'Brainstorming all the time': Argosy Charter sports program going strong — and growing
FALL RIVER — The best kept secret in Greater Fall River high school athletics has actually been around for a while.
The Argosy Collegiate Charter School just started its sixth school year of offering interscholastic teams. It offers girls’ and boys’ soccer and girls’ volleyball in the fall. There’s cheerleading and girls’ and boys’ basketball in the winter. The school’s lone spring offering is boys’ volleyball.
Outside the MCSAA, Argosy offers competitive rowing at the Watuppa Rowing Center in the city. “Kids can pick up rowing in high school and actually have enough time to develop skills where they can actually capitalize on scholarships, particularly girls and people of color,” Argosy Executive Director Kristen Pavao said.
It’s a growing athletics program, said Director of Athletics Henry Zhang. That growth, he said, may in the not-too-distant future include baseball and softball in the spring, a dance team and maybe even e-sports.
“We’re looking to add a lot of things,” Zhang said. “We’re brainstorming all the time.”
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The Argosy lineup is strictly varsity teams. That all began with soccer five years ago when the high school had only freshmen and sophomores. Zhang said he would also like to add junior varsity programs.
“There have been some growing pains along the way,” he said.
Argosy added a gymnasium to its facility (former Sts. Peter & Paul School) at 240 Dover St., but it has no outdoor fields.
Soccer practices at Britland Park. In the past, home games have been played at the Swansea YMCA. But that may not continue. Argosy’s official soccer schedule as of this writing was a pair of away games, with the plan to add at least a few more. Zhang said Argosy would like to use Britland Park for home games, but the demand for that turf field is high.
Competing against other charter schools
Argosy competes in the Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Association and looks to schedule, for each team, five to 10 games per season. Last year, in its first season of existence, boys’ volleyball advanced to the MCSAA semifinals before losing to eventual champion Foxborough Charter.
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Playing in the MCSAA does mean some long bus rides to compete against other charters in and around Boston. “We’ve had some late nights,” Zhang said.
Rigorous standards, coaches who are familiar with athletes
The school has about 275 students and Zhang estimates 55 to 70 percent of those students participate in athletics, with many of those are multi-season athletes.
Most of the coaches, Zhang said, work in the high school or the Argosy Middle School on Hamlet Street. “We want our coaches to know the scholar-athletes,” he said.
He said the school has rigid academic standards for the athletes. Zhang shared how when he was growing up in South Carolina, it was school sports which “kept me in check.”
The Argosy Middle School also offers athletics, competing in the Fall River Public Schools Middle Schools League on Saturdays.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Argosy Collegiate Charter high school sports program growing
