I ran track as an eighth-grader at Grand Avenue Middle School in Bellmore in 2001. I wasn’t a star, but I stuck it out through the spring season and learned how to stay fit for life. I was 14 years old. more

The Calhoun boys’ cross county team recently ran away with its second straight Nassau Conference II championship, and to say the Colts battled through adversity to do it would be a giant understatement. more

Calhoun High School senior James Panetta raced to 14th place in the New York State Cross-Country Championship in Pawling, N.Y., on Saturday, earning him All-State honors. The Top 20 runners in the race received the accolade. more

“Pain.” That’s the one word that Calhoun High School cross-country coach David Hendler used to describe the brutal 3.1-mile course that his squad of six seniors and one junior will face when they compete for the New York State Cross-Country Championship this Saturday at Lakeside Park in Pawling, N.Y. more

Calhoun had been knocking on the door of a Nassau County Class A boys’ cross-country championship for the last three seasons, finishing each of those title meets as the runner-up. On Nov. 7, however, the Colts placed four runners among the top 15 at Bethpage State Park and outdistanced Port Washington by 21 points, 73-94, to finally take home the crown. more

Tom Leavy's stop watch read 1:49 as the pack of girls approached, running at breakneck pace on Calhoun High School's brick-red track on a recent Friday morning. "One fifty-eight, Alex!" shouted Leavy, the Calhoun girls' cross-country coach. "That's a good pace. 2:06, 2:14, 2:15. That's it, Emily. Attagirl." Leavy, who started Calhoun's girls' cross-country team in 1974, is celebrating nearly half a century in coaching this season. As the girls rounded the corner, pulling away into the distance, he commented, "The girls who ran all summer, that's showing, and the girls who didn't run, that's showing, too." No matter whether his runners finish first or last around the track, Leavy has a kind word, a smile and often a joke for them. And that, team members say, goes a long way toward explaining his continued success as a cross-country and track coach. Last fall, the cross-country team, with 30 members, finished second in its conference. This year, the runners say, they're shooting for first. Led by Ava Fitzgerald, a junior who qualified for the state meet in her freshman and sophomore years (she placed 22nd at the Section 8 state qualifier last November), the team has high hopes in 2009. more