Softball greats highlight Bishop Fenwick's latest Hall of Fame class

By Matt Jenkins
Staff Writer

May 09, 2008 10:41 pm

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DANVERS — On a night spent looking back, former Bishop Fenwick softball players Kristi Lyman and Mary Wells made attempts at predicting the future.

Lyman, Fenwick Class of 1995, and Wells, Class of '94, each played on four state championship softball teams during the Crusaders' state-record run of seven straight Division 1 titles between 1990-97. Both were among the inductees into Fenwick's latest Athletic Hall of Fame class at a ceremony held at Jimmy's Allenhurst last night.

Fenwick's softball duo was inducted individually and with the 1992 state championship softball team that they both played on. They were joined by Kerri Burke (Classof 2003, basketball), Fletcher Callahan (1991, swimming), Ryan LaMontagne (1994, football), Laurie Plante (1986, volleyball), Mike O'Brien (1967, basketball coach), and Fred Gardner (special contributor).

Could Fenwick's championship softball record ever be touched? It was a question posed to both Lyman and Wells.

"I think it's very rare," said Lyman, whose sister Kerri is already in the Fenwick Hall. "Of course, there's always a possibility. We did it, and I don't think anyone could have expected that we would do it then. Never mind one (title) or going back-to-back; winning that many it would have to be a really special situation."

At the time, Lyman and Wells remember adults close to the team trying to put the run in perspective.

"Mr. (Ed) Henry (the head coach) and all these adults, including my parents, would say, 'You don't understand what you guys are doing,'" Wells said. "We were like, 'No, we're winning games. That's what we're supposed to do — win.'

"I didn't think about it until college. I met my husband Mike (Flynn, a former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman), a professional athlete and even he would say, 'That's amazing. No team wins that much.'"

The more Wells thought about it last night, the more she began to think she was part of one record that may never be broken.

"Do I think it will ever happen again? Dare I say no?," Wells wondered. "It will be a long, long time.

"You hate to say no, but now that I think about it, no. It's too hard to do. And the beauty of it was that we were ignorant to it. We were just playing."

Many records were set by last night's inductees and many of those records will fall in the future or already have been broken.

LaMontagne, a star running back in 1992 and 1993 who was blessed with great breakaway speed, saw a few of his records fall in the last couple of years.

LaMontagne never got the opportunity to watch record-breaking back Bobby Tarr run for Fenwick the last three seasons, but he followed his progress through newspapers and word of mouth. He gained a high level of respect for what Tarr accomplished and predicted that he, like LaMontagne, would soon find himself being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

LaMontagne's single-game rushing record of 294 yards was broken and reset several times by Tarr over the last two years. LaMontagne was also once Fenwick's single-season rushing record holder, gaining 1,518 yards as a senior. Tarr broke that record his junior year with nearly 1,000 yards more (2,513), and topped his own mark last fall as a senior with 2,544 yards.

LaMontagne let out a hearty laugh when told Tarr averaged just a shade under 230 yards per game in the last two years.

"I can't imagine that," LaMontagne said. "And I'm sure he's probably still a little amazed, too. He knows the support he had behind him to accomplish that, as well as I did when I was at Fenwick."

Having his record broken by Tarr never bothered LaMontagne. It was actually quite the opposite.

"I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see him play. I definitely want to meet him someday," LaMontagne said. "I think what he accomplished is absolutely amazing. It's a feeling that not everyone will get to experience in lif,e and to have somebody else experience that is awesome.

"Some people would say, 'He broke your records, how do feel?' I wasn't upset that (my) records got broken. It was awesome because I knew somebody else got to experience and feel what I felt."

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