By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Edward Little girls’ track team co-captain Katie Hughes ran her finger and her thumb across a dark red bracelet in her wrist. Looking around, all of the team’s members wore identical wristwear.

“We have to wear them every single day,” said Hughes. “It’s not to separate us, but to show how much we care that we are a part of this team. It’s a reminder to all of us that no matter where we are, we are a part of the team. It helps us to remember to respect ourselves and to make good decisions to keep ourselves on the team, too.”

In a show of unity, which has been adopted as the team’s theme this season, the girls will all wear the bracelets with the word “unity” inscribed on them every day through the state meet.

“The biggest thing, in the past, like the last three years, we’ve had the talent and we’ve had the ability,” said first-year girls’ head coach Rebecca Hefty, “but we were lacking, there was something lacking, not just here but in general in high school sports so I tried to think one night how I could try and make this a team, bring them together. I thought of unity.’ Track is a hard sport to make it feel like a team sport. It’s an individual, yet a team at the same time, and to get all the girls on the same page is tough. You have throwers doing one thing, you have jumpers and sprinters doing another, and then the distance runners. (The bracelets are) just a reminder, too, when they are not at track practice, when they are off doing their extra-curriculars, they remember.”

Hefty, who was an assistant under Steve Robertson for two years, inherits from him a program steeped in tradition. On the boys’ side, Ryan Laroche begins his tenure as head coach, replacing his former coach, Dan Campbell.

“We’re pushing team unity, too,” said Laroche. “The sprinters are working with and intermingling with the distance runners more. It’s just that we’re trying to continue the same things that Dan (Campbell) was doing and that Bill Brooks was doing before him and taking some things to a different position, a different level.”

And while the boys don’t have bracelets to remind themselves of that common team goal, their actions on the track and in the weight room have demonstrated their ability to comprehend the concept.

“You look at the captains, you have a general captain, a sprinter and jumper and a thrower, ” said Laroche, “so you have all of the different areas covered within the captains, and I think those kids intermingling amongst themselves, and the other kids see that, they’re doing it more. We’re in the weight room together every week. Even the distance kids are starting to do that a little more often. That helps, to see the distance kids coming back from a three-mile run, a five-mile run, and eight-mile run and then hitting the weight room with the sprinters and the jumpers, that helps.”

In past years, the teams would already be tracking times from other runners across the state on sub5, a Web site dedicated in part to Maine high school track and field. At the very least, the coaches would have been charting progress and the number of athletes qualifying weekly for the conference and state meets. This year, things have changed.

“There’s been no talk of meets,” said Hefty. “I am staying away from sub5 as best I can. The ultimate goal is to keep them ready and get them prepared every day. It’s a whole new thing. I’ve learned a lot in the last five weeks about the difference in the role of an assistant coach versus the role of the head coach, and that sometimes you just can’t control everything. Sometimes, you just have to let things go and by creating this unity I am getting everybody on board to be looking after each other.”

“It’s up to some of the older kids, too,” added co-captain Lindsey Visbaras. “It’s hard when you are a senior and there is no one to look up to per se, but the freshmen, I think they benefit from this. They have help when they need it.”

And while the freshmen are adapting to one kind of change, the seniors are going through a different transition – a coaching transition.

“I think both of them made the decision that they made for good reasons,” said Laroche. “I think Dan’s done such a phenomenal job with the distance team over the years, and him sticking around allows him to do what he’s always loved, coaching the distance runners, and also in sticking around he’s helping to see the program through to the next head coach. We have a good relationship that goes back for years, so him sticking around was good for me.

“On the other hand, I think Steve not sticking around might have been the best thing for Rebecca,” continued Laroche. “She’s able to bring her own thought process in. A lot of things she’s doing are different than what he’s done for years and I think the minor changes you’re seeing on both teams have been good for the program.”

The two former understudies are now thrust into the spotlight at one of the most successful track and field programs in Maine will try to make it on their own – united.

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