WELLESLEY — Inside his cozy office, complete with black and Raider red cushioned chairs, Wellesley High athletic director John Brown has annually updated a number on a greaseboard behind his desk.
Entering the 2017-18 school year, the number is “12’’ — 12 years since a Wellesley student-athlete has signed a national letter of intent to attend a Division 1 college program on full scholarship.
That athlete was Thomas Claiborne (Class of 2005), a 6-foot-3-inch, 330-plus pound lineman who parlayed his dominant play in the Bay State Conference into a four-year career at Boston College, and briefly, the National Football League.
Wellesley has produced hundreds of talented athletes in Brown’s 12-year tenure as AD — including Claiborne, now 29 and back in town coaching three sports at the high school and middle school levels — that have gone on to collegiate success.
Brown, his hard-working staff of coaches, invaluable secretary MaryAnne McDonald, trainer Patty Hickey, and school administrators are proud of every one.
But there has only been one true “LOI.’’ Partial scholarships to Division 2 or 3 programs, no matter how deserving, do not make the cut.
Wellesley measures success as a program in four letters . . . T-E-A-M. And the athletic program, on Brown’s watch, has certainly set the bar high.
The Raiders field 36 varsity teams. In the 2016-17 campaign, Wellesley won 70.60 percent of its 420 regular-season matchups, racking up an EMass-high 288 victories, along with 17 ties. Only four varsity teams had losing records.
And for the third time in four years, Wellesley is one of 10 divisional winners in the Globe Scholastic Awards, nosing out Hingham (69.61 win percentage) under the direction of retiring AD Margaret Conaty by less than a percentage point for the Ames Division 2 trophy. The award is named after Larry Ames, the Globe’s high school sports editor from 1979-94.
The awards, now in their 45th year, rank schools based on their win percentage for regular-season play. Complete results are available on bostonglobe.com/schools.
At Wellesley, success was far reaching.
Jesse Davis’s football squad (10-1) ripped off a 9-0 regular season, the boys’ cross-country team (11-0) legged out a state title, the boys’ swim team (10-1) made a splash, the girls’ indoor track team (5-1) sprinted to the D2 state title, the boys’ (17-0) and girls’ golf (21-0) teams were unbeaten, and Rob Kane’s nine, in danger of not qualifying for the D1 South baseball tourney late in the season, made a spirited run to the state championship game. The boys’ and girls’ tennis teams were a net 34-4 in the regular season, 42-6 overall.
“We’ve had real good success, we’ve won a lot of games, in a lot of sports, with a lot of kids that love playing sports, with a lot of good athletes,’’ said Brown.
“But we are not pumping out a lot of scholarship kids. It’s all about team. They take pride in wearing their Wellesley gear, and taking part. And we try to do it the right way.’’
In the 2016-17 campaign, 938 Wellesley students participated on teams, filling 1,634 spots. “Eighty percent of our graduating class played a sport,’’ boasted Brown.
And in an age in which specialization is the rage, 183 Raiders were three-sport athletes.
Rocky Batty, who compiled a 134-57 record in a 10-year run as the varsity boys’ lacrosse coach before stepping away this week to be an assistant at Boston University, told his players in a breakup meeting Wednesday, “How do you become a better lacrosse player? . . . Play other sports.’’
Said Brown, “Our coaches get along. If a kid might be a marginal player in one sport, but a good player in another sport, they are trying to do what is best for the kid. . . . And it is what helps us to succeed, wins and losses-wise, but also get kids to participate.
“We try to make everyone comfortable, and be part of the program.’’
The journey is important.
“We want everyone to have a great experience playing sports,’’ Brown added. “That experience might be different for every kid. Somebody might be the No. 3 hitter on the baseball team . . . another kid may just want a uniform. . . . We want each kid treated the same. We want them to look back and say, ‘I really liked that.’ ’’
The payoff may come 10 to 15 years down the road, “when that kid that was here is a parent and they start coaching their kids, and they say, ‘I got something out of that. I learned the right way to play sports, the right way to treat people.’ Life lessons. Teamwork. Sportsmanship.’’
And the other winners:
Dalton Division 1 — On the strength of a 14-1 mark from its field hockey team, a 19-1 record from the girls’ basketball program and a 19-1 spike from the boys’ volleyball squad, both under the direction of EJ Perry, Andover won 71.40 percent of its games to outdistance reigning champion Needham (66.88) for its first title since 2006.
Dalton Division 3 — Marblehead (69.92) repeated with a dominant spring (85-29), riding a 19-1 record from girls’ tennis and a 16-2 mark from girls’ lacrosse. Westwood (65.70) was second.
Ames Division 4 — The Dalton D3 champion in 2015, Old Rochester (enrollment now at 693) ruled in its new division with a 68.66 winning percentage. The 19-3 boys’ hockey squad skated to the Division 3 final, the girls’ basketball team went 14-5, and the boys’ tennis team (16-1) was near perfect in the regular season. Mystic Valley Charter (64.69) was second.
Nason Division 1 — In the Boston City League, East Boston (66.32) edged Latin Academy (65.04) for its second crown in three years. The Jets were 18-2 on the baseball diamond, 15-4-2 on the ice, and 15-2 on the boys’ soccer pitch.
Nason Division 2 — St. John’s Prep took a back seat to BC High a year ago, halting a run of 19 straight Scholastic wins. But the Prep (75.41) is back in the top spot again. A 35-9-3 fall was the spark, paced by boys’ soccer (11-4-3) and the Division 1 runner-up golf team (15-1). A 27-4 takedown from the wrestling squad was the clincher.
Nason Division 3 — Once again, Bishop Feehan (75.84) compiled the best winning percentage (75.84) of any school to earn its fifth straight championship. A tip of the cap to retiring AD Paul O’Boy and his 50 years of stellar service to the school. Austin Prep (64.26) was second.
Singelais Division — Notre Dame of Hingham captured its fifth straight trophy after compiling a 71.58 winning percentage. The volleyball team (18-1) advanced to the Division 2 state final and Jean Ives Roy’s hockey squad (19-0-1) was the D2 state champ.
Markham Division 1 — Blackstone Valley Tech (68.57) continued its excellence, outpointing Whittier (61.35) for its sixth title in 10 years. The girls’ soccer team (18-2) is the three-time defending Large vocational champion, the BVT girls’ basketball team (19-3) beat Whittier for the state vocational title last February, and the baseball team (16-5) advanced to the Division 3 Central final for the first time.
Markham Division 2 — Diman got off to a running start with a 12-1 finish by its boys’ cross-country team en route to its first Scholastic award. The Fall River school won 58.25 percent of its games, edging back-to-back runner-up McCann Tech (57.09).
Craig Larson can be reached at craig.larson@globe.com.
