Bellingham’s Most Decorated Female Athlete

By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Rylee Chiappone has been playing all sorts of sports since she was young.  In Bellingham, athletes are allowed to take part in high school sports, and Chiappone jumped at the chance. As a senior, she has become Bellingham’s most decorated female athlete, with 15 varsity letters. 

Chiappone has played four varsity sports for the Blackhawks over the three seasons. After playing one year of soccer, she switched over to field hockey for the last four years while also playing five seasons of basketball and track.

Although as a track and field star she has more wins than in any other sport she plays, she enjoys field hockey the most and is hoping to play it on the collegiate level.

“Soccer was something that I always played, but after taking part in the 8th grade for the high school varsity team, the passion was just not there and I didn’t love it as much as field hockey,” the Bellingham athlete said. “Bellingham has a lot of losing teams, especially soccer, and losing changes your mindset.  I want to go out and win every time, but you eventually get use to not winning and you just have to stay positive.”

Despite the losing, the thought about not taking part in sports for the high school never entered Chiappone’s mind. She enjoys playing sports during all three seasons with her friends and teammates win or lose. While she has been a participant in four different sports over three seasons during five years, Chiappone, up until recently, had only been able to take part in one post-season game. This past fall, the field hockey team qualified for tournament play for the first time in 13 years, but unfortunately, it was short lived as Bellingham fell to Cohasset 5-1 in the first round.

“It was very exciting to finally make the tournament for the first time in my career,” Chiappone said. “Prior to the game, we were all hyped up and ready to take the field, but losing was nothing new for us; we were just excited to make the tournament as friends.”

Just recently, Chiappone and her teammates advanced into the tournament for just the second time with the basketball team.  Much like the field hockey team the basketball team was also sent home in the first round with a loss to East Bridgewater.

“Once again, the girls’ basketball team was excited to make the tournament,” she said. “However, being in a program that is used to losing eventually takes a toll on the team. My job is to pump them up and get them ready to play no matter what happens.”

Both her field hockey and basketball coaches believe that the senior had a major contribution to getting their teams to the tournament this year.

“Rylee is a phenomenal athlete. We are a small school that has tso play a lot of big school teams and despite that, she puts everything on the field each and every game,” Field Hockey Coach Jen Ryan said. “She has been a two-year captain as well as our leading scorer this year and generates a lot of our offense. For the past three years, she has been the driving force for the team and without her this year, who knows where we would have been.”

Basketball Coach Stephen Wilson credits Chiappone with recruiting the team, without whom there may not have been a season.

“In the past Bellingham has had an issue with getting girls to play basketball, but as our captain the past two-years Rylee has gotten girls to come out for the team all on her own,” Wilson said. “Of the 26 girls on the varsity and junior varsity team she is responsible for 18 of them. She reached out and got them interested in playing basketball.”

Once the girls committed, they gave it their all 100-percent of the time. They didn’t want to let Chiappone down, especially since she herself was giving everything that she had each time she stepped onto the court. 

On the court, Chiappone lead the team in scoring with 13 points per game before hurting her knee. And although the senior was not on the floor, she was still at practice and on the bench for games, lending her expertise to her teammates while getting the best out of them.

On the field, she is also a player that brings the qualities of a coach, and her teammates listen to her. Her speed and ability keeps her one step of her opposition and being a lefty, she had to relearn how to use the field hockey stick to her advantage.

“Field hockey is a right-handed sport,” Ryan said. “Rylee had to learn how to reverse her stick to play the game, and being a natural lefty makes it hard for the opposition teams to defend (against) her.”

Growing up around two Bellingham Hall of Famer parents, Chiappone had the athletic tendencies flowing through her blood at a young age.

“I don’t think that I was forced to follow in my parents’ athletic footsteps,” she said. “Whether they had something to do with it or not I really enjoy taking part in sports for Bellingham and have been really happy being part of different teams with my teammates.”

As for being labeled Bellingham’s most decorated female athlete in terms of varsity levels she’s ok with that.

“It’s pretty cool to being named to such an honor, especially following in my parents’ footsteps,” the senior said. “But its not all about the honors. I just love playing sports and being with friends and people you enjoy being around; it makes everything a little bit more tolerable.”