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Sophomore Olivia Tracy, front, and senior Julia Coyle

At the end of last season, Woodstock Academy coach Joe Banas was just worried about fielding a program.
He had eight runners out for the girls’ cross-country team, five of them were seniors.
“That’s huge,” Banas said of the numbers that left the program. “It left us with three runners and not only were we losing talent, we lost leadership. It was a major concern.”
Current senior Julia Coyle agreed.
“It was tough to say good-bye and we miss them very much,” Coyle said. “But we have a great team this season. We are so lucky to have so many awesome girls come out and do cross-country and the season is off to a great start.”
Things are better.
“I’m pleasantly happy now. We have new runners without much experience but we have eight runners again,” Banas said.
The Centaurs do have three runners who will have to play key roles if the team wants to reach some of its accomplishments of last year when it finished third in the ECC championship and fourth in the Class MM state championship meet.
Coyle is one of those. She finished 16th in the ECC championship meet and 21st in the Class MM state championship.
“We have to keep a positive attitude and just keep putting in the hard work. That’s all it takes. Keep the eye on the prize,” Coyle said.
Sophomore Olivia Tracy also returns; she placed 16th in the Class MM meet last year.
Junior Kira Greene also returns for her third season of cross-country. “I was not the best my freshman year but I have seen improvement and it’s motivated me to keep going,” Greene said.
Add to that, sophomore Greysen Dery and freshmen Brooke Roireau, McKenzie Saline, Avery Schaefer and Julia Tellier.
“A lot of them are new to the sport but I’ve already been seeing a lot of improvement in them," Greene said. Banas is hopeful, but realistic. “It’s not a total rebuild but it’s a partial one. With Coyle and Tracy, I have two All-Stars. I’m hoping that Kira can get over her lower leg injuries that she has battled in the past couple of years,” Banas said. “After that, we just have to hope and see what happens.”
He has had to change his approach a bit.
“I’ve had to pump the brakes. If I can have the younger kids buy in, I can have them for a couple of extra years and I won’t be wondering in the summer if I will even have a team.” he said.
Every year that Banas has coached, the Centaurs have finished in the top three in the ECC championship meet.
The lack of experience may affect that.
“That may be in jeopardy but that’s OK. I’m just looking for them to do the best that they can,” Banas said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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