Here is a picture of the League All Stars in order of finishing in the race. Back left is John Murray, his teammate, who finished 1st. The Bennie brothers in 2nd and 3rd from Wachusetts, Tobin in 4th, CJ in 5th and Curtis in 9th. Shrewsbury narrowly lost to Wachusett in this race by a few points.
The start of the race was a bit harry. the officials wanted to begin the race 5 minutes early, but the guys did not know this. They had just returned from their warm-up run to find everyone else lined up and the officials giving them 2 minutes to get shoes on and lined up. (During the race most runners wear flats, but warm up in their running shoes.) The day was 43 degrees outside, overcast and raw. As you can see from this race no one is wearing under armor; just their thin, sleeveless shirts and running shorts. Tobin did admit that he felt cold during the race. That's with a sub 5 minute pace for the first mile!
The race was at the Marlboro country club. This course doubles back onto itself several times, enabling me to take pictures often. This was within the first mile.
Here you see John in the lead and Tobin right between the Bennie brothers. The Bennie family has three boys. All of which are fast runners. They have been key competitors for Shrewsbury since Tobin was a freshman. He wanted to stay with them for the entire race. The pace was a bit fast, but he held with them for at least a mile and a half and never let them out of his site. This drive with the brothers impressed many of the runners and parents at this race.
As I looked through my photos from the race I thought this one was interesting. The man on the right is Mark Murray, John's father and Tobin's distance coach for winter and spring track. The woman in the foreground is affectionately called "Mrs. Coach". She is Coach Smith's wife. Coach Jim Smith is the cross country coach.
Here he is at the finishing stretch.
Sarai came with me to the race. We briefly congratulated him, while many others came up to do the same. I heard many girls comment how impressed they were with his time and running so long with the Bennies!
Here are some words from Coach Smith about this race and Tobin:
Right behind the two Bennies was Tobin knocking a whopping 47 sec off his own PR on this course (4th, 17:00). I believe that he would have been under 17 had he continued to push the last 10 yards. Something to work on. Tobin’s improvement and very fine 4th place is a testament to his hard work and attention to detail. Tobin challenged the Bennies and will have another shot at them at Districts!
Outdoor soccer ended on October 30th, while indoor soccer begin that weekend too. I went directly from Tobin's race in Marlboro to coaching an indoor soccer game for U14, Carmen's age group. I am also co-coaching the U10s, Rachel's team in indoor.
Carmen played striker again for her last game. It was a cold, fall morning. Her team finished with a winning season. She will be playing with many of them over the winter in Marlboro on a 11 v 11 field. The other team Carmen's plays with is has only 6 players on the field at a time and walls to play off of. It is the same place I play my co-ed soccer games at.
Here is my U10 team for the fall season. Ten of these girls are playing indoors with me. Chris is on my right, he coached with me this season and is who I am coaching with for both indoor teams. I began coaching with him last winter in indoors.
Not only is Rachel playing indoor soccer with this team, she made travel basketball for the winter and a few girls from this team will be playing with her in basketball. Both Carmen and Rachel are playing with three teams for the winter. Rachel is playing for two basketball teams and one soccer. Carmen is playing for two soccer teams and one basketball. Tobin will run indoor track. He runs long distance, the 1 or 2 mile. Sarai is hoping to make the high school basketball team. She is also playing at Girls Inc for basketball. It is the organization she has played for for three years and the place Carmen and Rachel are playing with.
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