While one chapter of Bay State Conference boys track history came to a close yesterday afternoon at Turco Field, another chapter was penned.
The dual meet between rivals Dedham and Walpole marked the last for Marauders boys coach Al Milld, who first started coaching just months after Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th President. And with the Rebels winning 103-32 over Milld’s 15-man brigade, combined with Norwood losing to Natick, gives Walpole its first Bay State Conference divisional crown in school history.
The Rebels won 12 of the 16 events in cruising to the victory that capped their season at 6-1, a far cry from the consecutive 0-for-seasons Walpole had suffered heading into 2008.
“It’s especially good considering we were winless for the past two years,” said Walpole coach Tim Giblin, whose team will take part in the Class C Relays in Milton on Saturday. “We recruited a lot of multi-event sprinter/jumper/thrower-type kids and we really strengthened our field and hurdling events, and a lot of that credit has to go to (assistant coach) Bob Shute.”
Vinny Lee and Bobby Fitzgibbon were each double-winners for the Rebels, with Lee taking the 100 in 11.1 and the 200 in 22.5 and Fitzgibbon won the 110 hurdles in 17.3 and the high jump with a leap of 5-7.
The Marauders did get an individual double-win from Phil Weltman in the 300 hurdles and long jump as well as anchoring the 4x100 relay team with Jim McCormick, Ryan Murray and John O’Connell. The quartet chose to run the 4x100 instead of their typical 4x400 at the last minute and came away in a time of 45.5.
Dedham simply didn’t have enough competitors to provide any resistance to the Rebels’ quest for the title as the Marauders were unable to compete in the 800, 2-mile and 4x400 relay.
Jarrod Goula (400), Colin Bannon (800), Brendan Corcoran (mile), Ryan Doherty (2-mile), Mark Carrie (triple jump), Ryan Collins (javelin), Nick Rockwell (discus) and the 4x400 relay team were all victorious for Walpole.
“We expected an improvement based on the personnel we had, certainly we knew we had the potential to win the league, but it certainly wasn’t the expectation,” said Giblin. “The league this year was very tight and I think that four meets came down to the relays, and we won three of them.”
For Milld, the only disappointment about the winless dual meet season in the BSC was that only 15 went out for the team.
“Emotional, a couple of parents came up and patted me on the back and it was nice,” said Milld said of yesterday. “I’m going to miss it, my wife keeps telling me that. Unfortunately, it’s the smallest group we’ve ever had, but it’s a nice group to coach. I have no regrets with the team, they’ve done the job, we got a lot of first places in these meets, we just didn’t have any depth to back them up.”
While winning the 1980 league indoor and Division 2 state title (“that was probably the greatest track team I’ve ever had,” said Milld) and 1998 league outdoor titles as well as the 1998 Class C Relays remain great memories, it’s the interaction with the kids that he treasures most.
“There are so many kids that have touched my life, that’s what I’m going to miss,” he said after listing off the names and accomplishments of some of the best athletes to go through the school like Mike Quinn, Mike Westcott, Matt Koons and Rex Radloff.
If there were anyone that knows Milld most on the track, it would be the Marauders girls coach, Frank Barbuto, who has spent the better part of his own 37-year coaching career at Dedham. According to Barbuto, Milld always knew how to get the most out of everyone, especially at the distance running events. He had shown his touch is still alive, as current Marauder miler, Rory O’Hanlon, never competed before a month ago and has cracked the 4:50 mark.
“He’s had some outstanding kids come through the program, he’s done wonders with Phil (Weltman) and he’s had Mike Westcott over the years and he’s had some great, great kids over the years,” said Barbuto. “He’s so knowledgeable in the area of running events, he’s second to none.”
Milld should know a thing or two about the distance events since being groomed by the late Mickey McGuire in 1964 as a Dedham High junior. He was the league mile champion in 1965 for Dedham as a senior and set school records at Boston State College (now UMass Boston) in the 1000-yard and mile and went on to complete a 2:26 marathon with the Greater Boston Track Club.
At 60, Milld and his wife are ready to move to the Raleigh, N.C., area, but he still has some work left to do in Dedham, beginning with the Class D Relays on Saturday in Abington with the Bay State Conference championship Tuesday and the Division 4 meet on May 31 to follow.
“We can do very well there, we almost won it last year, we lost by two points with two kids,” he said as the since-graduated Dan Withrow and Weltman had big days last year. “We can do something down there, that’s been the irony of this whole thing. We got fifth in the indoor relays with seven kids out of 30 teams.”
If Weltman and guys like his 4x400 relay teammates McCormick, Murray and O’Connell can grab points elsewhere, they could have Milld going out with a bang.
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The Rebels girls completed the sweep on the day with an 89-47 win. Erica Hawley was a triple winner taking the 100 hurdles in 16.5, the high jump in 5-1 and the triple jump in 32-6 1/2.
Walpole (3-4) dominated the distance events, sweeping the 800, mile and two mile. Bridgette Lawton won the 800, Courtney Shea the mile and Liv Perry took the two mile.
Lydia Caissy won two events for the Marauders (1-6), taking the long jump with a 16-3 and edging teammate Melissa St. Preux in the 200 in 27.8 seconds. St. Preux also won the 100 dash in 12.9.
Walpole will take part in the Class C Relays in Milton, while Dedham heads to Abington for the Class D Relays on Saturday.
