High school sports teams’ banquets are always times to remember the highlights of the season and look forward to what the future may bring as well as recognize individual and team achievements.
For the last two years, the Lynnfield girls tennis team banquet has also been a time to remember one of the most talented players ever to suit up as a Pioneer and honor her memory with a special award that personifies her contributions, not only to the program, but to the community.
The Sharla Caico Sieve Team Spirit Award was established in 2023. It honors Sieve, who died of cancer in December 2022 at the age of 49.
The award is the only one voted on by the players. As they had last year, the players once again gave the award to 2024 senior captain Maddie Sieve, Sharla’s daughter.
“For me to receive this award not only this year but last year is something that is so special to me,” Maddie Sieve said. “To know that I am receiving this award in honor of my mother, who has done so much for me throughout my whole life and until her last days is incredible. She was the one who brought me back to tennis after not playing my freshman year and helped me find this team, a team that I now call family.”
“Maddie easily could have been a candidate for a number of awards this season, but I feel that this award, an award chosen by your teammates, is most fitting and truly resembles who you are and what you mean to Lynnfield High School girls tennis,” head coach Craig Stone when he presented the award at the team’s end-of-year banquet.
As she did last year, Maddie Sieve manned the post at third singles this year, posting a record of 15-9. She earned the match-clinching points in the Pioneers’ quarterfinal and semi-final victories that propelled the Pioneers into the state championship match against Hamilton-Wenham where, once again, Sieve’s match was one of the longest matches on the court before going down with her teammates to defeat.
In the Elite 8 match against Bromfield, Sieve was on the court for three and one-half hours. She was the only Pioneer on the court for more than an hour in front of a full-house crowd before clinching the match in a thrilling tiebreaker to punch the Pioneers’ ticket to the Final Four.
Sieve said she had a little help from a friend – her mother.
“Going into the tiebreaker I talked to her and said she needed to help me win it for my teammates,” Sieve said. “And she did. I could not have done it without her strength.”
Stone said that even when her groundstrokes may have been off, “Maddie’s competitiveness and athleticism would will her to victory. It was never more evident than in her 3 1 ⁄ 2 hour marathon (against Bromfield), with the match on the line. As tough as she is, it is only outweighed by her sensitivity and compassion for her teammates and life.”
Sharla Sieve was a 1991 graduate of Lynnfield High where she excelled at tennis. A team captain and four-year varsity starter, she finished her high school career with an overall record of 85-13, placing her fifth on Stone’s all-time career Hall of Fame list.
A two-time sectional quarter-finalist at the North Sectional Individuals Tournament, and a top-ranked player in United States Tennis Association New England 18’s, Sharla Sieve’s teams won four straight Cape Ann League championships as well as three Division 2 North Sectional titles. The 1991 CAL Player of the Year and a Boston Herald All-Scholastic, she went on to play Division 1 collegiate tennis at Seton Hall. When she graduated in 1995, she held the record for most combined singles and doubles wins in the history of Pirates’ women’s tennis.
Sharla Sieve returned to Lynnfield as a teacher at the Lynnfield Middle School and coached two Pioneers’ boys tennis teams to league championships.
“Among her many accomplishments on the court, Sharla will also be remembered for her camaraderie, enthusiasm, encouragement, and her support of the sport, coaches, and teammates, characteristics which she continued to exemplify upon leaving education to become a mother of five children and a valued member of the Lynnfield community,” Stone said at the banquet.
Let’s just say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Maddie Sieve expressed her gratitude to her teammates and Stone for their support and for ensuring that her mother’s spirit will live on for years to come.
“I just have so much love for my teammates who voted to give me this award this year. They mean so much to me,” Sieve said. “And also for coach Stone, who also coached my mother and created this award in her honor so that many more people will receive this award after me.”
