Grateful for 2019
Cumberland senior Fogell grateful for chance to start for Clippers last season
CUMBERLAND – Ben Fogell called it one of the finest moments of his life, if not the best.
It came just over 13 months ago, immediately after Cumberland High had sealed its final baseball scrimmage of the young spring.
Varsity skipper Andy Tuetken strolled over to Fogell, who was about to begin his junior campaign, and told him he would, in fact, be his starting varsity catcher on Opening Day.
“I remember that so well,” Fogell stated recently. “I had been hoping throughout the preseason that I’d be able to win the starting job, but – remember – we still had Reuben Hancock, who’s a great catcher. But something happened with him, and coach told me I’d get the nod.
“I couldn’t wait for the season to start because I couldn’t wait to see how good we could be. People would say, ‘They’re rebuilding, or it’ll be a bridge year, and I was thinking, ‘We’re going to be better than they think.’”
— Cumberland’s Ben Fogell
“I was ecstatic! I was so thrilled!” he added. “As soon as I got in my car, I called my mom (Tina), and she was excited, too.”
Fast forward to this past Thursday, April 23 – that’s when Fogell experienced the complete opposite emotion. His mother had knocked on his bedroom door during the early afternoon hours to tell him that Gov. Gina Raimondo had announced all Rhode Island schools would remain closed, and that all students would continue her previous “distance learning” mandate.
Because the Rhode Island Interscholastic League has a rule stating no practices or contests can take place when school is out of session, the verdict also meant the COVID-19 pandemic had been responsible for canceling the spring sports season.
As much as Fogell had wanted to remain the Clippers’ starting backstop and perhaps even lead them to a league title, especially being a senior, that hopeful wish went up in a puff of smoke.
“I was at home in my bedroom when my mom told me, and I was just numb,” he recalled. “She was home, too, because she works with the Bristol School Department. I was devastated because I had worked so hard in the fall and over the winter. I had been working out at HOPS Athletic Performance at least three times a week, plus I was doing some workouts at home.
“I felt crushed because I thought we were going to have something special this year,” he added. “Before the season would have started, we had people telling us we were going to have a hard time because we lost eight seniors to graduation, but I felt good about the season anyway. We had some juniors and seniors coming back, and they might have been untested on the varsity level, but we had some experience, too.
“I couldn’t wait for the season to start because I couldn’t wait to see how good we could be. People would say, ‘They’re rebuilding, or it’ll be a bridge year, and I was thinking, ‘We’re going to be better than they think.’”
According to Tuetken, those kinds of comments don’t surprise him a bit.
“Ben’s the type of catcher every coach wants on his team, not only because of his play on the field defensively or at the plate with the bat, but because of his leadership,” he offered. “He’s the type of kid who can keep his teammates loose and relaxed, and it’s by how he presents himself. He’s always preaching ‘Team First.’
“I know he batted over .300 for us (last year), and we were going to count on him to be a ‘middle of the order’ type player for us. We knew he was going to produce some runs for us.
“I have to say we have a lot of hard workers on our team, but he’s also one who will not allow himself to be outworked. He’s one of those guys, those seniors, you feel so bad for them,” he added. “You knew it was his and the other seniors’ final season, and then it’s pulled away. He’s an outstanding young man, and I wish him and all the seniors all the good luck for the future.”
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What makes matters even worse for Fogell is that this would have been his last high school campaign ever, given the fact he will be attending New England Tech this fall. There he will begin studying automotive technology, which has been a passion of his for a long time.
“I’d like to be a mechanic and run my own garage someday,” he said. “That would be great … The problem is, New England Tech doesn’t have any sports, so this would’ve been it, so that makes the cancellation so hard to accept. I had big things in mind.”
That, however, is not to say he hasn’t produced a superb athletic career for himself with “Big Blue.”
He began his freshman year as a JV soccer and baseball player, and did the same as a sophomore. He chose not to play those sports as a junior, but – as stated – did start for the varsity nine.
Something funny happened at the start of his senior campaign, and head football coach Josh Lima couldn’t have been any happier about it.
“He had told me he wasn’t going to play soccer, I’m assuming to focus on baseball; because I had Ben in class (a computer technology course) as a junior, I looked at him one day and said, ‘Dude, you should come out and play for us. I know you could kick for us.’ All I got was a bunch of ‘maybes,’” he laughed.
“I had him in class again last September, and we were talking about kicking,” he continued. “So I asked him again. I said, ‘Hey, if you want, just come out, see how you kick and see what you think. It’ll be up to you.’ He told me, ‘OK, Mr. Lima, I’ll run home, grab my cleats and I’ll see you at practice.
“He showed up, and I was thrilled. It was awesome. From that day on, he was our kicker, doing kickoffs, PATs and field goals. The funniest stat, I think, is that we had never had a true kicker before, and he hit the first field goal we attempted in three seasons. I think that was against E.P. early in the season, and it went about 35 yards. He was three-for-three on field goals and he hit a ton of PATs.
“The best thing was that on kickoffs, he could pound it into the end zone and force touchbacks, which only helped our defense.”
When asked if he did, in fact, race home to get his cleats that day, he admitted “Yes.”
“I was starting something new,” he said. “It only took me seven or eight minutes.”
Right now, Fogell admitted the lack of a campaign has been ridiculously hard on him, but he’s doing the best he can to cope. First, he continues to train at home in his basement, which houses a bench press and squat rack (keys for catchers).
“I’m running a mile every day, and I’m also doing pushups, situps, burpees, planks, stuff like that,” he noted. “I’m finding that working out and trying to look ahead to the future is helping a bit. At this point, I want to play (American) Legion ball with Upper Deck (Post 86/14). That’s why I’m training. I have to stay in shape.”
Another thing, he indicated, helped more than words could say. Because the Clippers snap an impromptu team photo every spring, Fogell and his teammates decided to do the same this year, strolling down to the Tucker Field diamond last Saturday afternoon.
He said the best thing about it stemmed from the fact that assistant coach Jared Cardoso had delivered uniforms to the players for the photo shoot, naturally conducted by Tina Fogell.
“We all got together because it was tradition; we always received a poster of our team photo with us dressed in our numbers during our awards banquet,” Fogell offered. “We wanted one for our senior years, and I will say I was very happy.
“At least we got to wear our uniforms one last time. That definitely helped take my mind off it.”