In print on April 12, The Boston Globe released its selections for high school Athletes of the Year as well as All-Scholastics for the 2019-2020 winter sport season. This year, two of Walpole’s finest athletes made the cut. Senior captains Shane Grant and Sydney Scales were named All-Scholastics in Boys’ Indoor Track and Girls’ Basketball, respectively.

“I think this was definitely an all around amazing season. I felt confident on the court playing, being a captain and leading my team,” Scales said. “It felt like everything clicked in terms of things I had been trying to improve on for my last season.”

As written on its website, The Boston Globe “salutes the region’s best high school athletes and coaches in the nine winter sports seasons”—as well as all fall and spring sports seasons. Grant’s and Scales’s individual accomplishments proved them to be among the best. 

“I never really try to focus on winning awards because it takes away from just playing basketball and having fun,” Scales said. “I was very excited when I found out I won All-Scholastics, but it was not something I had specifically focused on winning during the season.”

On the track, Grant broke school records in the 600m, 1000m, mile and bested his own 4×800 relay split with a time of 1:53.8. Such victories contributed to his many postseason successes, such as qualifying individually for New Balance Nationals in the 800m as well as on a 4x800m relay team. Although Nationals was canceled due to the imminent threat of COVID-19, Grant managed to win the 1000m at the All-State Championship and placed second at New England Interscholastic Championship in a gutsy race in which he was edged out of first place by only 0.26 seconds. 

“This season was definitely a high point in my track career and one that I will never forget. Spending time with my teammates at practice and all the races truly made this season a memorable one,” Grant said.

As for Scales, she attained both personal and team goals to conclude her high school basketball career. On Feb. 13, Scales scored her 1,000th point in a competitive game against Foxboro, which was a dream that Scales chased earnestly in her final season. Additionally, Scales led her team in qualifying for the tournament portion of the postseason, which was special to both her and her teammates. 

“Personally, I just wanted to leave everything on the court and be the best player and leader I could be in my final season of basketball which I feel like I did,” Scales said. 

Grant will continue his academic and athletic career at Northeastern University in the fall as part of the cross country and track and field teams. 

“My goal for running in college is to help my team in whatever way they need me,” Grant said.  “Ideally, I would like to place at the league meet next year and eventually place at NCAA Nationals some time in my college career.”

Scales concluded her final basketball season at the top and will move on to fulfill her lacrosse aspirations at Boston College next year. Onto a college lacrosse career, Scales carries the lessons in hard work that basketball has taught her as they led her to great success, such as her newfound All-Scholastic title. 

“Basketball was the first sport I ever played and ever really took seriously. It taught me to set goals and work hard to achieve them,” Scales said. “It also taught me not to care what other people think and to just keep working hard no matter what.”

In a similar fashion, Grant attributes much of his success this season to the lessons that he learned from a support system of family, coaches and teammates. 

“There is no way I would have had the success I had this season if it wasn’t for my coaches,” Grant said. “They always kept me focused on the long goal and had me getting into shape and peaking at just the right point in the season. My teammates have also been a big help pushing me in practice and being there for support.”