Foxborough XC Reflect On Season

It is never easy to adjust to a new coach but the Foxborough Cross Country team found a way to do it under first year coach Kim Giannouloudis. At the team’s end of the season banquet, Coach Giannouloudis reflected on the team’s ability to battle through the toughest of workouts.

“72 workouts these kids went through with me. The perseverance, the strength these kids have with just a minute break in between or a 30 second break and a 15 second break,“ said Giannouloudis.

Coach Giannouloudis was mainly proud of the improvement that was seen across the board. Announcing each runner’s time from the start of the season to the end, the results of the challenging workouts and long runs could be see in runners like Billy Clark who lowered his time by nearly 5 minutes and Victoria Bailey who shed 3 minutes off her time by the end of the season.

The coaches had plenty of praise for their teams as they gave out eight awards per team. The Commitment Awards went to Zach Downs and Kira Hallberg. The Intergrity Awards were given to Luke Pascucci and Hallie Young. Dean Mazzola and Victoria Young were awarded the Hardest Worker Awards. Joe Tierney and Jacqueline Bailey were given the Percervance Awards. The Inspiration Awards were given to Brendan Sullivan and Kayla Sepe. The Spirit Awards were given to Drew Phelan and Kevin Aldridge. The Golden Sneaker Awards were given to Matt Smith and Jen Defazio. The MIAA Sportsmanship Awards were given to Duncan Elchols-Jones and Julie Schoener.

In addition to the individual awards, the boys’ team was awarded the Hockomock League’s Sportsmanship Award. The team was awarded the honor for such practices as shaking the hands of their opponent, which is uncommon in cross-country.

Aldridge, Clark, and Downs were named the boys captains for the 2012 season while Young and Sepe were named the captains for the girls team.

The team concluded the banquet with a slideshow and something out of the ordinary. After coming home from a meet, the team was listening to music and dancing around. An amused coach Giannouloudis mentioned that the team should try to make a dance together. The result was the entire team getting down to Believe by Cher to close out the banquet.

With another season in the books, the future is looking bright for the harriers of Foxborough. While praising the times, Coach Giannouloudis did remind her team that if they want to run fast times next year, they have to be ready for a summer of running and hard training.

“To be a good runner you have to run. If you want to be better next year you have to do your summer homework.”