Director of the Year
The Board of Directors, at president Jerry Levasseur's urging, created a new award in 2009 "to acknowledge a race director who best exemplifies the ideals and main purpose of the New England 65 Plus Runners Club. It should be a race director who has included older age groups eligible for awards and has recognized the older runners over a period of years. If in a given year there is no one who meets the criteria the award will not be given. The Committee responsible for choosing a recipient consists of the Club President, Vice President, two Past Presidents and two at-large Directors. A plaque recognizing the award will be presented to the recipient at the annual luncheo
2012
2011
Dave LaBrode from Haverhill, MA has been a true friend of senior runners for many years. He was one of the first directors to include age categories of 80 and over in the races he directed. The Bobby Bell, one of New England's road racing jewels, was founded by Dave more than 20 years ago and has garnered rave reviews year after year because of many features, but most importantly of its age grading for both men and women, allowing cross gender comparisons on an equitable basis. Dave is also a key member of the race committee for the famous Mill Cities Relay in addition to directing the Andover Country Club cross Country race. He is president of the Andover Striders. And more: He is the prime mover behind the Annual Run to the Beach 30K, a point to point course that starts at the North Andover VFW and finishes at the Winner's Circle Sports Bar in Salisbury, MA. The race has no timing, no awards, no entry fee, no numbers, no yogurt and no race director to complain to. It's a race born of the sheer joy of racing.
2010
Bob Teschek is not only a great race director and owner of Granite State Race Services, he is also a coach and runner who understands the needs of runners -- especially older runners. He has directed races in New Hampshire and Granite State Race Services serves all of New England and beyond. He has always believed in age graded awards and five-year age divisions without limit. The Bill Luti race in Concord, timed by Granite State Race Services, uses age grading for awarding prizes to master runners; at the Mount Washington Road Race money prizes for the top three masters men and women and based on age-graded times, and the Mount Washington Race has been noted for awards to runners in the oldest divisions, 80-84, 85-89. The other reward that Bob has never slighted is the asterisk. On certified courses that he times the asterisk beside a runner's time designates a performance below the USATF guidelines. These results are susbmitted to USATF headquarters and play a major role in determining National ranking. Currently, Bob's director's responsibilities are diminishing because after 29 years he has just stepped down from the huge job of seeing that the Mount Washington Race Race goes off successfully every year. He will continue timing it, and we have heard that he will return to runnng it, in a much older division (65-69) than his last race up that one hill. Bob is shown here with Barbara Robinson who took great pleasure in presenting this award to a fellow Granite State runner. Congratulations, Bob.
2009
Marty Schaivone of MS Running Productions in Stratford CT is a most deserving recipient of the first Race-Director-of the-Year Award. He began directing races in 1991, and by the mid 90's he recognized that the number of runners beyond their sixties was increasing significantly. He began that early to introduce an over-seventy age division in the races he directed. It was not long after that an 80+ division found its way into his awards structure, and he introduced an over-70-free registration. That is really recognizing the older athletes! Last year he also introduced an over-90 division to honor the intrepid Doc Whitney, the much admired and long-time member of the NE65 Plus Runners Club. Marty has diected about 20 or so races a year for the last 10 years; for the preceding 5 years he managed 6-14 a year. He clearly has been a successful director on the side of the veteran runner. His own record as a competitive runner is something he can also boast about, but that is another story. The Club bestows this award with great appreciation.
