Six months ago, the distance athletes on Walpole Spring Track arrived at practice to find coach Tim Giblin holding a wrapped box: blue wrapping paper, orange ribbons. Immediately, all athletes were fixated on one thing.
“What’s in the box?”
To find out the answer, Giblin told the athletes that they had to “drop the hammer” and “leave it all on the track.” Many athletes thought that opening the box might take a few weeks. However, within that first box, there was another box. And, inside that box, there was another box.
On November 8 of this year, the Rebels finally got to open that inner box when those distance athletes won the EMASS Division III Championship meet at Wrentham Developmental Center win — their first Divisional win in 22 years.
“Going in to the race, we knew we had a chance to win it all,” said senior Captain Billy Heiberger. “We felt as if this was the year we could finally make it to All-States, and everyone knew what they had to do.”
From the start, Walpole took command of the race. The front pack of seniors Brendan Wohler (16:33) and Joe Keough (16:36) hung on to the top contenders for the entirety of the five kilometer course, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
However, the Rebels’ victory was a team effort, for it was Walpole’s 3-5 runners – Heiberger, sophomore Luke Berardinelli, and senior Nick Bjornson – who sealed the win for the team. Forty-six seconds separated Wohler’s finish from Bjornson’s, an almost unrealistic spread. Seniors Mike Orsi and Nick Hayden displaced other teams’ top five as the number six and seven runners.
“It was a really full team effort,” Giblin said. “We knew we had a chance to contend. There were about seven teams competing for four spots, and we thought we could be anywhere in there.”
At the 2013 Divisional Meet (where the top four teams advance to All-States), the Rebels finished a heartbreaking fifth-place. They missed All-States by a total of two points.
“It was disappointing to finish fifth, but at the same time it was encouraging because the returning athletes realized that they were in the mix,” said Giblin.
Coach Giblin also attributed the team’s success to assistant coaches Kevin Butera, Corey Coogan, and Eric Flaman. While Coach Butera helped with the speed workouts, Coach Coogan and Coach Flaman both helped pace longer workouts for all athletes.
Despite controversial falls at the finish line and complaints from other coaches that necessitated an official review of the race, Walpole eventually received the coveted trophy and finally got to see what was in the next box: boxing gloves. When asked about the significance of the boxing gloves, Giblin said, “That’s a team secret.”
Whatever the secret is, the motivation of the unknown reward definitely motivated his athletes. On November 15, Walpole Boys Cross Country competes for the All-State Title at Franklin Park.
