Two schools, two championship games

It was a strange feeling for Rachel Barry, the head coach of the Clarke Lady Rams softball team, when she returned to Moreau Park in upstate Glen Falls, N.Y., in early June for the second straight year, for the New York State Class A championship game.

It wasn’t so much the rarity of being back in the championship game for a second time that made the situation peculiar, but rather, that she was coaching a completely different team than the year before — from the same school district.

Barry, 24, was an assistant coach for the East Meadow Lady Jets in 2014 when the squad won the Class AA title game for the first time in school’s history. One year later, she coached the Clarke girls to their first state championship game. The Lady Rams dropped the hard-fought contest in extra innings, 9-7, to Averill Park.

East Meadow and Clarke, the East Meadow School District’s two high schools, both feature highly regarded baseball and softball programs. Barry, who coached East Meadow’s junior varsity softball team, joined the Lady Jets coaching staff for the playoff run, under Stew Fritz, after the JV season ended.

Last summer, Barry was offered the position of Lady Rams head coach by the district’s athletic director, Kevin Regan. ”That was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Barry said. “To leave East Meadow, that I absolutely fell in love with.”

The Lady Rams, led by accomplished pitcher Sarah Cornell, entered the 2015 season with modest expectations. The year before, they lost in the semifinals of the Class A playoffs.

But as the team piled up wins throughout the year — including 17 in a row, at one point — those goals began to evolve. “Every time they stepped over a hurdle,” Barry said, “they realized there was more, and they could accomplish more.”

Barry said she wore a championship pendant from last year’s East Meadow squad under her Clarke jersey all year long. “I tucked it under my shirt,” she said. “That was my own way for myself to motivate them.

“They knew I was wearing it,” she added. “And it drove them crazy.”