BELLAMY x AMESBURY

Maples Crossing's Director of Athletic Development Tours Her New Digs

AMESBURY -- Kacey Bellamy, Director of Athletic Development at Maples Crossing hit the ground running, heading out on a tour of Amesbury. Maples Crossing's Mike Gorman led Bellamy through a series of meetings around town, including meeting with Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove and several newspapers.

From the Daily News:

Bellamy, 34, had been looking at her post-Olympic career options and considered opening her own fitness center. But Bellamy said she jumped at the chance to be a part of Maples Crossing, where she started in mid-August.

“I want to be able to share my experiences and everything that I learned in my career so that kids can grow up and when they hit high school and beyond, they are well-prepared for their next chapter,” she said.

The future could hold many things for Maples Crossing but the management team is now focused on youth sports, she said.

“We want to revamp the way that youth sports is developed right now,” Bellamy said. “It is not just about developing the athletes, it is about developing them for their future. We want to teach them about discipline, commitment, how to be a good person. Not just the sport itself but preparing them for life afterwards.”

From The Town Common:

It would seem that Kacey Bellamy has lived a charmed life. From the time she strapped on skates and picked up a stick, she has excelled at playing hockey. 

Bellamy, 34, won three Olympic medals – a gold and two silvers – between 2010 and 2018 with the USA Women’s Ice Hockey Team. She was a star athlete in high school in several sports at the Berkshire School, a hockey defensive star at the University of New Hampshire and a seven-time International Ice Hockey Federation World Women’s Championship winner.

But the first thing Bellamy talked about when she sat down for an interview with The Town Common was the adversity she had to overcome to achieve her success, and what the new director of athletic development for Maples Crossing learned from it. 

“I’ve personally experienced more failure than success in my career, and how I reacted to those failures ultimately set me up to finally reach my lifelong dream of winning a gold medal,” she said. 

Losing to Canada in the Olympic gold medal game twice only propelled her to work harder and improve her conditioning, nutrition, leadership skills, and most important, her mental abilities.

As a college sophomore, when she failed to make the USA Women’s Hockey team, she asked the coach what improvements she needed to make to qualify for the team. She used the list the coach gave her as a training guide. In a few months, she made the team. 

As the first-ever head of athletic development for the $70 million Maples Crossing sports complex here, Bellamy is bringing what she has learned from winning and losing at the highest levels of competition to motivate and teach North Shore youth athletes in all sports. 

“Maples Crossing is exactly what I dreamed of doing after my playing career was over,” Bellamy said. “I wanted to be a part of an environment where I could share advice and use my experiences to help inspire and develop the next generation of athletes.” 

The 410,000-square-foot Maples Crossing sports complex will include six ice rinks, office buildings for sports and fitness businesses, a hotel, restaurants and a reconstructed multi-sport turf field where the old New England Sports Park at 12 South Hunt Rd. once stood.