Celebrating three Cape track seniors

I was fortunate enough to have coached seniors Olivia Brozefsky, Rose Minni and Sawyer Walker this year during the indoor track season. Brozefsky was signed up this spring and was the last athlete I worked with before the shutdown. I remember it well. It was a Friday afternoon, March 13, and I was working with a small group at the high jump, while Brozefsky did her drills on the pole vault runway.

This past week, I teamed up with my assistant coach Gilbert Maull and we delivered high school diplomas to Minni and Brozefsky. It was great, as they had no idea that it was going to be their coaches making the delivery.  

Minni, a neighbor of mine who will attend the University of Delaware nursing program in the fall, burst onto the track scene as a sixth-grader in 2014, and I remember my phone ringing in the Beacon gym as coach Maull worked with a group of sprinters in the Beacon Café conducting his annual Chicken Nugget Invitational.

“Yo, you need to get down here right away and see this little sixth-grader come out of the blocks. She has calves like Alia Marshall,” said coach Maull.

Minni went on to own the leadoff leg of the 4-by-200 relay and ran a great turn in the 4-by-100 relay for her Beacon track team for three years straight, helping her team go 27-0. When we arrived to her house Wednesday we drove up in a decorated golf cart, made her come out of the blocks one last time, and then took her on the last ride around the development with the graduation song playing in the background. It was a great ride with a great all-around girl in Rose Minni.

Brozefsky, the 2019 Henlopen Conference champion in the pole vault, was coming off a second-place finish in the Indoor State Championships with a new school record of 10-feet even and was consistently jumping 10-6 when the runway was pulled out from under her spikes in March.

It was only fitting that we showed up to her house with her pole all decorated in blue and yellow balloons. She hesitated to come outside as she watched us walking up her driveway holding the pole (11-foot social distancing) and a PA system announcing her name. When she realized it was us, she finally smiled and said to her mom Melissa, “It’s Coach B!” Brozefsky, who will attend the University of Delaware in the fall, came out for track in sixth grade at Beacon and found herself on a nationally ranked 4-by-800 relay that ran 11:09, upsetting a tough Tatnall foursome with her teammates Zoe Callard, Mel McCloy and anchor Logan Shuttleworth. Brozefsky won the indoor title in the 3,200 meters her freshman year, and this past February, she anchored her 4-by-800 relay team to the conference championship with teammates Katie Kuhlman, Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Melson. Brozefsky, a multiple Sussex County cross country champion, also holds the Cape record for the fastest 5K in cross country at 19:16. Brozefsky is this year’s Grove Park Scholarship winner as well as the Bill Degnan Memorial Scholarship winner. Brozefsky is a hardworking, quiet, lead-by-example athlete who was used to sprinting 90 feet and propelling herself 10 feet into the air, so look for Brozefsky to sprint to be a Blue Hen with the sky being the limit for her.

Walker, the indoor Henlopen Conference champion in the high jump this February, received her diploma from her lacrosse coach Lindsey Underwood. Walker has been a member of my indoor team for two years and had a breakout year in the high jump event, jumping 5-2 in the Delaware state championships to finish second. Walker will be a student-athlete at Winthrop University in the fall and will play lacrosse while majoring in political science, with a possible change to forensic chemistry.

Beebe Heroes 5K

The inaugural Beebe Heroes Virtual 5K will be held this weekend, beginning Saturday at 12:01 a.m. and ending Sunday at midnight. Runners will have 48 hours to complete a 5K virtually anywhere in the country, except on a treadmill. Registration has reached 252 participants and donations have reached $3,012 as of Thursday.

“We only opened registration up two weeks ago, so we did not know what to expect,” said organizer Amy Popovich. “We are pleased with the turnout and are super excited.”

Participants who registered by 10 a.m., June 5, will receive a T-shirt packet by mail if they are out of state or at a drive-by pickup from 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, June 12, at Beebe Medical Foundation, 902 Savannah Road, Lewes. Participants who registered after June 5 do not have to attend packet pickup Friday.  

The local trails this weekend in the Cape Region will have more traffic due to the Beebe Heroes 5K, so the Seashore Striders are reminding all runners to be safe and follow all state safety guidelines.

Following the virtual run, results of time, distance and a selfie must be taken and emailed to tim@seashorestrider.com. 

30th Father’s Day 5K

The Father’s Day 5K, in its 30th year, will be held as a virtual race June 20-21, and participants are encouraged to gather family members to participate in the event. The Father’s Day 5K will support the Seashore Striders Youth Cross Country program that takes place every fall from September through November. This event, unlike others, traditionally brings out relatives running and walking together – two and three generations of family members are not uncommon for this event. Although special events locally are not being held, the Father’s Day 5K is a perfect opportunity to get your family together, even if it has to be completed virtually.

RRCA coaching certification course

There will be a two-day RRCA coaching certification class hosted in coordination with Seashore Striders and Go Fast that will be held virtually Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12. This is a two-day course that starts at 8 a.m. and concludes at 5 p.m. both days. Online course participants must be 18 years of age or older. There are 34 spots in the class and the cost is $325. This class will be an online delivery method with lecture, seminar-style conversation, individual work and small-group exercises using the Zoom interactive online platform. The difference in this class being done virtually and not in person is that once it opens up, it could be filled quickly with anyone in the country. The class should be open shortly at Road Runners Club of America.