It wasn't supposed to end this way. Not after what Jamie Bell has meant to the Frontier Regional School basketball program.
It was a relatively simple play on what is arguably high school basketball's grandest stage. The Red Hawks were battling Scituate for the state Division III championship at Worcester's DCU Center. It was a classic, nip-and-tuck battle between the two best teams in the state, and Bell was doing his best once again to will his team to victory.
After taking a quick pass, Bell charged across the center of the court head-on into a Scituate player who had the lane blocked. Both players hit the floor hard. The Scituate player got up but Bell didn't. You could sense a chill roll down the collective spine of Red Hawk as the senior sniper was assisted to the bench.
The angst was both palpable and understandable. Anyone who has followed Red Hawk basketball over the last few seasons knows how important Jamie Bell is to his team and the Frontier community. Along with twin brothers Brian and Dan Clark, Bell was part of a scoring and defensive unit so feared and respected they became known around the league as the "three-headed monster." Impossible to stop and barely able to contain, Bell and the Clarks were a big reason why a lot of people, myself included, believed this team couldn't be beaten.
At first it looked as though he had only rolled an ankle. But when the trainers wrapped an ice pack around what turned out to be a torn ACL, it seemed that Bell's career would end quietly on the bench—an ironic fate given what happened just three days earlier.
Frontier was playing Bromfield in the state semifinals at the Mullins Center, and by the end of the first quarter they looked more like Dead Hawks than Red Hawks. A team that had seen virtually every type of pressing defense seemed stunned by the three-quarter court trap employed by the Central Mass. champs. That press, combined with some light-out shooting and solid rebounding, allowed Bromfield to open up a 17-point lead it didn't seem likely to relinquish.
Enter Bell, who started doing what he does best, jacking up shots and piling up points, giving Frontier's defense a chance to reset and allowing the Clark brothers some more room to maneuver. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Frontier was headed for the state title game, thanks mainly to Bell's gutsy, 25-point performance.
But that was Tuesday. Now Bell was on the bench, his knee propped up, his head buried in a towel, unable to do anything to help his guys battle a Scituate team with a front court that went 6'10, 6'9 and 6'5. And as his teammates helped him to the locker room, I was certain we'd seen the last of Bell in a Frontier uniform.
I should have known better, because when the second half started, Bell was back out on the floor, hobbling up and down the lane, trying to contribute. I'm sure some people were surprised to see him in there like that, but they shouldn't have been, knowing the kind of competitor Bell is. He would have been happy to stay in there on one leg if he had thought it would help his team, but after missing badly on a deep three-pointer, Bell knew he had to shut it down.
"I just kind of stopped and I heard it pop," Bell said after being carried into the post-game press conference by two teammates. "I knew I couldn't run on it anymore."
"A lot of guys stepped up, especially Gary Grandonico and Brennan McKenna. They hit some big shots, and (center Jon Pepyne) played one of the greatest games I've ever seen… We told him to get physical with those guys inside, and that's what he did."
And though tearing an ACL and finishing with three points isn't exactly a dream way to end a season, Bell's not complaining.
"Winning a state title has always been my dream, and I knew this team had the ability to do it," Bell added. "I didn't think it would end like this, but it feels great."
As it does for anyone who's been lucky enough to see this very special group of athletes make a little bit of history in what's turned out to be an unforgettable winter for local sports fans.?
