2003 AHS Boys & girls to open cross country season on Sept. 9th The grueling sport of cross country running at Agawam High School has developed over the past five years under the watchful eye of Coach Bill Dillon. Each fall, it gets a little better. When the 2003 season opens for the Brownies on Tuesday, September 9th, at their 3.1 mile home course in Robinson State Park, Dillon expects even more improvement for the boys' squad, despite the loss of the program's finest runner, All-Scholastic Mike DeFilippi (graduated). Yet, despite the departure of DeFilippi, Dillon returns his team virtually intact. With no seniors this fall, the coach believes the AHS boys' team is at a crossroads of sorts and is nearing the point of posing a more serious challenge to the region's elite teams. AHS was 5-3 in 2002, finishing ninth at the Western Mass. meet. "We have a really good group of guys this season who have great attitudes. The program is getting better and better and better. We are a bit young this season, but we have guy who are more than capable of stepping up and moving this team forward. And our work ethic is great. There is nothing but good things in our future," said Dillon. The loss of DeFilippi - a six place individual finisher at the Western Mass. meet last fall (out of 101 runners) - does give Dillon some pause for concern. DeFilippi, now attending STCC, was around all summer to help train the returning members of the team. Since the pre-season opened on Thursday, August 21st, he has served as a volunteer assistant to Dillon. DeFilippi broke the Robinson course record (17:23) as a senior. "Mike was simply a tremendous part of our program for four years. He took us from a beginning program to a winning program. He just loved cross country and he loved to train. He was such a strong influence on his teammates and really put his signature on our program in such a positive way," praised Dillon. "The face he was around during the summer to train and push the kids, and then returned to help out once the fall season got underway, has really put us on strong footing going into our opener against Ludlow this Tuesday," Dillon added. The coach is counting on his first five runners to produce. They include number-one runner Kevin Clark, a junior returner, and junior captain Chris Tierney, also a returner, at number two. Sophomore letterman Jason Olbrych (who broke DeFilippi's freshman record at Robinson State Park course) will run number three, followed by sophomore newcomer Matt Zordani and sophomore returner Zach Matys at number four and five respectively. In cross country, the top five runners on each school determine who wins and who loses, but Dillon quickly pointed out that the team's other runners can factor into the scoring as well. Runners back for another year include junior Nick Gurau (out for now after having his appendix removed), junior Bryan Lane, junior Derek Myers, and sophomores Frank Latakas and Mitch Krach. There are eight newcomers to give Dillon a complement of 18 runners: juniors Dan Murphy, Brian Roberts, Dan Piquette, and Scott Gates, and freshmen Dan Cassidy, Greg Lane, Tom Goodrow, and Josh Dion. If Dillon and his boys plan to move on up, the their Northern Division opponents - including Western Mass. champs Amherst (state runners-up) and Minnechaug - also loom as huge obstacles to overcome. Other teams in their division are Chicopee Comp, Chicopee, Northampton, and Holyoke. "We have good balance, but we are a little young and inexperienced. I'll get a better handle on things after our first meet," Dillon said.