RallyNorth.net

Twomey's move pays off in landing scholarship to Richmond

He's a center back, a position that doesn't earn much press in soccer. You're not exactly the center of attention.

"You're like a general, shouting out instructions on who should be marking different players," said John Twomey, who plays that very position.

In essence, a center back is a coach on the field with defender's responsibilities. It's like a middle linebacker, calling his team's signals, or a baseball catcher calling a game.

Twomey's ability to play that position at a high level has seen him star at Masconomet Regional, and again at Phillips Andover Academy after transferring there following his sophomore year of high school. Now, it has landed him an athletic scholarship to play soccer for the University of Richmond, a Division 1 school in Virginia.

The Spiders play in the Atlantic-10. They play what he calls "a beautiful schedule" (Virginia and Virginia Tech, for starters) and have such an esthetic overall beauty that Twomey said he'd enroll without the soccer grant. "It's a beautiful campus and a beautiful school," said Twomey, a Boxford native. "They wanted me to come there, and I wanted to go there."

Wanting to challenge himself

There's no doubt his close friends from Masconomet still wonder why Twomey chose to transfer to a private school, given all the potential he displayed as a high school freshman. He made varsity status in soccer, basketball and baseball that freshman year at Masco.

He also suffered a stress fracture of his L5 vertebrae midway in his sophomore season of soccer, but was lucky enough to escape the operating room. Instead, he was sidelined for four months, returning that spring to play JV baseball as a pitcher-first baseman.

When word came down that Twomey was heading to Phillips Andover, then Masco baseball coach Peter Delani asked one of his most famous alumns, former Harvard ace and Colorado Rockies draft pick Ben Crockett, to speak to Twomey about staying.

The pep talk didn't work; Twomey's decision had already been made.

Truth be told, Twomey had applied to Phillips Andover in the eighth grade and was accepted, but chose Masconomet at the time.

"Masco is strong athletically and academically," Twomey said. "But I guess I always had Andover in back of my mind. I wanted to try something new, give myself more of a challenge. I like taking risks, and I also was able to (becoming a boarding student) at Andover.

"This has been a great experience here. I've grown as a player; the level of play (for soccer) is real high and so is the competition. There are seven or eight kids on the team who look like they'll play in college."

Bouncing back from injury

The two years at Masco were messy for him medically. Twomey played his whole freshman soccer year with a hernia (that fortunately didn't pop) and needed surgery after the season. The move to Andover paid off handsomely.

Academically, Twomey scored a 2180 on his SATs, a perfect 800 on his Math SAT 2 achievement test and a 6 (the highest possible grade) on the College Board AP test for Music Composition & Theory.

He played every minute of every Big Blue soccer game for two years and wound up a New England Division 1 all-star. That earned him a trip to Dartmouth College for a recruiting camp, which was Step 1 in gaining Richmond's attention the summer before his final year at Andover.

"There were probably 200 kids at Dartmouth, with 30-35 picked for an all-star game. That's the first time I spoke to one of the Richmond coaches, (assistant) Matt O'Toole. He said he liked my basic game," said Twomey. "I was really flattered."

Richmond stayed in touch with Twomey over the fall and saw him again at the New England Prep all-star game in Concord, N.H. That's where he met Jeff Gettler, Richmond's head coach. Twomey got an official invite to Richmond, enjoyed it, and Gettler made a substantial scholarship offer. He verbally committed Dec. 20.

He is planning on a double major: economics and leadership. From all indications, Twomey will get a shot at playing time as a freshman.

He likely will be the only Spider who can speak Chinese.

"I said I like to take risks. Taking a two-year language course in Chinese was one of them," Twomey laughed. "Maybe I can use it if I do something internationally. "But I'm not fluent; I speak it just well enough to get by."