For more than 30 years, the Blacks were either head or assistant coaches in the program, helping build it into one of the best in the Southwestern Buckeye League.
Now they have both retired, leaving a solid corps of runners for new coach Mark Carreia, an assistant for several years, and his assistant, Jeannie Johnson.
“Both Richard and Iris did so much for running in Bellbrook and at the high school,” Carreira said. “They built a great program. We have to maintain it and make it better.”
The girls team was one Richard Black was especially proud of, making it to the Division II state meet for the first time in school.
State team returns
All of the members of that team returned this year and finished in the top four in their first four meets of the season.
“When it comes to the district I expect it will be Alter, Carroll, us and Milton-Union,” Carreira said.
“We don’t really have that strong lead runner like some schools. But we’ve got nine or 10 girls who are all within that 20 (minute), 30 (second) range to 21:30. The goal is to get everyone to drop 7-10 seconds or more off their times by the end of the season.”
Sophomore Courtney Swain was the Eagles’ top runner in 2009, finishing third in the SWBL, ninth in the Dayton D-II district, 11th in the Troy regional and 50th at state.
She has been trading the top spot this season with sophomore Jenny Sanderson (sixth in SWBL last season) and Regina Gallagher, a junior.
Others who have run strong in meets include: sophomores Christine Delong, Shelby Sigman, Gabriella Etter and Hannah Nyquist; juniors Brandi Thayer and Kait Gibson; senior Kelsey Lee; and freshman Taylor Hickey.
Stephens a big surprise
For the boys, the biggest surprise has been senior Jake Stephens. He has dropped almost two minutes off his times from last season. His biggest win came at the Alliance Invitational on Sept. 18 on the course where the Dayton district meet is run. He ran 16:30, 20 seconds better than the second-place runner.
“I was kind of a slacker the last couple of years and was satisfied running in the back of the pack with my buddies,” admitted Stephens. “The best time I ever ran was 17:49.
“But I’m a senior and I decided I should start to get serious and see how good I can be. So I started putting in some more miles on my own over the summer, started doing some weight work at home and working harder during our summer workouts.”
The result was Stephens running a 16:45 in the Bellbrook Eagle 5,000-meter race in August.
“That gave me a lot of confidence and now I’m working harder to get better every race,” he said.
“I don’t know how good Jake can be,” said Carreira. “He’s one of those guys that finally ‘got it’ and he’s hungry. We’ll see how good he is when he gets into the league, district and regional competition.”
Justin Yates, another senior, has been close to Stephens in some races. The rest of the pack includes seniors Brian Jackson, Will Krohn and Doug Rausch; junior Peter Bonavita; and freshman Brad Miller. The key to team success in the league, district and regional will be for the pack to stay close to Stephens.
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