Yeah. It's a Disney year

Our next race is the MAAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, October 30, at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Yeah. It’s a Disney Year. Oddly enough, this was actually the year the MAAC meet was supposed to be at Disney. It was NOT postponed from 2020, like everything else. The MAAC XC meet started appearing at Disney in 2000, and every four years (every presidential election year) after that. Until 2020. But again, this had nothing to do with the pandemic. For some scheduling reason, the race was slated for this year instead of last year. And so, we prepare to go to Florida, for this meet, for the sixth time. Yes. There are plenty of memories from this trip. That first year, my wife Heidi traveled down with our then-14-month-old son Joey. You know, the same kid who is now 22 and a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. Yeah. A lot has happened in the ensuing 21 years! But the magic of Disney, and the MAACs at Disney, endures. In 2000 and again in 2004, our women's team won the race. Talk about magical! In 2004, the men's team decided to shop at a thrift store for "formal" clothing and the results were comical. In 2008, we had our best showing as a men's team with a goofy crew of guys (see below for some proof). In 2012, half of our team got stranded down there because of Hurricane Sandy. In 2016, the men's race for second was nailbitingly close. 

It’s a great trip and a great experience for our athletes. We’ll leave it at that, and continue to prepare our teams as best as possible. And with that, I’ll leave you with this vintage 2008 photo from MAACs at Disney, featuring loyal blog follower and Forever Fox Conor Shelley, who was part of perhaps the best men’s XC performance in school history at the meet. Conor seemed right at home with this magical rodent.