- April 18, 2024
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At the beginning of cross country season, I received an email from boys head coach Sue O’Malley that read: “We have a very good shot of making the podium at states this year.” She was right, and, nearly a week after capturing Father Lopez’s first state championship in boys’ sports, the school celebrated the team with a pep assembly with dancers, cheerleaders and the rest of the Green Wave, displaying their district, regional and state championship trophies, on Friday, Nov. 13, at Father Lopez.
“It’s been a really great journey,” said Nick Theriault, a senior from Ormond Beach and the school’s cross country record holder. “I came in as a freshman only dreaming to ever go to states, and we even had pictures of us celebrating getting to regionals and states the first time, and we didn’t take it seriously at all. But, this summer, Coach O. really inspired us to achieve everything we could achieve.”
Throughout the season, Lopez continued to stress the idea of teamwork. At the highest level, the boys proved that there were no standouts; although they took first, no Lopez runner finished in the Top 20.
“The summer workouts, six days a week, and two-hour runs were very time consuming, but it obviously paid off,” Theriault added. “Each runner on this team mattered, but the one person that mattered the most is Coach O. Just to see her so happy, when she saw the final score on the board, really made me happy.”
Going forward, Lopez will lose four of its Top 7 runners to graduation this year, so the expectation of repeating as state championships looks to be a steep hill.
“We’re still going to try to do it again,” said Noah Van der Burgt, another Ormond Beach local, who finished first at states for Lopez. “We have some people from Lopez who are going to come back out again who ran their sophomore year but decided to skip out on the state title, not really their best decision. But, we’re all going to try to step up our game a little bit.”
