If you’re at the Dairy Queen on Chestnut Ridge Road one day in the late summer, and you see several kids run by, laughing and cracking jokes, they are probably on the Pascack Hills Cross Country team.
If you’re driving past Krauzer’s going home after your first day of school, and you see a group of kids running clad in orange, white, and gray, it’s probably the Pascack Hills Cross Country team running a pre-meet practice.
If it’s 30° one day in November and you’re nice and warm in your heated home, they’re probably running past your house in the middle of a run. They’re almost always on the streets (unless they have a track workout).
This year it is no different, except for the fact that you’ll be seeing a lot more of them. The team has a record-breaking forty-eight kids this year—the most it’s ever had in Pascack Hills’s history.
Complete with boys’ and girls’ freshmen teams, a JV boys team, and varsity girls’ and boys’ teams, this sport has sure got a lot of new faces and talent to show off.
Our girls’ freshmen team recently came in third at the Brett Taylor Invitational. Several freshmen have won medals at the last few meets, and with more than twenty boys out, the JV team will be a huge part of this season and next year as well.
In his thirteen years of coaching the sport, Coach Bob Buccino has never led a team as big as this. The coaches are confident that the varsity boys’ team will make some noise at the county and state sectional meets this year.
When asked what he thought about so many kids coming out for the sport, Coach Buccino said, “I’m just thrilled to see kids interested and having the passion for distance running. I’m glad we have a boys’ and girls’ freshmen team this year. That bodes well for the years to come to keep the program alive and running”.
Assistant coach Taylor Trumbetti, who graduated from Hills with the class of 2009, is also glad he could come this year and help out with the team. He was First Team All-County for cross-country his senior year, and came in second for State Sectionals that year as well.
I got to talk to him and ask him about his thoughts on the team.
“Buccino is a big mentor of mine. He has always helped me with running, and I’ve always looked up to him. It is a privilege to help coach. It can pretty difficult sometimes to work with so many kids, but I really do enjoy it. It’s just great to see so many kids loving to run,” he said, after I asked how it felt to lead the team next to his former coach.
He adds, “The varsity boys are great. They’re a tight group of passionate kids, and if they stay focused on the goal we have this year, I know we’ll do well”.
With fifteen girls and thirty-three boys, all led by coaches Bob Buccino, Christie Rossig, Taylor Trumbetti, and captains Jekabs Hayes and Jenny Wankmuller, this team is sure to do well. Good luck this season, XC!
