved, to find something they are
interested in. How can we really
do that if we don’t ask ourselves to
get involved?”
Taking the lead as coach of
the middle school girls basketball
team is seventh and eight grade
English and reading teacher Bob
LePauloue ’93. Prior to coming
to Thornton Academy this year,
LePauloue coached boys basketball
and girls softball at Saco Middle
School.
“I love coaching,” he says. “The
student-to-teacher relationship is
much different from that of the
athlete-to-coach. When the students are playing sports, you can
see them building their confidence
levels. They are living the Thornton pride.”
But the current success of
Thornton’s growing middle school
athletics program cannot only be
credited to the coaches and the
player. Oth