Saugus athletics director hopes fall’s sports triumphs are launchpad for winter success

By Dom Nicastro

The 2023 fall athletic season at Saugus High School was filled with progress. The girls’ soccer team made the Round of 16 in the Division 3 tournament, falling to the No. 1 seed. The football team won five games after winning one in the last two seasons. The volleyball team made the postseason for the first time.

Terri Pillsbury, Saugus’s athletics director, reflected on these accomplishments and shared some insights into the upcoming winter sports season in an interview with the Advocate this week. With fall sports concluding on a high note, Pillsbury expressed both pride in the accomplishments and optimism for the challenges of the winter season. She has been super impressed with the tenacity of Saugus’s teams thus far after one season for this school year and the community’s collective spirit behind its teams.

Fall season recap

  Girls’ soccer: The team exhibited remarkable tenacity by holding a 0-0 score against North Reading in the opening round of the tournament. The teams battled to a scoreless draw after two halves and two overtimes before Saugus came on top in penalty kicks. It next faced the No. 1 seed, Medfield, and competed before falling, 1-0.

Pillsbury praised the team’s emotional resilience. “It’s very easy for a team to have a little bit of an emotional letdown after that North Reading game,” she said, “but our girls showed up; they played so well.”

  Volleyball: Saugus’s volleyball team, under the direction of alumna and first-year coach Mikayla Niles, reached the tournament for the first time in its history, a significant achievement. The bus carrying the Sachems to their tournament game may have stalled – yes, right on the Mass. Pike – but the team certainly moved forward this season. It battled Chicopee in the postseason before falling, 3-2, ending its campaign with 11 wins.

  Football: There is a new sense of hope within the football program, with Pillsbury attributing the success to the dedication of the players. “Kudos to this year’s senior class,” she said. “Those guys went out and … they really did work hard, and they should absolutely be commended for it.”

In football, the focus is on rebuilding the team and recruiting new talent. Pillsbury is hopeful, despite the challenges: “We had a number of kids who either hadn’t ever played football before… or hadn’t been playing here in Saugus, and they were guys that went out and really worked hard to get in and get going,” she said.

Winter season outlook
  With games starting up this weekend, Pillsbury shared some thoughts on the winter.

The girls’ basketball team will be featuring a new coach – program alum and former assistant Joe Lowe. He takes over for Mark Schruender, who steps down to focus on his family after 10 seasons as varsity coach. Reflecting on the coaching transition, Pillsbury highlighted the legacy left by the retiring coach, noting the consistent success under his tenure: six straight tourney appearances and around 13-14 wins per season in that span. “That’s a testament to Mark and his way of doing things,” Pillsbury said. “He puts forward a consistent product, and a team that works hard and does the right thing.”

Saugus also has three co-op programs for the winter: boys’ hockey is with host Peabody for the second straight year; about 17 Saugus wrestlers will host about the same number of Peabody athletes; and Saugus athletes will compete for host Northeast Metro Tech swim. The hockey team, a program that won three state titles in a short span about 25 years ago, aims to reinstate its own program eventually. It has about nine Saugus hockey players it sends to Peabody this winter.

Pillsbury is also excited about the prospects of the basketball program led by two Saugus alums: Joe Bertrand for the boys and Lowe for the girls. Each program last season won the Northeastern Conference Lynch Division.

The athletics director also noted the resurgence of the track programs, with about 60 athletes combined for the boys’ and girls’ squads. That’s up nearly 100% from last winter.

The discussion with Pillsbury underscored the resilience of Saugus High School’s athletic programs, cooperative program or not. Pillsbury’s reflections, brimming with pride and an unwavering commitment to her teams, promise a winter season full of potential. “We’ve got a small but mighty list of Sachems for Saugus High School athletics for the winter,” Pillsbury said. “It’s such a thin season for us. We don’t host teams like hockey, but eventually we’d prefer to host it. I would absolutely welcome that. I just need the numbers in order to be able to support it.”