The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Nonnewaug, Northwestern win Berkshire League track titles
LITCHFIELD — It’s 8 a.m. Saturday on the road to the Berkshire League Track and Field Championships at Litchfield’s Plum Hill Sports complex.
Mist rises from pastures along Route 202 in an illusion of the same view from 100 or even 200 years ago.
Go further back in time and geography, prompted by the commercial Medieval Fair setting up for the summer at nearby Harwinton Fairgrounds and the track meet conjures a modern parallel to those ancient spectacles.
Despite a foreboding weather forecast, athletes, coaches and fans are gathered by the hundreds from nine high schools dotting the Northwest Corner for a festival lacking only jousting in its array of contests between some of the best young athletes in the area.
Up close, the same behind-thescenes workings and color accompany the pageantry, whether it’s in 1523 Nottingham, England or 2023 Litchfield, Connecticut.
There’s already an aura of suspense literally hanging over this morning’s meet. Naugatuck Valley League (NVL) officials postponed their meet in view of the 100 percent forecast for rain, some of it heavy, for today.
Litchfield Athletic Director Kyle Weaver, chairman of the BL meet, has been up since 4:30 this morning agonizing over his decision to go with it Saturday an hour early.
“I’m a part-time weather guy for these things,” he says after studying radar patterns for hours if not days. “The heavy stuff isn’t supposed to arrive until 1 or 2 this afternoon and we’ll pause it if it comes early.
“I’ve been taking a lot of heat,” he says, “but I gave all the coaches a chance to give their reasoning.”
Mixed opinions keep coming but no real complaints as Weaver wins his bet with a sky drizzling from time to time without any real downpour.
We have a small stake in the meet and one event in particular.
Days ago, Gilbert hurdler Jeb Leach emerged as a good candidate for an in-focus feature, hopefully representing the dozens of other hard-working athletes on hand today.
Leach seemed a good choice because he’s a CIAC Scholar-Athlete; he was favored to win the 110meter high hurdles; and because the Yellowjackets, one of the smallest schools in the league, don’t get enough recognition and rewards for their hard work.
“Track is one of our best sports,” Coach Tom Scarangelo said Friday. “Every year, we have at least one or two BL champions. Last year, one of them went on to the State Open.”
Friday, Scarangelo adamantly favored a Saturday meet despite the forecasts.
Specializing in an event seeming most susceptible to slippery conditions, hurdler Leach backed up his coach: “It’s cooler in the rain and we’re wearing spikes,” he said.
The CIAC itself almost never postpones a state meet, no matter how hard the rain, unless a thunderstorm makes it dangerous. So we’re committed.
The parking lots are full; spectators wear rain gear; colorful team tents and shelters decorate the landscape like medieval pavilions in jousting days.
Brent Hawkins, Litchfield’s coach and flamboyant announcer for 30 years, sits at a table under an infield shelter, shuffling information sheets between announcements and ready calls for each event.
“We have really good athletes
at the top of our team,” he says, proud of his Cowboys’ three-way boys tie with Northwestern and Nonnewaug after 7-1 regular-season records. “Between coaching and announcing, I’m the busiest man on the planet today.”
Starter Rob Andrulis and finish line official Andrea Markavich vie for the same title, not to mention official scorekeepers from Wil-Time.com who drove 2½ hours from Scranton, Penn., to set up their tent, as event after event hurtles past.
Andrulis, Litchfield’s longtime boys soccer coach, gave up coaching Wamogo’s girls team four years ago when off-season soccer camps began taking most of his time.
Markavich heralds next year’s high school merger between Litchfield High School and Wamogo as track coach for the merged middle school co-op team.
Dedicated volunteers, Andrulis clearly enjoys placing the runners for each race then firing the starting gun.
Markavich flashes charming glee shooing reporters and photographers away from sensitive electronic equipment while pointing to a hole in front of the tent.
“I step in it every year,” she says, then beams about her middle school daughter’s dedication along with two classmates.
“They got home from a threeday class trip to Philadelphia at 10 p.m. last night, then got up early this morning to run results to Hawk at the announcing table.”
“No one works harder than
(hurdler) Jeb,” says Northwestern coach Andy Campbell, whose boys team breaks the tie with Litchfield and Nonnewaug for the championship.
The Highlanders share their track with Gilbert once a week for practices since the Yellowjackets lack a track of their own.
“We’re glad to help,” Campbell says, blowing up the myth of a crosstown rivalry for anything but head-to-head team battles.
Nonnewaug Coach Arleigh Duff’s girls team is about to win its 24th league championship in the past 27 years — by a lot — but it’s hard to convince him yet.
“We’re the best team coming in, but things go wrong and I’ve been there when they have,” he says.
Junior Gianna Lodice, who just finished a sweep of the girls 100 and 300-meter hurdles stops by with proof of why things more often go right for the Chiefs.
“Arleigh, why didn’t you yell at me?” she says. “I could have gone faster.”
Duff was among those who wanted the meet postponed until Sunday before the the threat of downpours disappeared.
Wamogo Athletic Director Mary Stolle said, “I’m glad they’re holding it today. It’s never easy.” Nor, ultimately, is victory. Jeb Leach leans into his finishline 110 hurdles win over Northwestern rival Aidan Schumacher before holding up his medal in awe.
“I thought I was losing,” he says. “My body just started slowing down — from nerves, I guess — but I won.”
No medieval jousting prize was ever sweeter.