Gabe Santos (NSHS Ice Hockey) has received the 2026 Merrimack Valley Conference/Dual County League Division 2 league Sportsmanship Award presented by the Boston Bruins and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). A recurrence of cancer prevented him from playing this season, but through all his treatments he attended every practice and inspired the team. Head Coach Gabriel Feldstein said, “He fought a harder battle than anyone ever fights on the ice, but still showed up and actively participated in trainings, film sessions, and developing the team.”
Josh Micley has been appointed Director of Camp Yavneh, a co-ed Jewish overnight camp for kids and teens ages 8-16 from across New England and NY. He has spent nine years as a camper and eight years on staff at the camp and is part of a multi-generational Yavneh family. He holds a Master of Education in School Leadership from Harvard University and an MS in Teaching from Fordham University. He starts in his new role on May 4.
Pat Gonzalez — former Newton South HS Athletic Director — has received a National Federation of State High School Associations Citation Award, awarded to “an athletic administrator who has made significant contributions to [NFHS] and other organizations, positively impacting high school athletics at both the state and national levels.”
Chris Markiewicz, a director of the Charles River Watershed Association, has been elected its treasurer. He served on the Newton City Council (2018-2023) and is a trustee of the All Newton Music School.
Adam Strauss will bring his acclaimed solo show, The Mushroom Cure, to the Mosesian Center in Watertown on April 10–11, and the performances will be filmed as the basis for a feature film. The show tells the true story of Strauss’s quest to cure his severe OCD with psychedelics. The New York Times said that it “mines a great deal of laughter from disabling pain,” and the Chicago Tribune called it “arrestingly honest and howlingly funny.”
