By Dave St. Hilaire,Staff Writer
Phil Morlock and Kaleb Boucher have been virtually anonymous while leading Lisbon to three state titles.

They are the other guys.

You know the type. They get very little recognition, but they don’t need it. Being successful as a team is what’s important and all championship teams have them.

Just as the 2004 Boston Red Sox had Kevin Millar and Bill Mueller and the New England Patriots Super Bowl teams had Troy Brown and Mike Vrabel, the Lisbon boys’ cross country team has Phil Morlock and Kaleb Boucher.

Without them, the Greyhounds would have been a very talented team. With them, they’re three-time state class C champions.

They’ll run one more race together in Saturday’s New England Interscholastic Cross Country Championship Meet at Thetford Academy in Vermont.

“They’re aware they’re not going to get a lot of press and plaudits,” says Lisbon coach Hank Fuller of his two senior co-captains. “They get their satisfaction from setting a goal and achieving it.”

“They’re leaders both on and off the field.”

Morlock and Boucher have been key contributors on all three championship teams. In their sophomore year the duo were the and fifth and sixth runners for Lisbon at the state meet before each moved up a slot in the junior year. In this year’s final meet at Leavitt Area High School, Morlock was the number two Greyhound runner finishing sixth overall in a time of 18:09.57. Boucher was the third scorer for the team and his time of 18:20.01 was good for 11th place.

Morlock rates his run at the state meet this fall as his best ever.

“I was thrilled with how I did,” says Morlock. “I looked at Kaleb (before the race) and said I was going to have a breakout race. I was determined to do better than I’d ever done before.”

Fuller credits the two with helping to build this year’s title team by keeping the team on task with their off-season workouts.

“We ran a certain hill workout that we do about once a year,” says Boucher. “This summer we did it once a week. We’d tell everyone to meet at the hill.”

With two team titles already under their belts, Morlock and Boucher had the respect of the other Greyhound runners.

“They’re pretty good without a captain,” says Boucher. “But we lead the warm-ups, the cool down and the stretching. If they start horsing around a little too much we’ll tell them to cool it and they’ll listen.”

Fuller had seen both runners competing in track and field and convinced them to test their skills on the trails. Morlock has competed for all four years. Boucher joined the team his sophomore year and was given the nickname of “The Animal” by Fuller.

“Kaleb’s not a beautiful runner,” says Fuller. “He’s a plugger who works hard and runs strong.”

Besides keeping their teammates focused, Morlock and Boucher get them mentally stoked before every race.

“Kaleb’s the Animal,” says Morlock. “He’ll start growling and jumping up and down. I’ll start roughing up Tyler (Clark) and he’ll start roughing up me. We’ll get the adrenaline going that way.”

Morlock also realizes the team’s secret for success.

“You get a good coach with a bunch of kids that don’t give up and you’ve got yourself a state title,” he says.

Or three.

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