Pam Gleason cruised through Amesbury High School from 1978-1982. She was the only girl in a family of 8 children, so she grew up competing to make herself heard. Pam’s impact on the field hockey team was a bit delayed because she did not report for the preseason her freshmen year, but instead was invited to play by Coach Gail Kelleher. Because she was so late in picking up a stick, the freshmen team was blessed with her presence for the rest of the fall season.
Pam was a varsity starter and the main scorer in her sophomore year, but it was her junior year when she really made an impact. She broke Linda Sevigny’s scoring record, was named the team MVP, a Cape Ann League All-League Player and a Boston Glove All-Scholastic Honorable Mention.
In her senior year, once again, Pam set a new scoring record of 23 goals and this record held up for the next 10 years. She was named MVP of the team, CAL Player of the Year and was named to the prestigious Boston Globe All-Scholastic team.
Teammate Cathy Mamakos remembered Pam not only for the fun that she brought to the team, but for her remarkable and instinctive abilities to be in the right place at the right time. She made field hockey stick work and goal scoring look easy!
Pam’s brothers were great ice hockey players, so it is not surprising that Pam chose hockey as her winter sport. What is surprising is that she was the was the first girl in Massachusetts to play Boys Ice Hockey. Pam learned under the gifted tutelage of Larry Fournier and varsity Coach Leo Dupere. Pam continued to play hockey for the next 3 years and as a senior she was the first girl at AHS to receive a varsity letter in the sport of ice hockey.
Pam was a natural in the game of softball and was a starting varsity catcher in her freshmen year. She played on a team of talented athletes who set the bar high. The pitcher who she caught for that first year could throw the ball hard but she also had control issues. Pam had never been in the catcher’s position, but Coach Ellie White knew her athletic ability and had high expectations for her. Pam admits that the first few times she stuck her mitt out, she closed her eyes and hoped for the best. Within a very short time, however, Pam had figured it out. It didn’t matter to her whether the ball came over her head or in the dirt … for the next 4 years she was a true backstop!
Pam went on to be the MVP of her softball team and a two-time CAL All-League player. Her senior year she was also chosen as the Daily News All-Around Athlete for 1982.
It is very obvious that Pam was and still is very proud to be a Fighting Indian. She feels passionately that her experience instilled strong values of commitment, loyalty, devotion to team, and pride. Pammy states that participating as an AHS athlete “has everything to do with who I was in my collegiate career, my coaching career, who I am as a wife, and my most important career as a mother to four athletes of my own”.
Congratulations to inductee Pam Gleason Holt, Class of 1982.
