Tri State
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Middletown Boys XC at Rocky Gap State Park,MD
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Knights tale begins each year at camp
Middletown expected to contend in '08
By Kevin Spradlin
Tristaterunnur.com
ROCKY GAP – Middletown junior David Lieb is exactly the type of runner Knights co-coaches Don and Sharon Boyer are striving to recruit.
Lieb, 16, finished last year’s fall campaign 25th among nearly 50 runners. He hopes to run his first sub-19-minute 5K race this year and crack the top 14.
He knows he’s set “fairly high expectations” for himself this year, and “if I don’t (meet them), so be it,” Lieb said. “I’ll do the best I can.”
And that’s precisely what the Boyers, veterans of Middletown running for more than 40 years, looking for in a runner. Regardless of talent or potential, all the Boyers seek is commitment.
Middletown expected to contend in '08
By Kevin Spradlin
Tristaterunnur.com
ROCKY GAP – Middletown junior David Lieb is exactly the type of runner Knights co-coaches Don and Sharon Boyer are striving to recruit.
Lieb, 16, finished last year’s fall campaign 25th among nearly 50 runners. He hopes to run his first sub-19-minute 5K race this year and crack the top 14.
He knows he’s set “fairly high expectations” for himself this year, and “if I don’t (meet them), so be it,” Lieb said. “I’ll do the best I can.”
And that’s precisely what the Boyers, veterans of Middletown running for more than 40 years, looking for in a runner. Regardless of talent or potential, all the Boyers seek is commitment.
The Boyers and the boys team opened up their week-long summer camp at Rocky Gap State Park to Tristaterunnur.com. Through Ping-Pong tournaments, volleyball, karaoke, there were two-a-day training runs and competitive time trials. Very competitive.
“This morning, they put the pedal down,” Don Boyer said after a five-mile time trial. “Fifteen boys were all close together. There were some surprises” such as a sophomore who tied for first.
“We could have 10 kids be the No. 1 runner (this fall),” Boyer said. “We want them to have fun. We also want them to train very hard. The object is to motivate them to become dedicated distance runners. And that has to come from within.”
It’s a concept the team buys into – and it shows. The Knights are annual contenders in the Monocacy Valley Athletic League and the Class 2A West Region and state championships. They almost always have someone at the top. The Knights boys in have a combined 42 state championships and runner-up team finishes in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field..
“This morning, they put the pedal down,” Don Boyer said after a five-mile time trial. “Fifteen boys were all close together. There were some surprises” such as a sophomore who tied for first.
“We could have 10 kids be the No. 1 runner (this fall),” Boyer said. “We want them to have fun. We also want them to train very hard. The object is to motivate them to become dedicated distance runners. And that has to come from within.”
It’s a concept the team buys into – and it shows. The Knights are annual contenders in the Monocacy Valley Athletic League and the Class 2A West Region and state championships. They almost always have someone at the top. The Knights boys in have a combined 42 state championships and runner-up team finishes in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field..
“By far, the most in the state,” Boyer said.
This fall could be No. 43. And the squad could be led by a runner who spent all of last season as team manager for the boys soccer team.
“It’s going to be an interesting year,” Boyer said. “We lost our top two runners,” led by true No. 1 Jimmy Greene, typically 40 to 60 seconds ahead of the second harrier on the Knights squad. Greene was, Boyer said, a “great leader.”
But Brady Dailey, all of 15 years old, could supplant Greene as the team’s top runner in what is to be his first cross country campaign.
Boyer saw him once and relayed to him, “ ‘I like how you run.’” Dailey was sold almost immediately. The 2:20 800-meter runner and 4:57 1600 young man ran up to 13 miles at a time over the summer with senior teammate Sam Bello. He said he was hurt during soccer tryouts last fall – a hip injury that has since healed – and is ready for a breakout debut.
“That a bunch of people are going for the No. 1 (spot) can only make us that much better,” Dailey said.
This fall could be No. 43. And the squad could be led by a runner who spent all of last season as team manager for the boys soccer team.
“It’s going to be an interesting year,” Boyer said. “We lost our top two runners,” led by true No. 1 Jimmy Greene, typically 40 to 60 seconds ahead of the second harrier on the Knights squad. Greene was, Boyer said, a “great leader.”
But Brady Dailey, all of 15 years old, could supplant Greene as the team’s top runner in what is to be his first cross country campaign.
Boyer saw him once and relayed to him, “ ‘I like how you run.’” Dailey was sold almost immediately. The 2:20 800-meter runner and 4:57 1600 young man ran up to 13 miles at a time over the summer with senior teammate Sam Bello. He said he was hurt during soccer tryouts last fall – a hip injury that has since healed – and is ready for a breakout debut.
“That a bunch of people are going for the No. 1 (spot) can only make us that much better,” Dailey said.
And while there is competition – and, typical of confident male teenagers, showboating and a bit of trash talking – there is an unparalleled degree of respect and encouragement from not just the coaches, but from and for each of the runners themselves. That level of esprit de corps begins to form on the first day of camp.
“I think the most important thing is team bonding,” said senior Hank Binzer, a runner projected to be in the top seven this season. A normal practice “is just a bunch of guys running. Here, we become much more of a team.”
Fellow senior and top seven runner Sam Bello said his favorite course is Hereford High School, which the Knights run twice a year at the Bull Run Invitational and the state championships. It’s all but automatic. But Bello takes nothing for granted. This year, his role will be one part runner and equal part mentor to the younger runners.
“I need to be more vocal,” Bello said. “It goes beyond our practices. We have to motivate each other to do more.”
That motivation likely will start for the freshmen and sophomores by watching Bello, whom Boyer described as one who “works harder than any boy we’ve ever had.”
“I need to be more vocal,” Bello said. “It goes beyond our practices. We have to motivate each other to do more.”
That motivation likely will start for the freshmen and sophomores by watching Bello, whom Boyer described as one who “works harder than any boy we’ve ever had.”
The confident attitude begins each fall at the start of practice with a week-long camp at Rocky Gap State Park. They’ve held camp nearly every year since 1974. In 1983, the Boyers moved camp to Allegany County.
Sharon Boyer said the success of camp – the focus of building the team up – can’t begin without the support of key parent volunteers, who handle details large and small and, by the end of the week, become part of the group they’re trying to foster for their children.
“It’s a great way to start school knowing people,” Sharon Boyer said, emphasizing the runners making the transition from middle school to high school. “It’s being part of a real family group.”
Camp, Don Boyer said, also is how a program builds numbers – by staging fun events such as cross country camp. Runners also are sometimes taken to nearby amusement parks after a race. But with the rewards come risk – and retribution.
“If I get upset at them, (Sharon) brings them back in the field,” Don Boyer said.
Sharon Boyer is just as confident as her husband and co-coach – and the young men in her charge – that they can compete at the state level this year.. Along the way, regardless of the outcome, will be a number of practical lessons outside the classroom.
“This is a sport that everybody can do,” she said.
Just not as well as the Knights.
Sharon Boyer said the success of camp – the focus of building the team up – can’t begin without the support of key parent volunteers, who handle details large and small and, by the end of the week, become part of the group they’re trying to foster for their children.
“It’s a great way to start school knowing people,” Sharon Boyer said, emphasizing the runners making the transition from middle school to high school. “It’s being part of a real family group.”
Camp, Don Boyer said, also is how a program builds numbers – by staging fun events such as cross country camp. Runners also are sometimes taken to nearby amusement parks after a race. But with the rewards come risk – and retribution.
“If I get upset at them, (Sharon) brings them back in the field,” Don Boyer said.
Sharon Boyer is just as confident as her husband and co-coach – and the young men in her charge – that they can compete at the state level this year.. Along the way, regardless of the outcome, will be a number of practical lessons outside the classroom.
“This is a sport that everybody can do,” she said.
Just not as well as the Knights.
David Lieb
Brady Dailey
Sam Bello
Hank Binzer
Don and Sharon Boyer