NHS' Fall Athletic Info Night Set Aug. 30

Student athletes are required to attend one of two sessions scheduled this season.

With fall sports back in full swing, Needham Public Schools Director of Athletics Micah Hauben has sent out a reminder to parents and athletes about important dates and deadlines coming up this season: Needham Athletic Information Night 1 The first mandatory Athletic Information Night will be held on Thursday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Needham High School auditorium. All ninth and 11th grade athletes and parents, along with first-time and new-to-NHS athletes, are required to attend one of the two nights scheduled. Those who will be unable to attend on Aug. 30 should plan to be at Info Night II on Wednesday, Nov. 14. The Athletic Information Nights present Needham's student-athletes and parents with a chance to learn more about the school …

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Boys Tennis Wins Second Straight D1 State Title

The Needham High School Rockets beat St. John's 3-2 on Thursday, June 14 at Clark University.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics For the second year in a row, the Needham High School Rockets faced St. John's High School (Shrewsbury) in the Division I State Final, and for the second time, Needham came away with the DI State Championship. With the 3-2 win, the boys completed an undefeated 21-0 season, topped only by their 22-0 mark last spring. The 43 straight is an impressive feat, and one that has been done the right way, as evidenced by the team and Coach Drew Lawrence being awarded the prestigious MIAA Sportsmanship Award before the start of play on Thursday. In the match, Needham showed its team depth and talent level early, as their first and second doubles teams—senior Mo Lipman and junior Matt Bejian (No. 1) and …

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Bay State Conference Looking to Add Three Schools, Third Athletic Division

Needham is among 12 schools currently part of the Bay State Conference, split into two divisions—Carey and Herget.

The Bay State Conference is exploring the possibility of expansion for the 2014-15 school year. Currently, The Bay State Conference consists of the following 12 schools (SY 2012 population included): Braintree (1,529), Brookline (1,770), Dedham (774), Framingham (2,040), Milton (987), Natick (1,301), Needham (1,522), Newton North (1,871), Norwood (1,063), Walpole (1,120), Wellesley (1,353) and Weymouth (1,988). The 12 schools are divided into two divisions (Carey Division and Herget Division), based on enrollment, for championship play and for seasonal play at the junior varsity and freshman levels. The mission of the Bay State Conference shall be to promote the best interests of secondary education; to nurture cooperation, professional …

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Rockets Review: Championship Season in Full Swing

Needham High School's indoor track and field team looks for a strong finish in the MIAA Division 2 Championships on Feb. 16.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics The Needham High School indoor track and field teams competed Feb. 8 at the Bay State Conference Championships in a tune-up for the MIAA Division 2 state meet. After a regular season that saw both teams finish 3-3 in the tough Bay State Conference, they set out to show just how good they are and came out swinging.  Head girls coach Chris Van Cott had the following to say about the meet: The girls team was led by several well-placed finishers including: senior captain Alison Pildner in the 300m; sophomores Kira Oberle and Rachel Blaustein in the 600 and 1,000m, respectively; senior captain Lily Corcoran in the one mile; sophomore Sammy Lerner in the two mile; and a quartet consisting of freshmen …

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Rockets Review: Teams Look Ahead to Postseason

Highlights in local sports action from the week of Jan. 30 to Feb. 5.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics On Wednesday, Feb. 1 and Thursday, Feb. 2, the Needham High School boys swimming and diving team took part in the Bay State Conference Championship Meet at Brookline High School. After winning the regular season league title by going undefeated against BSC opponents, the boys wrapped up the league season by winning the meet championship. Finishing with the program's largest margin of victory in the league meet, the team will head into sectionals on Sunday, Feb. 12 at MIT with high hopes. Wrestling NHS wrestling team coach Paul Ahern provided the following write-up on the team’s performance at the Division 2 sectionals on Saturday, Feb. 4: Needham wrestling overcame an early slump at the Division 2…

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Photo Gallery: Wrestling Finishes 3-0 in BSC Quad

The Needham High School team beat Newton North, Milton and Walpole at the Jan. 28 match.

Despite a handful of starters out of the line-up, Needham High School wrestling finished 3-0 in the Bay State Conference quad at Newton North this past weekend, on Jan. 28. The Rockets held off the Newton North Tigers, 46-30, while beating Milton, 55-30, and Walpole, 55-21. The Rockets move to 14-5-1, and 8-2 in the Bay State League, going into their final match against rival Wellesley on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. at Wellesley.

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Photo Gallery: Wrestlers Earn Third at Weekend Meet

Needham freshmen also wrestled in the Freshman State Invitational Tournament in Brookline.

By Kathy Chisholm Last weekend, the Needham High School wrestling team competed in the eight-team Quabbin Midland Duals where the Rockets finished third. In NHS's four-team were 15th-ranked Dracut and returning Division 3 State Finalists Holliston. Needham opened with Dracut and nearly pulled off the upset, tying the Middies, 39-39. The next match, Needham pulled off the win over Holliston, 36-30, and then finished strong against Franklin Tech, 61-15. Using a cumulative pool points criterium, Dracut edged Needham to advance to the finals against the host team. Needham had to settle for the third place match with Athol, which they dominated, 57-12. Needham finished 3-0-1 on the day. A few of the highlights: The competition brought Needham …

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Rockets Review: Boys Swimming Still Undefeated

Highlights from Needham High School team performances for the week of Jan. 9-16.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics Boys Swimming & Diving Head coach Adam Cole shared the following about the Needham High School boys swimming and diving team’s performance last week: This past week, the Needham High School boys swim team moved to 6-0 by defeating Xaverian on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 101-85, and Natick on Friday, Jan. 13, 115.5-69.5. On Friday, Needham won 11 of the 12 events, with the only loss being by .17 seconds in the 200 freestyle relay.   Event winners included James Yi (200 freestyle), James Austin (200 individual medley), Alex Treil (50 freestyle), Jake Nathanson (diving and 100 backstroke), Ryan Schott (100 butterfly), Mike Eaton (100 freestyle), Nathan Lai (500 freestyle) and Jason Shiuan (100 breaststroke). …

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Rockets Review: Needham Postseasons Underway

Girls soccer wins in OT shoot-out, girls swimming and diving places third at BSC championships.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics Girls Soccer After getting the No. 20 seed in the MIAA Division I South Tournament, the Rockets earned a Saturday afternoon trip to take on Hingham High School, Nov. 6. After an even first 50 minutes of play that saw the visitors down 1-0, Needham was able to tie the game up 1-1. The Rockets found the back of the goal again later in the second half to go up 2-1 and seemed to have the game in hand with only seconds to play when a high loose ball in front of Needham's goal was tipped in just past the goalie. As difficult a situation as a young team can face, the girls stepped up and fought through two more scoreless 10 minute overtime periods to move the game into the shoot-out round.   Senior …

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Rockets Review: Sept. 12-17

Season starts for boys and girls cross country, girls swimming and diving.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics Girls and boys cross country and girls swimming and diving got their seasons started on Tuesday, as the the cross country teams hosted league opponent Framingham at Cutler Park and swim/dive hosted non-league power Acton-Boxborough at Babson. Girls Swimming and Diving Competing against perennial powerhouse A-B, the NHS girls swimmers and divers had a very strong showing, hanging in with the visitors and coming up just short. The girls next got back in the pool on Friday night and earned their first win of the season, taking down BSC foe Weymouth 86-74. The Rockets will travel to Dedham on Tuesday, Sept. 20 for a 6:30 p.m. meet before hosting Braintree at Babson on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. Boys …

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