Mansfield High School All-Sports Booster Club
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| Mansfield High School Alumni |
| Mandy Zimmerman and Katie McCarter, 2006 Mansfield High School graduates, are members of the University of New Hampshire synchronized skating team, which took third in the Eastern Regionals in Providence and eighth in the Porter Competition in Michigan and next weekend will head to Colorado Springs for the Nationals ... |
| Alumni Tidbits BY PETER GOBIS / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF |
| At the Northeast 10 Championship Track Meet, former Mansfield High track stars Steve Stanley (2nd place, medley relay) and Terry Young (fifth place, long jump, 22-1 ) placed for the UMass-Lowell track team, while for the girls' team, former North Attleboro High distance runner Jenna Banks was fifth in the mile (5:28) and ex-Hornet Courtney Lincoln was second in the high jump (5-1) ... |
| Friday, February 23, 2007 |
Baker makes history at FSC
BY DANNY CRANDALL SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Sunday, November 18, 2007 12:21 AM EST
When the subject was first brought up she thought it was tongue-in-cheek,
somewhat of a joke.
"I guess she kind of just laughed it off," said Tom Kelley, Athletic Director
and head football coach at Framingham St. College.
But the notion was never completely dismissed, and the next time she was
asked she knew it wasn't a joke. Now it was a challenge, and she
accepted.
"I really felt it was worth seeing her kick a football, and she's done the
job," Kelley added.
You should think about coming out for the football team.
BY DANNY CRANDALL SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Sunday, November 18, 2007 12:21 AM EST
When the subject was first brought up she thought it was tongue-in-cheek,
somewhat of a joke.
"I guess she kind of just laughed it off," said Tom Kelley, Athletic Director
and head football coach at Framingham St. College.
But the notion was never completely dismissed, and the next time she was
asked she knew it wasn't a joke. Now it was a challenge, and she
accepted.
"I really felt it was worth seeing her kick a football, and she's done the
job," Kelley added.
You should think about coming out for the football team.
Those are the words very few girls/women ever hear, let alone fifth-year seniors at a Division III college.
But Ashley Baker indeed thought about going out for the football team, and once she made her decision she followed
through on it 110-percent.
She didn't just go out for the football team, she made the varsity. She didn't just make the varsity, she earned a job
as placekicker, kicking field goals and point-after-touchdowns. And she didn't just earn that job, she worked as hard
as she could to be the best at it, to refine her craft, never cutting corners, never playing the female card, instead,
doing everything that was asked of her by her coaches and teammates... and more.
Baker, a Mansfield High graduate, finished the season with eight extra points and one field goal, giving her 11 career
points in her first-ever go-round on the football field. Hardly eye-popping statistic for your average college kicker, but
Baker isn't your average kicker. She's a history-making kicker, the first female to play football at Framingham St.
College and one of the all-time leading scorers among all females at any NCAA level.
And that's no joke.
The fact that Baker could step onto the football field for the first time this season and accomplish what she did
comes as no surprise to those who know her.
She is a competitor and she is a natural athlete.
At Mansfield High there was nothing Baker couldn't do as she was an athlete for all seasons. Admittedly her first
love is soccer, seeing how she's been playing it for 17 years, and she was a standout for the Mansfield High girls'
soccer team, one of the best goalies the school has ever seen. In the winter she played center for the girls'
basketball team - ironically coached by Mansfield head football coach Mike Redding, though Redding never thought
about approaching Baker and asking her to kick for his Hornets.
Spring season saw Baker switch from catching, first base and outfield with the softball team to participating in
track, more specifically the shot put and discus.
She was recruited to play soccer at the collegiate level, playing goalie two years at Division III Utica. After spending
two years at the New York school, Baker decided to transfer to Framingham St. and she used up her remaining two
years of NCAA eligibility for soccer with the Rams, earning first-team MASCAC all-star recognition her senior season.
And despite tending goal for the Rams, Baker also managed to contribute to the team offensively, scoring three
goals, all from at least 50 yards out.
That's what caught Kelley's attention, Baker's uncanny ability to kick with accuracy from such a long distance, not
only on the three goals she scored but on goal kicks throughout the course of the season. Could it translate onto the
football field? Kelley figured there was no harm in throwing it out there, asking Baker if she was interested.
"I've always been a fan of football, a fan of the Patriots and stuff, but I never thought about playing football," admitted
Baker, the 23-year old who is majoring in Geography/Global Studies, with an eye toward getting her masters in
Elementary Education. "Coach (Kelley) had been asking me about it since the end of the soccer season and the more
I thought about it I thought I'd take a shot at it."
Imagine, though, for a minute, being John Baker. What would your reaction be?
Your visions of gridiron glory exchanged long ago for ballet slippers and dance lessons, but one day your 23-year-old
- the youngest of your two daughters - tells you she's thinking about playing college football.
'Ahhh, the son I never had.'
Or maybe it was more like:
'Whoa, whoa, whoa. No daughter of mine is playing football!'
"If I decided to go out for the marching band or do something like that I'd have full support from my father, both my
parents," Baker said. "They were ecstatic about it. The first comment my dad made was that he never thought he'd
see the day where I'd be in football pads. But we talked about it and they were all for it."
Added John, "I don't think we had any reservations about her ability to play football. We told her that if that's what
she wanted to do, to go for it.
"Ashley's main concern was that she wanted to just be part of the team and not be the center of attention. She didn't
know how that was going to work out. She really has a we-not-me attitude, where she puts the team first. She was
like that with soccer... every sport she's ever played. She doesn't want the spotlight," added John. "But to be honest,
I'm glad she's finally getting the recognition for what she's accomplished, because she really didn't get it when she
was playing soccer, and she's a great soccer player."
The aforementioned sparkling soccer career behind her and the decision made, Baker was starting a new chapter
of her Framingham St. College athletic career as a placekicker. And, as with all previous endeavors on and off the
field, she was going to put every ounce of time and energy into being the best kicker possible.
Instead of waiting until the Rams opened camp, she spent parts of the spring and summer, in between courses,
working with senior teammate Matt McRae. It was important to Baker to get used to kicking off a tee, get used to
kicking an oblong ball, which proved to be far more challenging than she ever thought.
Perhaps more importantly, the other thing Baker wanted to do was get a head start on establishing a relationship
with her new teammates.
Aside from being able to kick, and kick well, it was equally important to Baker that she receive no special treatment
for being a female in a male-dominated sport.
"I just wanted to be treated as one of the guys," said Baker, whose Framingham St. experience also included a
semester abroad studying in Australia. "And in the end, I have to admit this was one of the best experiences of my
life. I couldn't have imagined a greater group of guys to work with as teammates. Everyone was so supportive it was
unbelievable. And I can't thank Coach Kelley enough for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the team."
One of the reasons her teammates were so receptive had to be Baker's willingness to do everything they had to do -
from preseason conditioning to rigorous practice drills. She refused any special treatment.
"I did everything I could do," Baker admitted. "I didn't want to seem like an outsider. I told Coach Kelley if I was going
to play football I was going to be part of the team. I did regular conditioning drills and worked out in practice Tuesday
through Friday, just like everyone else. When the other guys were working on game-plans and running plays, us
kickers would be doing kicking drills."
Received and respected by her teammates, she got help and words of encouragement from anyone who offered it,
from assistant coaches to teammates, and even opposing players.
"(Framingham St. teammate who handled kickoffs and some field goals) Shawn Miller helped a lot. I think everyone
involved with special teams helped each other a lot," Baker said. "We'd hang out of the sidelines and talk kicking,
how to do things better, it wasn't like they were just trying to help me because I'm female. They were trying to help
me because I'm a kicker."
All the countless hours and kicks logged during the summer months, all the stretches, all the conditioning finally
came to fruition on a Saturday afternoon in mid-September - the 15th to be exact, around 2:30ish, in Cambridge.
The Rams were blanked in their season opener, a 14-0 home loss to Nichols, meaning Baker never got a chance to
figure in on the scoring. A week later, Baker made history, helping Framingham St. to a 17-10 road victory over MIT.
With 5:58 left in the second quarter and Framingham St. trailing 3-0, Baker took the field and calmly measured out
her steps.
The snap by freshman Scott Lelakes was true, the hold by backup quarterback Bruce Rich was perfect and the kick
by Baker... was good! A 25-yarder to cap a seven-play, 32-yard drive and tie the game at 3-all.
But it was more than just a 25-yarder.
"It felt good," said Baker, who also added two PAT kicks in the fourth quarter as Framingham St. scored 14
unanswered points and rallied for the win. "I wasn't really that nervous, just trying to concentrate on kicking, that's
all. I was really excited more than anything. I had a job to do and I was just determined to go out there and get it
done."
Baker's parents watched from the stands, John recalling his daughter's accomplishments.
"Compared to watching her play soccer, it was boring as hell," quipped the elder Baker, who attended some 25 of
his daughter's 32 soccer matches. "Being a goalie, she was always involved, always in the play. Football, she was
standing on the sidelines for most of the game. In all seriousness, though, we're very proud of her, very proud. She's
the type of person who sets out to do something and does it right. So we knew she could do it."
For the season, Baker was seventh on the team in scoring, converting one of two field goal tries while going 8-for-12
on extra points, that totalling up to the 11 points. None of them easy points.
"Having done both, placekicker is definitely the harder of the two," said Baker, comparing her gridiron exploits to her
work on the soccer pitch. "With a soccer ball, even if you don't hit it square it's still going to go forward and land in
the field of play. With a football, if you don't hit it right you don't really know where it's going to go. You really have to
concentrate when you're kicking a football, where it's oblong as opposed to a round soccer ball."
Baker still kicks the soccer ball around, playing for the Northboro Cyclones in a women's summer league, but her
football days are over, the Rams losing their last six games to check out at 2-7.
"(Playing football) was one of the greatest experiences of my life," said Baker. "It's something I'll never forget."
Though Baker shied away from the media during the regular season for fears of turning her successes into a
spectacle, she has gone on to be the subject of countless newspaper articles across the state, as well as USA
Today, and she was featured during a spot on ESPN's College Football Live just this past Monday.
Deserved recognition for someone whose ground-breaking accomplishments and selflessness won't soon be
forgotten.
DANNY CRANDALL can be reached at 508-236-0395 or at dcrandall@thesunchronicle.com.
But Ashley Baker indeed thought about going out for the football team, and once she made her decision she followed
through on it 110-percent.
She didn't just go out for the football team, she made the varsity. She didn't just make the varsity, she earned a job
as placekicker, kicking field goals and point-after-touchdowns. And she didn't just earn that job, she worked as hard
as she could to be the best at it, to refine her craft, never cutting corners, never playing the female card, instead,
doing everything that was asked of her by her coaches and teammates... and more.
Baker, a Mansfield High graduate, finished the season with eight extra points and one field goal, giving her 11 career
points in her first-ever go-round on the football field. Hardly eye-popping statistic for your average college kicker, but
Baker isn't your average kicker. She's a history-making kicker, the first female to play football at Framingham St.
College and one of the all-time leading scorers among all females at any NCAA level.
And that's no joke.
The fact that Baker could step onto the football field for the first time this season and accomplish what she did
comes as no surprise to those who know her.
She is a competitor and she is a natural athlete.
At Mansfield High there was nothing Baker couldn't do as she was an athlete for all seasons. Admittedly her first
love is soccer, seeing how she's been playing it for 17 years, and she was a standout for the Mansfield High girls'
soccer team, one of the best goalies the school has ever seen. In the winter she played center for the girls'
basketball team - ironically coached by Mansfield head football coach Mike Redding, though Redding never thought
about approaching Baker and asking her to kick for his Hornets.
Spring season saw Baker switch from catching, first base and outfield with the softball team to participating in
track, more specifically the shot put and discus.
She was recruited to play soccer at the collegiate level, playing goalie two years at Division III Utica. After spending
two years at the New York school, Baker decided to transfer to Framingham St. and she used up her remaining two
years of NCAA eligibility for soccer with the Rams, earning first-team MASCAC all-star recognition her senior season.
And despite tending goal for the Rams, Baker also managed to contribute to the team offensively, scoring three
goals, all from at least 50 yards out.
That's what caught Kelley's attention, Baker's uncanny ability to kick with accuracy from such a long distance, not
only on the three goals she scored but on goal kicks throughout the course of the season. Could it translate onto the
football field? Kelley figured there was no harm in throwing it out there, asking Baker if she was interested.
"I've always been a fan of football, a fan of the Patriots and stuff, but I never thought about playing football," admitted
Baker, the 23-year old who is majoring in Geography/Global Studies, with an eye toward getting her masters in
Elementary Education. "Coach (Kelley) had been asking me about it since the end of the soccer season and the more
I thought about it I thought I'd take a shot at it."
Imagine, though, for a minute, being John Baker. What would your reaction be?
Your visions of gridiron glory exchanged long ago for ballet slippers and dance lessons, but one day your 23-year-old
- the youngest of your two daughters - tells you she's thinking about playing college football.
'Ahhh, the son I never had.'
Or maybe it was more like:
'Whoa, whoa, whoa. No daughter of mine is playing football!'
"If I decided to go out for the marching band or do something like that I'd have full support from my father, both my
parents," Baker said. "They were ecstatic about it. The first comment my dad made was that he never thought he'd
see the day where I'd be in football pads. But we talked about it and they were all for it."
Added John, "I don't think we had any reservations about her ability to play football. We told her that if that's what
she wanted to do, to go for it.
"Ashley's main concern was that she wanted to just be part of the team and not be the center of attention. She didn't
know how that was going to work out. She really has a we-not-me attitude, where she puts the team first. She was
like that with soccer... every sport she's ever played. She doesn't want the spotlight," added John. "But to be honest,
I'm glad she's finally getting the recognition for what she's accomplished, because she really didn't get it when she
was playing soccer, and she's a great soccer player."
The aforementioned sparkling soccer career behind her and the decision made, Baker was starting a new chapter
of her Framingham St. College athletic career as a placekicker. And, as with all previous endeavors on and off the
field, she was going to put every ounce of time and energy into being the best kicker possible.
Instead of waiting until the Rams opened camp, she spent parts of the spring and summer, in between courses,
working with senior teammate Matt McRae. It was important to Baker to get used to kicking off a tee, get used to
kicking an oblong ball, which proved to be far more challenging than she ever thought.
Perhaps more importantly, the other thing Baker wanted to do was get a head start on establishing a relationship
with her new teammates.
Aside from being able to kick, and kick well, it was equally important to Baker that she receive no special treatment
for being a female in a male-dominated sport.
"I just wanted to be treated as one of the guys," said Baker, whose Framingham St. experience also included a
semester abroad studying in Australia. "And in the end, I have to admit this was one of the best experiences of my
life. I couldn't have imagined a greater group of guys to work with as teammates. Everyone was so supportive it was
unbelievable. And I can't thank Coach Kelley enough for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the team."
One of the reasons her teammates were so receptive had to be Baker's willingness to do everything they had to do -
from preseason conditioning to rigorous practice drills. She refused any special treatment.
"I did everything I could do," Baker admitted. "I didn't want to seem like an outsider. I told Coach Kelley if I was going
to play football I was going to be part of the team. I did regular conditioning drills and worked out in practice Tuesday
through Friday, just like everyone else. When the other guys were working on game-plans and running plays, us
kickers would be doing kicking drills."
Received and respected by her teammates, she got help and words of encouragement from anyone who offered it,
from assistant coaches to teammates, and even opposing players.
"(Framingham St. teammate who handled kickoffs and some field goals) Shawn Miller helped a lot. I think everyone
involved with special teams helped each other a lot," Baker said. "We'd hang out of the sidelines and talk kicking,
how to do things better, it wasn't like they were just trying to help me because I'm female. They were trying to help
me because I'm a kicker."
All the countless hours and kicks logged during the summer months, all the stretches, all the conditioning finally
came to fruition on a Saturday afternoon in mid-September - the 15th to be exact, around 2:30ish, in Cambridge.
The Rams were blanked in their season opener, a 14-0 home loss to Nichols, meaning Baker never got a chance to
figure in on the scoring. A week later, Baker made history, helping Framingham St. to a 17-10 road victory over MIT.
With 5:58 left in the second quarter and Framingham St. trailing 3-0, Baker took the field and calmly measured out
her steps.
The snap by freshman Scott Lelakes was true, the hold by backup quarterback Bruce Rich was perfect and the kick
by Baker... was good! A 25-yarder to cap a seven-play, 32-yard drive and tie the game at 3-all.
But it was more than just a 25-yarder.
"It felt good," said Baker, who also added two PAT kicks in the fourth quarter as Framingham St. scored 14
unanswered points and rallied for the win. "I wasn't really that nervous, just trying to concentrate on kicking, that's
all. I was really excited more than anything. I had a job to do and I was just determined to go out there and get it
done."
Baker's parents watched from the stands, John recalling his daughter's accomplishments.
"Compared to watching her play soccer, it was boring as hell," quipped the elder Baker, who attended some 25 of
his daughter's 32 soccer matches. "Being a goalie, she was always involved, always in the play. Football, she was
standing on the sidelines for most of the game. In all seriousness, though, we're very proud of her, very proud. She's
the type of person who sets out to do something and does it right. So we knew she could do it."
For the season, Baker was seventh on the team in scoring, converting one of two field goal tries while going 8-for-12
on extra points, that totalling up to the 11 points. None of them easy points.
"Having done both, placekicker is definitely the harder of the two," said Baker, comparing her gridiron exploits to her
work on the soccer pitch. "With a soccer ball, even if you don't hit it square it's still going to go forward and land in
the field of play. With a football, if you don't hit it right you don't really know where it's going to go. You really have to
concentrate when you're kicking a football, where it's oblong as opposed to a round soccer ball."
Baker still kicks the soccer ball around, playing for the Northboro Cyclones in a women's summer league, but her
football days are over, the Rams losing their last six games to check out at 2-7.
"(Playing football) was one of the greatest experiences of my life," said Baker. "It's something I'll never forget."
Though Baker shied away from the media during the regular season for fears of turning her successes into a
spectacle, she has gone on to be the subject of countless newspaper articles across the state, as well as USA
Today, and she was featured during a spot on ESPN's College Football Live just this past Monday.
Deserved recognition for someone whose ground-breaking accomplishments and selflessness won't soon be
forgotten.
DANNY CRANDALL can be reached at 508-236-0395 or at dcrandall@thesunchronicle.com.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Former Mansfield High School Hornet
Brett McDermott, a Junior wide receiver
and return specialist with the Holy
Cross College Football team, was
selected as the Patriot League's
Specialty Teams player of the week.
The 6-foot-1, 202 pound McDermott
returned four kickoffs for 132 yards
against Colgate, with a career best 72
yard romp in the first quarter.
McDermott finished the game with a
career high 220 all purpose yards,
including seven receptions for 88 yards,
five of those during the crusaders tieing
and game winning drives
Former Mansfield High School Hornet
Brett McDermott, a Junior wide receiver
and return specialist with the Holy
Cross College Football team, was
selected as the Patriot League's
Specialty Teams player of the week.
The 6-foot-1, 202 pound McDermott
returned four kickoffs for 132 yards
against Colgate, with a career best 72
yard romp in the first quarter.
McDermott finished the game with a
career high 220 all purpose yards,
including seven receptions for 88 yards,
five of those during the crusaders tieing
and game winning drives