Proud coaches do not always win

10/13/2012 Berkshire Boys' Cross-Country @ Suffield vs Taft and Suffield Suffield  19    Berkshire 36 Taft        19   Berkshire  42   Saturday was a perfect day for running and I had told my team that their times were what mattered, for the competition had several runners that should be able to beat us as a team.  Could we improve even though it was virtually impossible to win?  20 out of 20 Bears ran their best time of the year on a cross country course by at least 30 seconds: 10 boys improved by at least one minute: Dylan O'Connor finishing in 17:34 and second for Berkshire, improved by 1:30 and Sam Sabin who finished first for Berkshire  in 17:33 ran his best time by 1:25. Cody Turner, Co-Captain Nate MacKenzie, Sam Cabot, and Bao Nguyen also were quite impressive as they ran courageous races against the competition surrounding them.  The other boys who scored in the varsity race were, Derrick Burt, Sasha Podolsky, and Pete Giordano, and these three runners ran tough throughout the 3.06 mile course. Wes Lickus, Tyler Stewart, Dan Kim, Shaan Peckham, Rad Savage, Max Beauroyre, William Pang, Matt Spaniol, Kevin Kim, and John Leasure all also need to be congratulated for this was a full team success. On a day where students of lesser character could have whined or given up, the Bears conducted themselves as gentlemen and competed hard without ever displaying anything but great sportsmanship.  In a loss I was still very proud. Our team is learning  life lessons that will stay with them well after they leave Berkshire.