Joe Casey clearly remembers the meeting. It was exactly 40 years ago, in fact, in 1976. He had been a basketball coach since 1969 at Masconomet, and also a JV head coach and varsity assistant coach for the boys cross-country team – at the time, the only cross-country team at the school. “Larry Gregorchuk had been coaching cross-country for years when I first got to Masco. He called me in his office and said ‘I’d like you to start a girls cross-country team at Masco,’” said Casey. Here, in 2016, Casey will begin his 41st season as the only head coach that Masconomet girls cross-country has ever known. The Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association cemented his legacy when it inducted Casey into its Hall of Fame on June 4, alongside Ipswich track coaching legend (and still active assistant coach) Ken Spellman and Mt. Greylock’s Larry Bell. “It was quite a night, to be honest. I was quite happy when they informed me [about being inducted],” said Casey, who was inducted by his longtime colleague and the boys cross-country head coach Patrick Mahoney. While Mahoney has learned a lot from Casey over the years, Casey remembers making a call to his own cross-country mentor, Bill Squires. Squires was the coach of the Greater Boston Track Club and his students included Marathon champions Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar and Greg Meyer. “He told me ‘take the job, I’ll send you some stuff.’ That’s how I got into it,” said Casey. While Squires’ guidance helped him start his varsity cross-country head coaching career, there’s an even simpler answer for what will bring him back for his 41st year. “First of all, you’re working with kids. They’re willing to try hard, and they’re good kids, they all get along so well,” said Casey. “We’ve had girls who came over to cross-country playing after another sport, and during our senior breakup dinner, they always say they wish they’d done it all four years. “I get good kids on my team, and that’s what makes it fun,” Casey added. The personalities of essentially all the runners he’s had over the last 40 years have certainly impressed him, and sprinkled among these student-athletes have been some truly great runners. Most recently, former Chieftain Abbey D’Agostino (now a member of Team New Balance in Boston) finished a NCAA career with seven NCAA championships in various events and in cross-country for Dartmouth College. After finishing 19 hundredths of a second outside of an Olympic spot in the 5K in 2012, D’Agostino will chase down an Olympic spot again in July. “I saw Abbey run in a race last fall. She’s just a great kid, and it’d be awesome for her [to make the Olympics],” said Casey. Another one of the all-time great runners at Masco was Amy Legacki, who was an All-American in the 10K at Indiana University after her time as a Chieftain. “She went on to big time running, and I had four former runners at the Hall of Fame dinner – and they went on to run at Duke, UConn, UMass and Harvard,” said Casey. “I also coached Kristin Daley, who went on to be Athlete of the Year at Middlebury.” Casey had many of the same athletes, as well as several others whose specialty wasn’t distance, during his 11 years as spring track coach. During his spring track coaching stint, his Masco teams went 108-3. That was during a time when his cross-country teams also put together a run of 82 straight wins, with Legacki’s time at Masconomet being part of that string. The girls cross-country program, which has at times numbered above 100, has certainly come a long way from its 1976 roots. “My first year, we had our only losing record because sometimes we didn’t have five kids on the starting line,” said Casey. Casey was hired as Masconomet Athletic Director in 1992, and in order to give all he could to that job, he had to give up one of his three head coaching jobs at the time. He retired from basketball coaching after a 23-year career, and he kept cross-country and spring track. “Later, I decided I had so many sports and so I also gave up the spring track,” said Casey. “Cross-country is just something I really enjoy. People ask me, ‘how long are you going to coach?’ I say ‘until it stops being fun.’ I really enjoy being around the young people.” Spellman had a very similar philosophy in terms of what has kept him involved with track and field since 1969 at Ipswich High. Casey was very complimentary towards his CAL colleague, and the respect was mutual. “Ken and I have been coaching against each other in different sports for 47 years,” added Casey. “Ken’s a really nice guy. We’ve always gotten along well.” “Joe Casey is a good guy, and a good friend. He’s a great role model for not only the kids at Masco, but all of the kids in the Cape Ann League,” added Spellman. “Both of us have talked about how competitive the Cape Ann League has become in cross-country, especially with the success of Hamilton-Wenham and Newburyport.” Along with former athletes, Coach Mahoney and fellow Hall of Famers Don Hennigar (Newburyport), Steve Sawyer (Hamilton-Wenham) and of course Spellman, Casey was also joined by four of his five biggest fans. His wife Ellen and three sons J.P., Mike and John were on hand for his big moment. A fourth son, Paul, was unable to attend as he is on active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard in Yorktown, Va. Casey has always felt fortunate to really have two families – one at home, and the other out running on the cross-country trails
Inducted: 2016