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October 23, 2024By Bill Doyle
CFP Correspondent
WORCESTER – Aimee Lee coaches senior Bella Mara in field hockey and softball at St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School and she can’t praise her enough.
“She is like the face of the school,” Ms. Lee said.
Last spring, Bella was named the Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s Hometeam Softball Player of the Year after she pitched the Knights to the Division 1 state quarterfinals. This fall, she ranks second in scoring for the field hockey team. Even when she’s not leading the Knights on the field, she helps out in other ways. She keeps score for the boys’ basketball team and she’s also helped out with the first-down chains during football games.
Bella laughed when told that her coach called her the face of the school.
“That’s kind of funny,” Bella said.
Bella pointed out that when her brother, D.J., was a senior, everyone called him “Mr. St. Paul” because he was involved in so many activities. He was class president, ran the school newspaper and was involved in school theater. D.J. and Bella have made their parents, Tara and Dan Mara, proud.
D.J., now a sophomore at Emerson College, did not play sports at St. Paul. Bella certainly does.
Last spring, she threw a perfect game and a no-hitter and she pitched five one-hitters. She led the Knights with a .575 batting average, 10 home runs and 42 runs batted in. She was such a powerful hitter, she was intentionally walked about a dozen times last season.
This fall, she helped the field hockey team post a 9-2-2 record entering a game Wednesday at Quabbin. The Knights will have high hopes when they play in the Central Mass. Athletic Directors Association Tournament and in the Division 4 state tournament.
“She’s just so determined and she works so hard,” Ms. Lee said, “and she gives 110 percent always and she practices all the time and she loves playing. I think that’s why she’s so great.”
Bella said she’s a perfectionist.
“If I don’t do well enough in a game, I’m out practicing in the backyard,” she said, “or I’m booking a lesson with Ms. Lee. I don’t settle for anything. I’m always looking to get better. It’s always been like that.”
She’s also a strong student, earning all A’s and B’s.
Bella ranks second in scoring in field hockey to sophomore Ireland Shea, who is her catcher in softball. Bella said she feels such a connection with Ireland while passing the ball to each other in field hockey it’s almost as if they can read each other’s mind.
Ms. Lee is coaching Bella in field hockey for the second season at St. Paul. She began giving her softball lessons when Bella was 8 years old.
“We always live up to her expectations because she knows we can reach them,” Bella said.
“She holds us to a high standard because she knows we can get there. She’s always there for you. She’s like a backbone for all of us. We can lean on her for anything we need.”
Ms. Lee ranks Bella among the top five players she’s coached in her 12 years as softball coach at Holy Name and St. Paul. Ms. Lee knows talent when she sees it. She pitched Holy Name to the 1998 state championship game and she graduated from Clark University in 2002 as the school’s all-time leader in hits and home runs as a batter and in strikeouts as a pitcher. In 2022, she was inducted into the Clark Athletic Hall of Fame.
Ms. Lee taught Bella all five of her pitches, her fastball, drop, curve, rise and change up. Bella’s favorite pitch is her curve.
“It’s my confident pitch,” she said. “If I’m down in the count, I’ll throw a curve.”
When she was younger, she was so nervous on the pitcher’s mound, she would shake.
“Now I’m out there and I’m like, ‘I’m going to own all these hitters,’” she said. “I’m just going to pound the zone and do what I can to compete with them.”
Next year, Bella will pitch for Assumption University. She said one of the reasons she picked Assumption is because it’s a small Catholic school like St. Paul.
St. Paul athletic director Jim Manzello is a big believer in Bella.
“She’s one of the best athletes in the school,” Mr. Manzello said, “but she’s a better kid and she’s a competitor. She’s an excellent student. She is a perfect example of what you’d want a St. Paul student-athlete to be. We have a lot of young kids in field hockey and softball. Last year, we had seventh graders. She’s great with the younger kids, absolutely fantastic to seventh graders. Do you want me to go on?”
Mr. Manzello asked Bella to hold the first-down chains for the varsity football home game on Saturday, Oct. 5, and of course she did. The Knights beat Sutton that day.
“I thought it was cool,” she said. “You don’t really see any girls do that ever. It’s always boys walking around thinking they’re the greatest thing. So being a girl doing it was kind of shocking to people. The whole football team saw me walking across the field and they were like, ‘What the heck are you doing?’”
Bella will keep the scorebook for the St. Paul boys’ basketball team for the third year this winter.
“I’m used to playing on the field,” she said, “but being on the sidelines and supporting other kids is good too. It gives me a different perspective of sports. I don’t have to be the star. It’s great that I have a good game ... but that’s not all who I am. I’m a person too.”
Some star athletes might consider keeping score and holding the first-down chains to be beneath them, but not Bella.
“No ego,” Ms. Lee said. “Definitely, she does not have an ego. Not at all.”
Bella, who will turn 17 on Nov. 5, lives behind the closed St. Peter-Marian Jr./Sr. High School and attended that school in the seventh grade. The following year, St. Peter-Marian merged with Holy Name to form St. Paul in the former Holy Name building and she has attended that school ever since.
Bella is taking confirmation classes at Our Lady of Providence Parish and she said attending a Catholic school since the seventh grade has brought her closer to God.
“It’s made me realize that it’s okay to make mistakes,” she said. “Before every game, we pray and it reminds me that he’s with us no matter what and he gives us the strength to win the game, but if we don’t win the game, nothing’s perfect. He’s not going to judge us because of it."
