Melody makes a statement

In 1982 North Attleboro had won its’ fourth straight league championship. Then graduation took a huge toll and the ’83 team was now forced to look for new talent. The freshmen class looked pretty good but no one knew at that time that they would eventually win a state championship.

We traveled to Mansfield for the Muscato Relays – this was in the days when boys and girls competed this meet at different sites. It was time for the 4X100M and we had a fast team, but not very good handoffs. There were three freshmen on our squad. The most talent was on Oliver Ames' team. They had the best sprinters in the league – including a sub 26-second runner 200M runner.

Each leg ran well but entering the last handoff we still trailed the orange and black by at least 5 yards. And they were going to hand off to their star. Both teams exchanged cleanly and it looked like we were going to hold on to second place. Then the unpredictable happened!

Freshman Melody Johnson grabbed the baton and proceeded to sprint past the lead team, thus giving us the victory. What I had witnessed was totally unexpected. More unexpected was the reaction from the Oliver Ames coach. He was none other than Val Muscato – the person after who the meet was named.

Understand that at this point in his career Val was a large man. From the far end of the track I could see him sprinting toward me, maybe a bit slower than in his prime. It was clear that he was headed straight toward me. He pulled up in front of me and nearly breathless exclaimed, “Who is that?”

I imagine he suspected that I had recruited a star athlete from some other team. He couldn’t fathom someone running past his star that easily – nor could I. Although I can’t remember the exact words, my reply was something not terribly glib, perhaps, “Melody Johnson – a freshman.”

It was my first look at what was a remarkable athlete – someone who hadn’t given me the slightest hint in practice about the level of talent she possessed. That’s just one more thing I love about the Muscato Relays. I enter every year just waiting for the newest surprise.