QUINCY – OK, big smile now!
Smile again. Keep smiling.
Just one more. ... OK,we lied – five or six more.
Kiera Sleiman already owns two North Quincy High school records, having soared 17 feet, 5 inches in the long jump and scored 2,591 points in the pentathlon.
She unofficially set another record Friday morning – most times getting your photo taken (while smiling broadly) in the span of a half-hour.
"My cheeksare a little sore," she said with a laugh.
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The Raiders senior track star drew quite a crowd to the school's trophy roomas she signed her letter of acceptance to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where she'll compete in track & field and hopes to study medicine.
Seated behind a table adorned with a Navy pennant and blue-and-gold balloons, she posed for one photo with her family, including twin sister, Kaylee, and older brother, Nate.
In another photo she was flanked byathletic director J.J. Niamkey and principal Keith Ford.
Then there were ones with members of the school's volleyball team.
Another with her track coaches.
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One with her volleyball coach and her assistant track coach.
One of the last ones was a complete group shot that featured a cast of thousands.
OK, slight exaggeration. We actually counted 25 people in total, including Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch; Quincy-based Navy recruiter Petty Officer First Class Jillian Bowles; and two old-school Navy guys (and members of Quincy's American Legion Post 95) – Gene Prorok and Leo Reardon. Prorok, the Post 95 commander, spent his time in the Navy in submarines while Reardon stayed topside and was involved in the naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
"Hopefully (one day) I'll be as cool as you guys," Sleiman said to the Legion pair when it was time to make her speech.
Sleiman hasn't made her mark at Navy yet, but you couldn't find anyone on campus Friday who didn't think that was just a matter of time.
"If anybody can do it," Kiera's mom Leeann noted, "she can do it, for sure."
"I know this is a stressful time for her, so I was glad when she finally made her decision so that she relax and enjoy the rest of her senior year," NQ volleyball coach Caitlin Plaskasovitis said. "She's going to do great things no matter where she chose, but I'm very proud of her for choosing Navy.
"As I told her, 'There are not many people that I would say I could see (succeeding) at Navy or Army, but you will. You're probably nervous to go, but you are going to go in there and people's heads are going to turn because of who you are and how you carry yourself.'"
Sleiman has donesix seasons of track, four seasons of volleyball and two seasons of basketball, all while maintaining a 4.21 grade-point average.
Niamkey, in his remarks to the crowd, called her a "rock star all across the board," while Koch told the well-wishers, "We're proud of her across the entire city. Not many people make the kind of jump you're making."
Kevin Mulvey, the city's superintendent of schools, used his brief remarks to paraphrase the late Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, a one-time Quincy resident who gained fame as thecommander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in World War II. Mulvey noted how Nimitz once remarked that while the U.S. Navy's level of technology at the time ofthe war was a great help in winning it, technology was no substitute for "for great sailors and great Navy personnel."
"The Naval Academy is (still) looking for great sailors and great Navy personnel," he told Sleiman, "and they've made a great choice (with you)."
Of course, Sleiman also had to make a choice and she wound up picking Navy over Army and Holy Cross.
"She's a very hard worker – academically and athletically," said her dad Ally. "West Point really recruited her hard; it was a hard decision for her. She thought (Navy) was a better fit for her."
Ally Sleiman was career Army officer who retired as a major and went to grad school at West Point and later taught there. Leeann Sleiman comes from a Navy background – her dad and grandfather were Navy enlisted men – so Kiera Sleiman is well-versed in the service academies.
"I always had a heavy military influence in my life," she said. "The stuff that comes with it, I just want the best for me and my future. This was definitely a good start today."
In track, where she competes for the Quincy/North Quincy co-op program, Sleiman has qualified for states in six different events and has made it to the state-qualifying mark 13 different times. She's starred in everything from theshot put, long jump and triple jump to the 100-meter hurdles, 55-meter hurdles and thepentathlon.
"It's nice to know you have someone you can plug in there and get the job done," coach Geoff Hennessy said. "Very versatile."
Sleiman just recently took up the javelin (because it's required for the heptathlon) and – surprise – she's already quite good at it.
"She's just a natural athlete," said Michelle Bell, who coaches the Q/NQ throwing events with Peter Chrisom. "In javelin she just took off."
Sleiman said she enjoyed her time on both the volleyball and basketball teams – she played the latter sport as a freshman and again last winter when indoor track was switched to the Fall II wedge season – because of the team camaraderie.
"Her leadership is through the roof," Plaskasovitis, the volleyball coach, raved. "She doesn't have to be loud. People look up to her just because of who she is. I just started coaching varsity two years ago, so that's when I met Kiera and I feel like I've known her my whole life. She's just such a good kid. She babysits my kids. She's the type of person you want your kids to be around."
Sleiman will be the second DivisionI athlete in the family. Nate, a defensive back for the University of New Hampshire football team, redshirted as a freshman this fall.
Before heading off to bigger and better things, she enjoyed the North Quincy send-off, even if all the smiling made her face hurt after a while.
"I'm just happy to see everyone here supporting me," she said. "It's good to have my friends and family and coaches here."
"This is awesome," Hennessy said of the ceremony. "I've been coaching for 40 years and I don't think we've ever had a kid get this many accolades. The service academies? That's as good as it gets. It's better than Ivy League and we've had a few those, too.
"It was a great turnout of the community, academics and everybody else to show support. ... I think what's important is that younger kids see this and understand that hard work has rewards. This is what happens when you do the work in the classroom and on the field. Sometimes this type of thing comes your way."
