Mrs. Alessandrini gave me a balloon and a huge hug this morning.  ...

Wednesday, November 7
Random Reflections

Four portable toilets at the County Meet. Sixty people in line. A hundred things I would do before standing ...

Tuesday, October 30
Captain Crunch

So. You wanna be Captain of the track team. Good. I'm looking for a few good men. (And this season, a ...

Tuesday, October 2
The Newth Will Set You Free

As I tried to decide between Skippy and Jif at the grocery store yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to ...

Tuesday, July 31
Gun Show
Nuff said.

Wednesday, May 30
Team Banquet
A huge thanks to Kathy Heller for leading the effort that resulted in a wonderful celebration of this season. ...

Sunday, May 20
2007
Hard to believe the season is over. Seems like yesterday we gathered outside at the Weaver trees to pray with ...

Wednesday, May 30
Life - 101
I’m not done teaching. Deal with it. If you’ve been on this team for five minutes, you know that I place an extremely ...

Wednesday, April 18
Thrown down...again
The throwers continued their domination of the runners today in the fifth annual Throwers' Throwdown. The throwers' ...

Friday, February 16
A slice of cake from Nick
Click here to view a short video of US Cross-Country Champion, Deena Kastor. The video was sent to me by Nick ...

Monday, February 12
Let Them Eat Cake
The problem is, once you’ve eaten it, it’s gone. Or is it? You’ve all surely heard the phrase “have your cake ...

Sunday, January 21
Cross your fingers, not your skis
Scotty Heller usually returns from the school ski trips with multiple contusions and broken bones, proving that ...

Friday, January 5
The dog ate my homework
Among the things you may grow tired of hearing me say are "Life is about choices" and "No excuses". Endearing little ...

Monday, December 18
Wicked fast and getting faster
Just got a surprise visit from Scott Vari, class of '04. Scott is running on a track scholarship at the University ...

Tuesday, December 5
The Gathering Storm
An interesting thing happened to me today. I was covering a class for another teacher, when Rob DeMasi came up ...

Friday, November 17
Spartans Represent
St. Mark's puts three boys and three girls on All-State XC! Click here to see All-State XC 2006.

Wednesday, November 15
Take that, Rewind it back
The State XC meet is supposed to be on TV this weekend. Comcast channel 73, Saturday at 11:00 PM (that's night ...

Sunday, November 12
November Classic
Exhale. I can admit it now. I was tied in knots this week. I wanted so much for our girls to win this thing. I ...

Wednesday, November 8
Yabba Dabba Dooooooooooooooooo!
I've always enjoyed the states-week practice at Killens, something that happens just once every two years. For ...

Tuesday, November 7
Don't shoot me, I'm just the piano player
DIAA has announced that they will be charging $10 per car to get into Killens Pond State Park Saturday for the ...

Sunday, November 5
Easy like Sunday morning
The latest sign that I am turning into my father is that I no longer need an alarm clock. If I need to be up at ...

Tuesday, October 31
Trick or Treat
I am surprised to learn that at least a few of you are frequent visitors to this site. I thought that life in ...

Saturday, October 28
Weeee are the champyuns
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but it's a bit anti-climactic to win by losing. I could not possibly be more proud ...

Thursday, October 26
Mud, Sweat, and Jeers
The jeers came from Greg Morrin, who admonished me yesterday for not posting as much on this site during XC as ...

Wednesday, September 20
Is there anybody out there?
Been a long time since I have done anything with this site. A perk of being an assistant coach during the cross-country ...

Sunday, September 3
Nick Pyle makes UD squad

Wednesday, August 2
Say it ain't so
I don't want this site to turn into an off-season blog, but other than three or four of you hard-core guys, and ...

Saturday, July 29
And on the seventh day, God did an easy 3
Recovery. To some of you, that means ten miles at 7:00 pace. You're the guys who sneak out to run on a day when ...

Monday, July 24
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man
So you've got the right pair of running shoes, you're eating and drinking well, and you're putting the time in.  ...

Wednesday, July 19
This is some quality h2o
I don't know about you, but these last couple days I have been pantin' like a puppy in a wet basement. Ran Monday ...

Saturday, July 15
Do you need to replace your running shoes?
Running shoes should be replaced at a maximum of 500 miles, often sooner. If you have more than that on your favorite ...

Tuesday, June 6
Summer running
Join athletes from area schools for summer fun runs. Beginning Wednesday, June 21 and every Monday and Wednesday ...

Wednesday, May 31
Summer Camp
No, it's not roasting marshmallows and singing campfire songs. It's spending a few days training and learning your ...

Friday, June 2
One year
Hard to believe it's been a year since Matt and Mark Weaver were taken from us. I put the picture of Mark back ...

Thursday, May 25
A final word from coach...
(Audible sigh…) And that, my friends, as they say in show business, is a wrap. It was somehow fitting that I ...

Sunday, May 21
Best finish in 20 years! Click here for results from States!
We placed 4th in the State Meet and the coaches and I could not be more proud of you. You should all be extremely ...

Thursday, May 18
A Runner's Demons...Part 2...
"...Or we can blaze! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the heart of mediocre talent everywhere! ...

Thursday, May 18
A word from Coach...
I’ve never been a “rah-rah” kind of guy. Never been one for over-the-top speeches, dripping with clichés, aimed ...

Wednesday, May 17
A runner's demons......part 1
"...But sometimes when it is all going good, I mean when it's early-May warm and there's cut grass in the air and ...

Thursday, April 6
Easier on the eyes?
A few of you have commented to me that my original color scheme on this site was a little tough on the eyes. I ...

Thursday, April 6
Throwers reign on!!
Dancin' Dan Distefano deftly darted across the finish line to claim another glorious win in the 4th Annual Throwers' ...