Today’s high school runners see them at all of their meets. They are the individuals firing the starter’s pistol, filing runners through the finish chutes, recording times and doing much, much more to ensure that events are conducted fairly and properly.

What the athletes probably don’t realize is that these men and women are also among the state’s pioneers in the sports of cross country and track & field.

Clem Soscia invited some of these pioneers to last month’s girls cross country awards banquet to help present this year’s awards.

Among the group of distinguished guests who continue to be staunch supporters of high school cross country, as well as track and field, were: Ron and Laurie Boemker, Bob and Ann Rothenberg, Ray Dwyer, Norm Monk, Al Campbell and retired Journal high school sports writer Bob Leddy.

``All of them have been at it for 30 years now, and we wanted them to give the kids an idea of where it all came from.’’ said Soscia. ``Ray was my high school coach, and I never knew then what kind of athlete he was. He was my coach, and I didn’t realize what a great runner he was. These guys were unbelievable. So there’s a lot of history in Rhode Island. And they could have gone on and done other things, but they all gave back to the next generation.’’

Photo courtesy of Tom DeQuattro

Pictured from L to R: Bob Leddy, Bob and Ann Rothenberg, Norm Monk, Al Campbell and Ray Dwyer