Congratulations to the following schools for winning cash grants in the second annual High School Spirit program.

Large Schools (more than 1,000 students)
1. Boston College High School
2. Andover High School
3. Westfield High School
Medium Schools (501-999 students)
1. Belchertown High School
2. Northampton High School
3. Bishop Fenwick High School
Small Schools (500 or less students)
1. Frontier Regional High School
2. Matignon High School
3. St. Mary's of Lynn High School

The first, second and third place schools are awarded $1,000, $500 and $250, respectively, for having the highest number of students participate in the 2010 Bay State Summer and Winter Games.

The schedules for the 2010 Bay State Summer Games 7v7 Soccer Tournament scheduled for July 17-18 are now posted on the 7v7 Soccer webpage. Please take note that the Girls U12 and Girls U16 divisions are only going to be played on Saturday, in a double round robin tournament.  Any questions, please contact Megan Richard.

As has become customary for this tournament, a slew of college coaches and professional scouts were on hand at the first day of baseball to check out Massachusetts' most talented players.

Despite the 4th of July holiday weekend and temperatures in the 90's, almost 50 scouts and coaches were in attendance on the first day of action, and many more are expected to join tomorrow.

The locations for the satellite weigh-ins for wrestling scheduled for Thursday, July 8 are now available on the Wrestling webpage.

Winchester and Woburn produced the top qualifiers in the scholastic Olympic rifle shooting qualifiers at Reading Rifle & Revolver Club on Sunday, June 27.

Winchester's Olivia Nardone shot a 540 for first place followed by Kyle Freeley of Woburn with a 534 placing second. Alexis Nardone, Olivia's sister, was third with a 533. The events top possible score is 600. The ten ring on the target used is the size of a dime and is shot at 50 yards. The competitors shoot 20 shots in three different positions, prone, kneeling and standing. Each stage is timed at 20 minutes (prone), 30 minutes (kneeling) and 40 minutes (standing). Weather was sunny in the high 70s but the shifting winds caused problems for anyone losing even a few seconds of focus and concentration.

The rifle shooting finals will take place Saturday, July 17 in Reading.

Trap shooting at North Leominster Rod and Gun Club kicked off the 29th annual Bay State Summer Games on Saturday, June 26. The competition was held on the first of 15 days of Bay State Games events which will continue on July 5 with baseball at Bentley Univesity.

For results from the singles divisions of the trap shooting competition, click here.

Results from the swimming and track qualifiers are now available:

SWIMMING
Metro/Central
Northeast
Southeast/Coastal
West

TRACK & FIELD
Metro
Northeast
Southeast/Coastal
Central/West

The Bay State Games is proud to announce the 2010 Future Leaders Scholarship recipients. After a rigorous application process, filled with many deserving Bay State Games participants, the following six student-athletes were selected for possessing outstanding credentials in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.

Tori Daniels: South Hadley, Frontier Regional High School
Volleyball and church are two great passions for Daniels. The Arizona native has been involved with Junior Olympic volleyball for five years and has been selected as a captain of her team for the last three. When moving from South Hadley High to Frontier Regional this year made her ineligible to play, she volunteered to be the team manager just so she could stay involved with the sport she loved. Daniels is also a part of the Frontier track and field team and a co-founder of the school’s Plyos Club. At church, she is an active member of the Center Church Youth Group and volunteers as a lesson coordinator and Sunday school teacher for the nursery care at Center Church. Daniels has managed to juggle all of these activities while still maintaining a 3.95 GPA.

Ashley DiFraia: Revere, Revere High School
DiFraia has made an impact on the field and in the classroom at Revere High School. She is a three-sport Varsity athlete (softball, basketball, and volleyball) and has recently been named captain of each team for her senior year. In the classroom, DiFraia has earned a cumulative GPA of 3.87, while taking several Honors and AP level courses. This student-athlete keeps herself just as busy in the summer, playing for three softball teams, including an All-Star team, which she has been nominated for since she was 9 years old, as well as working as a camp councilor for the Revere Recreation Department.

Sean Flanagan: Framingham, Bishop Feehan High School
While the Framingham native has been a part of both the cross country and winter track teams at Bishop Feehan, he has truly left his mark in baseball. In 2010, Flanagan was named an Under Armour Preseason All-American, as well as a Perfect Game Preseason All-American. In 2008, he was ranked as a top prospect at the Perfect Game National Underclass Showcase in Connecticut. Besides his athletic accomplishments, Flanagan earned his Young Artist’s Certificate in Cartooning and Animation from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007 and is scheduled to take AP Art during the 2010-2011 school year. As a deaf citizen himself, this talented student-athlete is an ambassador for other deaf children as he is the founder and president of the American Sign Language Club at BFHS and was an assistant instructor at the Beverly School for the Deaf baseball clinic in 2009.

Kathleen Krah: Medfield, Medfield High School
Krah helped propel the Medfield High Varsity volleyball team to back-to-back D-II State Championships and has been voted team captain for the fall 2010 season. This student-athlete has also run track since she was in sixth grade and is currently on the Varsity team at MHS. The Medfield native has been actively involved in student government since sixth grade and currently holds the position of class secretary. Krah is also a devoted Girl Scout, recently earning the Spirit Alive Award (highest Catholic Girl Scout award) and the Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award for over 250 hours of service. Krah is a talented musician, dancer and math student, as well. She is a cellist in the school orchestra and a member of the Math League.

Alexander Lagos: Millis, Millis High School
Lagos, a recent transfer to Millis High School, was named a Tri-Valley 1st Team All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year Runner-Up for his efforts on the Varsity baseball team in 2010. He was also awarded the Tri-Valley Sportsmanship Award. At King Philip Regional High School, he was a part of the Varsity basketball team that was awarded the Boston Celtics 3C’s Award for academic excellence, community service, and sportsmanship. As for community service, Lagos is an active member of Student Athletes For Excellence in Education (S.A.F.E.E.), through which he reads to elementary school children and leads bullying discussions. He has also participated in mission trips with his church, where he performed construction work and community outreach. His next trip is scheduled for July, when he will travel to Rosarito, Mexico to visit orphanages and help with construction.

Matthew Nutter: Georgetown, Georgetown High School
Nutter is an avid swimmer. He has been swimming competitively for 10 years and is currently a part of the Andover YMCA Hurricanes swim team. He also swims for both the summer and winter YMCA national teams. At school, the Georgetown student was elected treasurer of the National Honor Society and enjoys tutoring middle school students in math and science. Each week, Nutter spends time volunteering at the Salem Animal Shelter, where he cleans cages, walks the dogs, among other duties. During the summer, this student athlete is employed as a lifeguard at Salisbury Beach. Putting his talents to use, he competes in the Ipswich Triathlon at Crane’s Beach to help raise money for the Ipswich YMCA.

Applications for the scholarship were submitted by Bay State Games athletes who were in the 11th grade as of the 2009-10 academic year. More than 100 applications were reviewed by Bay State Games staff and board members, before a pool of 18 were asked to interview. This year, six students from that pool were selected to receive a $2,000 scholarship. For more than two decades, the Future Leaders Scholarship program has distributed over $200,000 to students.

For more information, visit the Future Leaders Scholarship webpage.

All internship positions for the 2010 Bay State Summer Games have been filled. Thank you to all the great candidates who applied!

The Bay State Games staff would like to welcome:

Megan Richard - UMass Amherst - Operations Graduate Assistant
Katelyn Stravinsky – Colby Sawyer College - Operations Intern
Ryan Coughlin – UMASS Lowell - Operations Intern
Lisa Zanchi – Bryant University - Operations Intern
Michelle Mannheim – Skidmore College - Finance Intern
Ashley Robbins – Syracuse University - Sports Information Intern

We are excited for the new interns to get started, as we look forward to another great summer.

Fall and spring semester internships are available and applications are now being accepted. See the Internship webpage for more information.

Registration for the 2010 Bay State Summer Games is now open.

Athletes can sign up by clicking on the "Sports" tab to the left, selecting their sport and completing the online registration.

The Summer Games features 29 sports with tryouts and qualifiers taking place in June and the finals being played July 5-18 in the metro Boston area and central Massachusetts.

For more information, check out our website or contact the Bay State Games office by calling 781-932-6555 or
e-mailing info@baystategames.org.

The Phoenix Coyotes’ Keith Yandle was a member of the Southeast region ice hockey team in the 2003 Bay State Summer Games. A native of Boston, MA, Yandle attended Cushing Academy in Ashburnham and was drafted 105th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. The defenseman has tallied 96 points in three seasons with Phoenix, and recently posted two goals and three assists in the first round of this year’s NHL playoffs as the Coyotes pushed the Detroit Red Wings to seven games.

The 2010 Bay State Summer Games will be held July 5-18.

The tentative schedule for individual events in the Summer Games is now available.

We are currently in the process of confirming the times, dates and locations for all sports. Please check back in March for more concrete information.

From the more than 8,000 Massachusetts participants in the Bay State Summer and Winter Games, Amy Hicks has been selected as the 2009 Athlete of the Year.

Hicks, a Needham resident, is a senior competitor who won gold medals in both synchronized swimming and track & field at this year's Summer Games.

The Athlete of the Year Award involves over 38 states games programs across the country which represents over 400,000 nationwide participants annually. The program was developed to recognize outstanding state games participants from all member states. Each state games selects their representative who is then forwarded for consideration for recognition as the National Athlete of the Year.

The National Congress of State Games and each member state select their Athlete of the Year representatives based on a series of criteria which include length of participation in state games, number of medals won, sportsmanship, attitude and effort, overall athletic participation and achievement, the positive manner in which the athlete represents the spirit of amateur athletics and the state games movement, as well as other factors.

The 2009 Jack Aborn Memorial Archery Scholarship was awarded to Amanda Ferrie of Auburn, Mass. Amanda is currently a senior Johnson & Wales where she has twice been named to the Dean’s List and started an archery program. She is ranked in the top 20 nationally as a collegiate archer. Amanda participated in Bay State Summer Games archery competition in 2004-2007 and in 2009.

The scholarship is a $250 Scholarship that will be awarded to a participant in the Bay State Games Archery competition.

The Bay State Games are proud to announce that the Fifth Annual Marino Lecture and Sports Medicine Symposium is open to all the medical volunteers who were involved with the 2009 Summer Games free of charge.

For more information, please check the 2009 brochure.

It was an incredible site this weekend at MIT, as 19 new Bay State Summer Games records were established. Highlighting the incredible individual performances was Hyde Park's Carla Forbes. The 14 year old set an unofficial national record in the triple jump with a leap of 39 feet, 3 inches.

Congratulations to the top three finishers from the scholastic air rifle competition held at the Reading Rifle and Revolver Club as part of the 2009 Bay State Summer Games.

Click here for full results from the event.