By ERIC RUEB

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

EXETER – Exeter-West Greenwich girls track coach Thom Mastroianni knows his team isn’t built for the dual meet season.

“Small school, small team,” he said. “You want the girls to get better but numbers definitely help. The more you have the more you have to go on among your team and it spurs you on to get better.”
And Exeter’s ability to define success its own way is what makes these Knights special.
Mastroianni is realistic. He knows he doesn’t have the numbers to compete for a team state title or even a regular season division title. Last season’s 1-7 record supports that.
So what is the coach’s goal?
The one meet where Exeter, one of the smallest schools in the state, can actually compete at a balanced level – the class meet, filled with the other small schools in Rhode Island.
All the scoreboard struggles the Knights face in the regular season only help them in what’s become an annual quest.
“We happen to be in the Southern Division which is probably the most competitive division in the state,” Mastroianni said. “We have the perennial state champions in our meet and there isn’t a meet we have where we’re not facing stiff competition, so these girls learn to compete against strong competition when we get to class meets.
“They’re a little better prepared than a lot of teams and they have a good attitude. There are teams that are bigger (at class meets) but generally we finish around third.”
The goal as a team is to perform well at the class meets, but Mastroianni wants every girl to want to improve as the season goes on and, even though it’s early, the coach has already seen his team wants to.
“They’ve been practicing for about a month without a coach which is a lot without a coach being there,” Mastroianni said. “They’re telling each other they have to be at practice and they go. They’re self-motivated and the girls who want to be here are out here.”
The girls who are out there are an experienced group of athletes from other sports, which Mastroianni thinks will help their drive even more.
“They know how to spur each other on,” he said. “It helps.”
But he does have a large class of newcomers to the team, a group he’s spent time personally recruited.
“I coach junior high basketball and I see the athletes when they’re in junior high and then again as freshman so I try and recruit them,” Mastroianni said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and by this time some kids are tired form playing a fall sport and a winter sport and they want to get their grades right now.”
And some of those tired athletes who aren’t currently practicing might return.
In fact, Mastroianni is kind of hoping for that.
“There are four girls who are still thinking about coming out but there’s no cutoff date,” the coach said. “It’s not like they have to build team chemistry like in basketball or soccer, knowing where to pass the ball. They just have to get in shape and practice their event.”
Exeter knows the deal and thinks it improves. Mastroianni knows he has some good young talent, solid returners with Mary Cregan, Kara Matook, Renee Miozzi and Rosie Read and senior captains Katie Wallace Amy Hutchinson and Liz Bolton have a real good shot at making states.
But the class meet will be the most important for this team because they’re so small and scheduling that would end the seniors year before the state meet.
“I think we’ll have a nice season this year; I’m hoping we have a couple surprises, with a couple kids who can place in states,” Mastroianni said. “The down side is that states this year is on graduation so the seniors that may make states may not be able to go, so it would be disappointing for them.
“They’ve already said Coach, we hope it rains.”