Hartland
The always active, affable Sapp liked to say he wore many hats, and others have been trying them on for size to help fill the void.
John Leonard, Sapp’s assistant for six years, was promoted to recreation director last fall after filling Sapp’s role on an interim basis for several months. At the same time, Town Manager Bob Stacey and Hartland Elementary School Principal Jeff Moreno jointly hired Monica Torney to take Leonard’s place as assistant recreation director and to become the new A.D. at HES.
“Ray’s death left a huge void, and it’s something we’re going to still be feeling for a lot longer,” Stacey said in his office at Damon Hall this week. “That said, having (Leonard and Torney) in place has been a huge help. John’s experience made him a natural successor, and we’re very happy that we found Monica.”
Leonard, a Barnard native and 1994 Woodstock Union High School graduate, has worked at recreation centers since he was a teenager helping then-Woodstock recreation director Doug Dayton facilitate summer camps and swim lessons. He continued such work while studying liberal arts at Lyndon State College, later becoming manager at The Wall indoor rock climbing facility (now the Green Mountain Rock Climbing Center) on Route 4 west of Quechee. He spent nine years there before joining Sapp at the Hartland Recreation Center in 2009.
“It was definitely a learning experience, working for Ray and seeing the way he did things,” said Leonard, who recently turned 40 and has two children, ages 4 and 1. “When I first started, I coached a few sports — third- and-fourth-grade soccer and basketball, middle school baseball and some others — as a way to get to know kids and parents in town. I wanted to because Ray knew everyone and had a hand in everything.”
While Sapp worked to broaden the scope of Hartland’s exercise and enrichment offerings, he also maintained close relationships in the recreation community at large. Under his leadership, Hartland was a member of the Upper Valley Recreation Association and Vermont Recreation & Parks Association, attending annual events and learning about the importance of public engagement and outreach.
“When you’re a staff of two, you realize how important it is to have support from your community and volunteers, that they’re the people you rely on to make a recreation center work,” Leonard said. “We’re very fortunate in Hartland to have groups like the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, (nonprofit) Hartland Community Connections, Hartland Community Arts and the library to work with. Ray was really good at developing and maintaining those relationships. I think that was probably one of the biggest things I learned from him.”
One of Sapp’s favorite go-to events was Vermont Recreation & Parks’ Summerama, a performance showcase of children’s entertainers such as magicians and an opportunity to connect with other departments. This year’s event is June 4 in White River Junction.
“You watch 20-25 children’s entertainers go for about 10 minutes each,” Leonard said. “It’s a great way to kick off the summer, meet a lot of people from around the state and see who you might want to book.”
Leonard said his learning curve is “season by season” as he adjusts to handling the responsibilities Sapp formerly held. While similarly efficient, Stacey noted stylistic differences between the two.
“They’re both great leaders, but I think Ray was a little bit more seat of his pants,” the town manager said. “He went day to day and always pulled stuff together and made it work without ever really worrying too much. I think John works with a little bit more of a structural viewpoint, just a bit of a different management style. But he’s very outgoing and friendly, just like Ray.”
While Leonard works to maintain the initiatives Sapp had in place, he also strives toward his own ways to improve the department’s offerings. This winter, a pilot skiing and snowboarding program proved to be a hit.
“It came together pretty spontaneously, and we ended up getting transportation to go to Suicide Six for skiing and snowboarding lessons every Tuesday,” Leonard said. “We had 76 kids from Hartland Elementary. Drawing from a school of about 300, that’s pretty good for the first year.”
Leonard is also developing ways to better utilize the athletic fields behind the recreation center, which includes a number of soccer fields and a baseball diamond. Beginning next month, the fields will host Challenger British Soccer camps, bringing skilled soccer coaches from England to Hartland for skills clinics and games.
“We’d like to make the rec center more of a destination and expand the programming,” Leonard said. “Part of that is, ‘Well, what do you do on the fields when it isn’t soccer season?’ We thought a spring soccer program was a good thing to get going.”
Torney, 23, studied sports management at Springfield College and was a teen sports coordinator at the YMCA in Keene, N.H. — the same post she held as an intern while an undergraduate — before coming to Hartland. The Charlestown native and former Fall Mountain Regional High soccer and basketball player has been filling Sapp’s role as a middle school adviser while working closely with Moreno to develop a comprehensive handbook for middle school athletics at HES.
“I never met Ray, but I know he wore a lot of hats,” said Torney, whose older brother, Matt Baird-Torney, is the boys basketball coach at Stevens High. “Jeff and John have both been awesome in helping me kind of figure things out and transition.”
Torney is present daily for an after school enrichment program originally developed by Sapp and Moreno, providing kids with an array of activity options. Aside from learning to be more organized in general, Torney’s new post has taught her just how boundless the energy levels of elementary school students can be.
“No matter what the weather is, they want to go outside and play,” she said. “When school gets out, they’re ready to go, go, go.”
Moreno has been impressed with how Torney has handled the job.
“She has been a wonderful fit for us,” Moreno said. “The kids love her, and she has a really bright future.”
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.