The People Behind Heps

As Indoor Heps returns to Hanover, N.H., and Leverone Field House for the first time since 2006, there are a number of people to acknowledge. Because I used to work in the Ivy League Office, I will start there. The League Office is headed by Executive Director Robin Harris and those overseeing this Championship are Meet Manager Mike Muska and Assistant Director Wesley Harris. That’s Mike to the right, contemplating the next problem that he might need to address.

At Dartmouth, there are a number of folks to recognize, starting with President Jim Young Kim. His athletic department is overseen by Bob Ceplikas and his senior staff of Brian Austin, Drew Galbraith, Megan Sobel, Sam Hopkins, Richard Whitmore, Ken Snelling, Carley Hrusovsky, Anne B. Hudak, Shadara Macnicol and Randy Meck. Among those in the department serving the Championships are Miriam Durkee, Cindi Mansell, Matt Faulkner and Becky VanDolah.

That certainly doesn’t include the Big Green coaching staff, which consists of Men’s Coach Barry Harwick and Women’s Coach Sandy Ford-Centonze as well as Maribel Souther, Michelle Clayton, Will Thomas and Shannon O’Brien. That’s Barry to the left, who in addition to coaching and hosting, writes a weekly writeup to his alumni which HepsTrack frequently cites. As you can see, he and Carl Wallin are fond of sunglasses (and they appear to shop together).

Then we have the officials list for the meet, which features the following:
Starters — Carmen Iannuccilli, Tommy Maher
Referee Field Events — Carl Wallin (that’s a photo of Carl, who coached at Dartmouth for 40 years before retiring at the end of last season, ordering lunch)
Referee Track Events — Walt Frey
Head Track Inspector — Chris Brown
Multi-Events Coordinator — Max Tucker
Clerk — Tim Clark
Head Throws — Dave Grant
Throws Assistants — Sara Grant, Ed Daniel, Bob Gidari
Head Long Jump/Triple Jump — Charlene LaPlante
Head High Jump — Ralph Jasinski, Jack Blessing
Head Pole Vault — Phil Schaefer, Kurt Minster
Jury of Appeals — Jeff Johnson, Ellen O’Neil, George Davis
Announcer — Frank Zarnowski
Timers — Rick Berryman (a former Dartmouth sprint standout. Really!), Jaime Berryman

Also, we must acknowledge the work of Dan and Dana Grossman, who volunteer to provide photos for the athletes, schools and parents year after year. Every photo we are using in this story (expect the one of him!) and the 16 previews to come this week were taken by Dan. In fact, all 32 photos in the previews was snapped by Dan at Outdoor Heps in Philly last May. To see all his work, visit Maple Leaf Photos.

I need to thank my HepsTrack team for its enormous help this year. You will see the team’s work in the coming days and the following folks need to be noted: Rachel Baker (Brown), Gerry Groothuis (Columbia), Kate Murdoch (Cornell), Mary Boggs (Harvard), Tyler King (Princeton) and Murat Kayali (Yale). That’s Murat running at his final Heps last spring.

One final acknowledgment. This is the first time Heps has been at Dartmouth since the unexpected passing of Kathy Slattery Phillips in the winter of 2007. Kathy was the long-time sports information director at Dartmouth and she had a special fondness for Heps and track and field. As you can see from this photo, she knew how to use a big camera and a tiny microphone. The Dartmouth community and I continue to miss her.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 5:27 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.