DUDLEY – The pandemic was hard on the student-athletes of the Shepherd Hill Regional High School girls’ cross country team.

“Last year, you can just see the anxiety of it on their faces,” said Rams coach Nicole Fossas. “And it’s not just my runners. All kids.”

Junior captain Grace Bateman said “last year was really hard because we couldn’t meet as much. Running with a mask was pretty difficult, too.”

With students back in school and sports running relatively back to pre-pandemic status, physical and mental health is the number one priority for Coach Fossas and the Rams cross country squad. “Our expectations are to stay healthy; always priority number one,” she said.

Bateman said “it feels really good to be back … This year has been really good.”

The team is still dealing with the adverse effects of the pandemic restrictions of a year ago. It has impacted the size and depth of the Rams current roster.

“I’m rebuilding my numbers,” said Fossas, who is in her 13th season as head coach of the squad. “Last year, there were no middle school sports at all. I didn’t have that feeder system, so my numbers are very low. Right now, I have one freshman. I might be getting another one. I have no sophomores. I’m still recruiting. I’m still trying to get some girls. I think with the middle school not having a season, it’s just going to take a little bit of time, maybe a year or so to build that back up again. Which is fine.”

Fortunately for the Rams, the team still has exceptional talent on the team, who helped the team beat Westborough in their first dual meet of the season on Monday, Sept. 13. Returning all stars like junior Emery Mullen and senior Anna Thomas gives the small Shepherd Hill roster some quality over quantity. In the meet against Westborough, Mullen won the race with Thomas finishing second. Add Bateman to the mix and the Rams have a solid triple threat to score points and to place high during meets. All three runners serve as tri-captains for the team. Further, during Saturday, Sept. 18th Martha’s Vineyard Invitational, the team finished second overall with Mullen placed 5th, Thomas was 10th, and Bateman was 12th.

“These girls are great leaders,” Fossas said. She also praised her captains for establishing a strong culture and displaying a great “work ethic” for the rest of the team. “They’re committed to the overall good of our program and they have an ability to understand the positive culture we have created and to build on that even more.”

The captains still expect to be competitive and to perform at a high level at meets. “We have a good team,” Bateman said, who looks to break the 20-minute 5K mark this season. “It’s small, but we have a lot of talent.”

“We do have a small group, but we’re really close,” said Mullen, a league all-star last season. “We’re all close. We really build each other up. We do everything together. Even though it’s small, it’s really good. Sometimes small is better. With less people, we become closer.”

Thomas echoed these sentiments. “We’re very close-knit. We push each other to try our best every day.” She hopes to improve on her personal best 5K time of 19:42.

Fossas praised her captains as performers as well. “My top returner is Emery Mullen … As a freshman, she was second at the district to Emma Sullivan who graduated. She’s a junior because we basically skipped over her sophomore year. We have Anna Thomas, who is a senior. She was top ten in the districts two years ago. And Grace Bateman has worked really hard throughout the pandemic … They’re enthusiastic. They do their work. They’re just tremendous.”

Fossas added that juniors Karlee White and Rachel Zannotti will also be key contributors to the team. Both runners placed well at the Martha’s Vineyard Invitational. Zannotti finished in 21st place and White came in 24th place in the meet.

With health as their top priority, a close second is performing at a high level. “The second priority is to perform at the highest level possible within our league, our state division and at the all-state level,” Fossas said. “Many of my athletes are still new to competing in the big championship races, due to missing out on that opportunity last year because of Covid.  We will travel to some invitationals earlier in the season to get some big meet experience in order to compete well at the end of the season.”

The Rams have four dual meets and about five invitationals before the league championships, state qualifiers and the state meet. The championship competition picks up at the end of October and runs through mid-November.

Last year, the Rams finished undefeated with a 10-0 record, but Fossas said that record is a little misleading. Due to COVID restrictions, “we competed outside our league against schools that were much smaller in size,” she said. “We went against smaller schools … We had such a strong group of these seniors and juniors, so it was really unfair. The Rams will be challenged again as they return to the Midland Wachusett Division A. “We’re back with the big dogs.”

The Rams are doing their best to get back to a normal training routine. “It’s going to take some time,” she said. “But they’re getting back to that normal, because everything is pretty normal except for mask-wearing inside.”

Fossas said she lost eight seniors from last year, but the winning culture is still there in the hearts of her runners. “I lost a big group of seniors,” she said. “They’ve been building that culture and they were so outstanding. They got us through COVID. They also took that leadership (quality) and they handed it to these girls. They gave them a really strong team and these girls are just picking up where they left off and carrying it on.”

Shepherd Hill Reg. High School

Girls’ Cross Country

At a Glance

Nickname: Rams

Affiliation: Midland Wachusett Division A

Colors: Maroon, Vegas Gold

2020 (Fall II) Record: 10-0

Home Field: Carmignani Memorial Field

Coach: Nicole Fossas (13th year)

Captains: Emery Mullen, Grace Bateman,

 Anna Thomas