Athletic Archives  2007-08

Channel 15 to Present High School Stars with Awards  The Item, April 29, 2008 

LYNN -- Lynn Cable Channel 15's annual high school awards show will be recorded from Breed Middle School Tuesday, May 6, beginning at 6 p.m.

In addition to trophies for the athletes being honored, three special awards -- to be announced that evening -- will be presented.

John Hoffman, moderator for the weekly sports show on Channel 15, will serve as moderator. The station will present awards to athletes from football, basketball (girls and boys), hockey (girls and boys) and swimming teams.

Athletes being honored are as follows:

Football

English: Byron Brown, Jason Gervacio, Al Soedomo and Charlie Rucker; Classical: Quivari Jackson, Tony Johnson, Chad Quintana, Alex Watler and Sebastian Begin; Tech: John Jones, Jose Rios, Stephon Carter and Lorenzo Rivera; and St. Mary's: Kwesi Foster, Rich Barrows, Anthony Campagnone and Stephen Harper.

Basketball

English: Rafael Perez and Jeanette Anderson; Classical: Jarell Byrd and Christina McKenzie; Tech: Jessica Underwood and Victor Smith; and St. Mary's: Tyler Grillo and Amy Bozarjian.

Hockey: Lynn Jets: Billy MacDaniel; Tech: James Wall; and St. Mary's: John Baldwin, Abby Gauthier and Christen Hart.

Swimming: Classical: Tia Murkison; and Tech: Marcos Castellano.

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Classical Teacher Chris Warren Becomes Assistant Athletic Director

By Joyce Erekson / The Daily Item, November 6, 2007 

LYNN -- Classical softball coach Chris Warren has been juggling teaching, coaching and being a family man for years and this fall he added assistant athletic director to the mix..

With former Classical High athletic director Dick Ruth's retirement last June and former assistant AD Penny Pension's retirement last Friday, the Bill Devin (Ruth's replacement)-Chris Warren era is now in full swing at Classical.

Although starting a new job is never easy, Warren and Devin probably couldn't have picked a busier time to get their feet wet in the business of "AD-ing" As the top guy, Devin walked in on a sea of change in the Classical High athletic department. Warren, who was already teaching physical education and coaching at the school, said he's been doing what he can to help Devin in what has been a very busy fall.

"He's had a heck of a first year to start with, with all these things going on," Warren said. "We both have big shoes to fill with Penny and Dick leaving."

Warren said Devin had a lot to deal with right off the bat beginning with the fact the freshmen are now at the old Classical High on North Common St. and continuing with the decision to merge the Classical and English hockey programs. With the hockey coaching situation and assorted other details surrounding the merger now resolved, the focus is now on merging the English and Classical boys lacrosse teams and getting a new coach in place to run that program.

Devin was also only on the job a short time when Jim Tgettis decided to step down as head coach of the baseball team, so that meant launching a search for his replacement (Mike Zukowski got that job). Classical also needed a new cross country coach to start the fall and over the next few months, Devin will be looking for a boys tennis coach and a girls tennis coach for the spring. Both of those positions were held by Pension, but with girls tennis moving from the fall to the spring, two people are now needed. Once those jobs are filled, the challenge will be finding a way to have four tennis teams (Classical boys and girls and English boys and girls) play their home matches on one set of courts (Breed).

Despite the challenges, Warren is excited about his new job and working with Devin.
"I think we'll work well together. We get along well. We're both sports oriented people. We've both coached and been involved in sports all of our lives."

One thing that will change for Warren this year is that because of his assistant athletic director responsibilities, he'll no longer be coaching the freshmen girls basketball team.
Warren does, however, play an important role in keeping the freshman athletes connected with the rest of the school. Warren teaches physical education at the 9th Grade Academy in the old Classical High.

Warren said he's constantly trying to encourage freshmen to go out for teams, even if they haven't been involved in sports in the past. Warren said the most improved player on his freshman basketball team last year was a girl from Liberia who had only been here 14 months.

"I think the athletes we have coming in, both boys and girls, will give us a great core. We want to get the numbers up wherever we can." Warren said. "The coaching staff we have, top to bottom, is great in all of our programs. They'll develop kids. They just have to get them."

Warren, and English High and Salem State graduate, began coaching softball about 15 years ago when he was an assistant at English.
He has been the head coach at Classical for the past eight years and he spent 13 years as an assistant under Gary Molea in the English High football program.

Warren and his wife, Leah, have two children who are regular fans at the softball games.
"Leah's great," Warren said. "She's very understanding ...the support I get a home lets me do something like this."

Classical AD Ruth Announces Retirement: Named MIAA Athletic Director of the Year for 2006-2007

High Honors Now, with Retirement Coming Soon, for Mr. Ruth, our Athletic Director 

Congratulations to Mr. Ruth, Classical's Athletic Director, for  receiving the John E. Young Award for Distinguished Service from the MIAA last Thursday at their annual meeting. This award is given to the best AD in the state of Massachusetts. (What took the MIAA so long to figure that out ? )  Principal White and Superintendent Kostan are pictured on the left and far right, with Portland Police Officer Jeff Ruth   (Classical Class of '99) standing next to his dad.       

By Joyce Erekson / The Daily Item, 4/10/2007

LYNN -- There's nothing like baseball in April. It's 60 and sunny at game time and 43 with a bone-chilling wind by the end of the fourth inning.

In his 19 years as the Classical High athletic director, Dick Ruth has certainly weathered his share of Thanksgiving morning deep freezes, Friday night snowstorms during basketball season and build-an-ark type rains that wreak havoc on the baseball fields every spring. Next year, however, Mother Nature and her mood swings will become someone else's problem.

Ruth is retiring from teaching and his athletic director's position at the end of the school year. He made his plans official last week in a letter to Superintendent of Schools Nick Kostan.

Although he graduated from St. Mary's High School (1968) and Salem State College, Ruth has been bleeding green and gold since the late 1980s.

Ruth began his career as a math teacher 35 years ago at the old Cobbet Junior High. He came to Classical in 1979, but bounced between Classical and Breed for eight years (due to Prop 2 1/2 and the bumping process) before landing at Classical for good in 1987. In 1988, George Gunning stepped down from the athletic director's job and principal Peter Arslanian encouraged Ruth to apply for the job.

So how much has changed since those early days at the old Classical High on the Commons and today?

"I was thinking about the office at the old Classical the other day," Ruth said. "It was like a bunker, and the only piece of technology in it was an old IBM Selectric typewriter. I did all the schedules on it, the reports, the payrolls ... I think back to that now and I can't believe it."

Although the students have changed almost as much as the technology in some ways, some things are the same.

"They're a lot more worldly than they were when I started," Ruth said, attributing much of their savvy to their access to technology, like the Internet.

"But as far as their overall demeanor, I don't think things have changed a whole lot. The kids are by and large still polite, inquisitive and intelligent. There are an awful lot of nice kids down here," he said.


Classical High principal Warren White said Ruth will be missed both as an athletic director and as a teacher.

"Dick is the consummate professional," White said. "He's well-organized, well-spoken and very well-versed in the rules of the school committee and the MIAA ... He does an outstanding job in the classroom, no question about it. He has a way of really motivating people, especially kids who aren't necessarily engaged in math."

Ruth said it's the classroom, not the April rainouts, that he'll miss the most. His office wall is lined with group pictures of his athletic office aides that date back to 1992, and every day a group of students joins him in the office for lunch and a little studying.

"I'm going to miss the interaction with the kids. That keeps you very, very young," he said. "You can't grow old listening to 16-, 17- and 18-year-old kids."

Ruth said the thing he'll miss the least is having to tell an athlete he or she can't play because of grades.

"You try and tell the kids to do better next quarter. These are the kind of kids athletics keep in school, but you have to play by the rules," he said.

Ruth's days as an athletic director might be winding down, but not his involvement in high school sports. He's hoping to do some work for the MIAA, such as being a site director during tournament play. He also hasn't ruled out continuing to teach, possibly in a private school setting.

"I don't know if I would want to go full-time, but I've been teaching for 35 years and I still enjoy walking to a classroom," he said.

Ruth also works part-time for Cuffe-McGinn Funeral Home, which is something he plans to continue doing. He said he also wouldn't mind doing the public address system or possibly the clock at Manning Field once it's complete.

"I'd like to have some ancillary involvement. It's been a big part of my life. It's difficult to just walk away," he said.

Ruth and his wife, Kathy, who is also a teacher, have two children. Their daughter, Michele, is an English teacher in San Jose, Calif., and their son, Jeff, is a police officer in Maine. Both are Classical High graduates.

Distinguished Service Award Presented to Dick Ruth by the MIAA on April 5th, 2007

Mr. Ruth receives the Distinguished Service Award as Top AD in Massachusetts, shown with Mrs Ruth seated on the left and Penny Pension next to her.