Pembroke News : Goffstown

Pembroke, John Stark, Bow x-country teams prepare for postseason

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:18:00 GMT

Entering the Manchester Invitational cross country race with little chance of winning the team competition, Pembroke Academy runners took the race personally.

Even though the boys and girls teams finished near the bottom of the pack in the large school division on Saturday, Sept. 26, five Spartans set personal records, and head coach Mike Slavin was excited with the effort his runners gave.

Niki Labelle delivered the top finish for the girls; her time of 22 minutes, 27 seconds earned her 87th place overall. Jake Persons had the top time for the boys team when he finished 94th among 207 runners. Elizabeth Abbott, Rebecca Mitchell, Mariah Smith, Ben Kubat and Brian Barnes all set personal-best times at the race.

The Spartans joined John Stark and six other teams on Sept. 22 at the first-ever Windham Invitational, hosted by recently opened Windham High School.

Pembroke’s boys came in seventh on the afternoon, while the girls were eighth. John Stark’s boys team was third in the eight-team field, and the Lady Generals managed a fifth-place finish.

“We didn’t come (to Windham) to race today, we wanted to go at a slower pace and use the afternoon to prepare for Manchester,” said Slavin. “It’s tough to race three days after you ran another race.”

Many teams took a similar approach to the Windham race; the Manchester Invitational is one of the larger events on the cross country calendar. John Stark did not travel to Manchester.

Bow High School raced to two top-10 finishes at the Manchester Invitational, and the girls team managed a second- place result after scoring 111 points.

Emily Buck was fourth overall in the small-school category, with Gena Kalampalikis, Katrina Wiesner, Keelan Forey and Meaghan McCann earning points after her. The boys team was sixth, led by Jonathan Vinnenberg’s sixth-place finish overall, followed by Dylan Lucas, Ben Evans, Andrew Brunelle and Evan Smith.

All five of the boys were in the top 100, while the lowest finish for the girls was McCann in 42nd place.

Goffstown High
Four boys raced for the Grizzlies at the Manchester Invitational. Kyle McNamara led the group, followed by Ryan Lunderville, Henry Mac- Gibbon and Stephen Fortin. Kali Langevin led the three GHS girls across the finish line. She was 71st among 162 finishers. Holly St. Onge and Nikki Denison also completed the course.

Divisional shake-up heats up Neighborhood rivalries

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:55:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Division III football has a different look in 2008. While perennial beast Souhegan of Amherst remains the favorite, and always-solid Milford and Portsmouth are still around as well, Plymouth, winner of seven of the last 10 D-III titles, moves down a division.

“From year to year, the teams change so much it’s always hard to say who is going to compete, although there are some teams that are more consistent than others,” said second-year Pembroke coach Dave Tremblay. “I’ll tell you one thing: I’m not sad to see Plymouth leave.”

That opens the door for a handful of Neighborhood teams to step into the playoff picture.

While Tremblay’s upand- coming group continues to develop a feeder program and looks to improve on a four-win 2007, John Stark petitioned to remain in D-III despite having Division-IV enrollment.

Goffstown, meanwhile, heads back to D-III after two years in Division II. And then there’s Bedford, new to the varsity gridiron, but very much a future threat in the nine-team division.

Goffstown coach Rob Cathcart said his team, like every other in the division, aspires to compete with Souhegan each year. Equally important, however, are the natural rivalries created by the new alignment. Unlike D-II, where Goffstown traveled to the seacoast for at least half its games, Bedford and John Stark are within 15 miles. Souhegan, Con-Val and Milford aren’t much farther.

Aside from Portsmouth, in fact, all schools, including Pembroke, are within a onehour drive of one another.

Winning is another story.

Cathcart said he hopes to use the lessons learned in D-II to his squad’s advantage. Last season, Goffstown fell one win short of reaching the playoffs.

“Division II was very competitive, from top to bottom, and you really had to dedicate yourself to the sport and to the weight room,” said Cathcart, who noted Bedford’s new coach, Kurt Hines, was one of the reasons for the Grizzlies success in 2007.

Hines, a strength and conditioning guru, spent seven years at Souhegan before assisting at Goffstown last season.

He said he recognized that without a senior class, his Bulldogs are going to be outsized by everyone they meet, yet he promised his players are ready to compete.

“Those teams are going to be bigger than us, but if we can be better conditioned and in shape, we can stay in a lot of games,” said Hines. “As a coaching staff, the biggest challenge is really getting these kids to realize football is a collision sport. I know it’s easy to say, but once you get out there and start getting hit in a real game, it’s a different story.”

Hines said John Stark is another program ready to break out. “They have some real tough kids up there,” he said. “That’s a team just waiting to explode.” No time like the present, said the Generals’ new head coach, Bob Clarke, who spent 14 years as an assistant at Newport and the last seven years at Bow, an annual D-V contender.

“Even though I’ve coached at Bow, I teach at John Stark, so I do know some of the students, and there’s definitely some talented athletes here,” said Clarke.

Pembroke
Reaching and possibly eclipsing the .500 mark is a reasonable goal for the Spartans in 2008, though Tremblay said he’s keeping his expectations tempered.

“Right now, our main goal is basically getting the kids back into the program and keeping them around and working in the offseason,” said Tremblay. “We just want to … build off last year and get these younger kids involved in the program.”

Three-year starting quarterback John Natalizio leads the PA offense, and he’ll be complemented by senior running back Christopher Allen and left guard Bryan Morrisette.

Fullback Danny Kroll and tight end Vincent Verrechia step into larger roles this season. The team has only eight freshmen this season, so it is likely to rely heavily on its sophomores and juniors.

Tremblay said he anticipates roughly 30 new players in 2009.

Goffstown

The Grizzlies, who fell one point short of the Division II postseason in 2007, head back to D-III. They made the playoffs and lost to Souhegan in 2005.

“We lost a lot in terms of seniors, but I think we should be able to keep the same goal and maybe go a little further this year,” said Cathcart of his postseason expectations. Fullback and middle linebacker Tom Foote leads the team as a workout warrior and pure physical presence on the field.

Allen Finn, an offensive tackle and nose guard, is not far behind Foote in both departments, said Cathcart.

Jamie McGarry, a former halfback, takes over as the team’s starting quarterback this year.

James Waller, Dan Seasholtz and Connor Nolan also lead on both sides of the ball.

Senior speedster Matt Leathers starts at defensive back for the first time this year and enters the game when Goffstown wants to spread the offense and stretch the opposing defense.

Cathcart added his squad has a strong crop of promising sophomores that found success at the D-II freshman level last season. He said he hopes they can contribute this season and make a big impact as juniors and seniors.

John Stark
Taking over at the John Stark helm for former athletics director Bill Raycraft, who led the Generals to the playoffs two years ago, Clarke said he knows he faces a challenge.

Because there are only 18 upperclassmen on the team, the new head coach has the opportunity to instill his philosophy into a strong group of youngsters, which sets up the next couple years.

This year, however, the running game should be solid with a strong offensive line that includes Jeff Wuebbolt, Nick Heafield, Mike Pisapia and Geoffrey Hatchett. They’ll open holes for junior running back Daniel Simeone and senior David Wilson. Simeone and Wilson lead a staunch group of linebackers as well.

Newcomer Ian Kuck, a sophomore, is also expected to contribute on both sides of the ball. “He’s going to be a player,” said Clarke. “He likes to go out and hunt and cause mayhem. You love that in a football player.”

Bedford
The Bulldogs currently have 64 players in the program, which doesn’t give them much depth. In fact, Hines said he may have as many as six starting freshmen. That’s unheard of at the varsity football level.

Still, he said he’ll use every athlete at his disposal and rotate them in and out as much as he can to keep them fresh.

Those players, he said, have a lot of raw talent and are working hard to realize their potential. “A lot of teams with four grades can say if their first line goes down, they’re in trouble. Going in, we’re already a little short of that,” said Hines. “But the kids are believing in themselves, and they know they can win some games.”

Though his original goal was a .500 season, Hines said two or three wins is a more realistic expectation for the young squad.

“I told them at practice that everything we do this year, every time we step onto the field or in the weight room, we’re just putting money in the bank.”

Goffstown Gallop perennially draws community of fun-loving athletes

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:43:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Bow’s Margaret Burns and Pembroke’s Joanne Welch have been running mates for eight years.

They’re currently preparing for a half marathon in Quebec in August.

The 29th annual Goffstown Gallop provided them an opportunity to participate in a competitive run – without the headaches of a typical road race.

“It’s more of a community event,” said Burns of the event, which took place Saturday, June 28. “It’s kind of competitive, and if you want to go for a run, it’s better to do it with other people rather than by yourself.”

“It’s a good training run,” said Welch. “It’s a nice distance for a Saturday morning. It’s a good tempo run.”

Like Burns and Welch, dozens of runners traveled from all over New Hampshire and even other states to participate in the Gallop. “It’s a family event. A lot of people that come here come year after year after year,” said Dave French, the Goffstown Parks and Recreation director who organizes the Gallop each year. “That’s a testimony to the atmosphere of the race. It’s an old-fashioned race. We don’t do computer chips, we hand out tongue depressors (at the finish line). We’re one of the oldest races in New Hampshire ... More than anything else, it’s a tradition.”

Count Bedford’s Barth Getto as one participant happy to get away from modern competition for a day.

The 46-year-old regularly competes in triathlons, but he was convinced by friends to run the Gallop.

“(The Gallop) is kind of laid back. It’s not as crazy as some of the big races,” said Getto, who finished 55th among more than 170 runners. “It was definitely more fun. When you do these triathlons, people are crazy. You know, they come with $5,000 bikes and these pointed helmets. This is more of a social thing ... It’s all about heart.” No one traveled farther to participate than French’s daughter, Heather.

The 24-year-old, who served as the race’s starter from childhood through high school, returned from her home in Florida to run the race for the first time.

“My dad is getting close to retirement, and I just wanted to run it for him because who knows when his last Goffstown Gallop will be,” she said, adding that training in Florida is much different than running in New Hampshire. “I’m not used to running with all the hills, but it was a really gratifying feeling when I crossed the finish line.”

Another Floridian, Dean Riley, a former Goffstown and Bedford resident, also returned to run the race.

“He ran the race before, and knows it’s the same weekend every year,” said the elder French. “I really appreciate the runners coming back each year."