Page 16 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, September 6, 2024 LET’S GO, MALDEN! Malden Athletic Director Charlie Conefrey excited about 2024-25 School Year By Charlie Conefrey T he long wait is over! It’s time to run, pass, tackle and kick again. Don’t forget drive, putt and trudge across any of a number of local fairways. It seems like just yesterday we were beaming with pride for our seven Spring Season MIAA State Tournament teams as well as our four Greater Boston League Champions – the most league title-winners in a single athletic season in decades! But the season has changed again and Fall Sports are here for Malden High School, and it is certainly an exciting time of year for all of us. Fall season is always one of the most exciting seasons and brings the most anticipation since it comes right along with the start of a new school year. We are very appreciative to all of the hard work our teams, players, coaches, families, ATs and support staff have put into preparing for this season – and the school year overall – and wish success and good luck to all our Fall Season teams. Most of our teams will compete “for real” starting this week and next, and from all indications this could be a very interesting and successful season. The best barometer for speculating about some gains in the win-loss column for our Fall Teams is player participation numbers. From Football to Soccer to Cross Country, our rosters are up, up and up! Malden High Athletics counts close to 60 players suiting up for our Football season opener next week versus Lynn Tech (Thursday, September 12). Boys Soccer had nearly 100 players at tryouts and will feature three large, talented levels of varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams. Cross country for both boys and girls have a lot of new faces; girls soccer is growing in numbers; and girls volleyball continues to be one of our more popular sports, school-wide. Altogether, we have over 250 student-athletes on the fields, courses and in the gym this fall. That’s fantastic! We are now starting to reap the benefits of the concerted efforts we have made these past several years to encourage Malden High School and middle school students to get out there and play for one of our Golden Tornado teams. We thank all and the Malden Recreation Department. It has been a real “Team” effort, and we could not have done it without everyone working together. Another “plus” this season has been the conscientious manner in which the wide majority of our student-athletes “took care of business” with their Final Forms registration and all that goes with it. As we enter the third school year using Final Forms exclusively, we are finally starting to see lots of positive progress. We wish good luck to all of Charlie Conefrey Director of Wellness, Athletics & PE Malden Public Schools who have played a role, including those inside our school district, the Golden Tornado Club our Fall Teams as their regular season openers arrive. Girls Volleyball already opened up with a win. Girls Soccer opened on Thursday, and Football comes on September 12, among others. After a productive preseason it will be great to get out and compete against our fellow Greater Boston League opponents and non-league teams on our schedules. It has taken a combined effort of everyone inMalden High Girls Volleyball opened their season on Wednesday with a 3-1 win over Everett on the road. Malden stayed on the road at Dracut High in a non-league game on Thursday. Malden’s home opener is Wednesday, September 11 at 5:15 p.m. vs. Chelsea. (Courtesy/Malden HS Athletics) volved to get to this point, and we thank all who have contributed to make this Fall Season launch possible. Good luck to all of our teams, coaches and support staff! GO MALDEN! Malden High School Varsity Field Hockey opens its season on Monday, September 9 at Pine Banks Park versus non-leaguer Saugus.
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