September 5, 2023 – Story by Ava DiCecca, photos by Joshua Ross
The Harborwomen are dying to get back in competition after a successful season last year and a summer of hard training. They will be led this year by George Rose, a coach in the MSTCA Hall of Fame who has much experience at the college level both running and leading teams. He is an impressive coach with infinite knowledge of the sport but this year, the leadership will be mostly up to the captains, as Coach Rose works to get accustomed to the traditions, attitudes, mentality, and athletes involved in Hingham cross country. In the past few weeks at practice, they have worked to get to know one another and Rose has been very focused on making this season a fun and successful one for his team.
The girls are excited about their new coach, senior captain Sarah Burke stating “I’ve heard very good things about him and I know that he has been very successful on other teams and that makes me excited for what’s to come,” but while these relationships with their coach are in progress, this close group of girls will have one another to look toward for encouragement and advice. In addition to Sarah Burke, some of the main presences contributing to this leadership are junior Clare Lowther one of the top runners in the patriot league last year, two-time captain Ellie McCay, and captains Chloe Williams and Maeve Moynihan.
Burke also spoke to some of her individual goals including improving her time and being a strong leader on the team. However, she emphasized her collective goal of bringing the whole team to All-States this year. Last season Clare Lowther qualified and represented Hingham with a great performance but being only three spots away from achieving this as a team has made them all extremely motivated to follow in Lowthers footsteps.
McCay also has high hopes for this season commenting “I feel like my expectations are definitely raised of what we are capable of because I’ve seen how hard people can work and how hard people can push themselves and I just know if we carry that throughout the season we are capable of a lot.” She went on to talk about the great dynamics that are present on the team and how that will affect their year both in their success and attitudes, “We have a lot of girls that are starting to step up and take some varsity spots which is awesome and some younger girls that are showing really promising work ethic. I feel like there’s a lot of good personalities on the team, positivity and motivation which I think will really help us.”
Along with the captains, Rose also has many goals for the girls set in place despite being new this season:
“First of all for all of them to have fun and develop great friendships, and secondly that they can all be pleased with their progress and the ideal would be for them to all see personal bests…and try to do as well as the team can at the patriot league championship and state division championship”
Overall it appears that there is a lot of excitement surrounding the upcoming season as well as some very high expectations. The girls are setting out to accomplish a lot and Coach Rose is hoping to be able to aid them in their efforts to achieve all they hope to, just as he has many other teams. Rose is “always excited” and has “such a great passion for the sport and for working with young teams” and it seems that he has found a group of hard-working girls that match his love for running and determination to win all the same.