Leader of state champs has knack of getting the most from his runners
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
CARIBOU – The Viking boys’ cross country team, under coach Roy Alden, has been as consistent as any program the Caribou athletic department has offered over the years, but the only thing lacking coming into this season had been a state championship.
Contributed photo/Laurie Sheehan
ROY ALDEN has been coaching at Caribou for 30 years, including the last 21 at the helm of the varsity boys cross country team. This fall, Alden achieved his first-ever state championship with the Vikings after coming close a few other times. He also coaches track and field at CHS and has been selected as Penobscot Valley Conference coach of the year on several occasions.
That drought came to an end last month when the Vikings captured the Class B state title at a meet held in Belfast. Although some great runners have come through the program over the years, it is the coaching of Alden that has made the difference in making Caribou one of the powers in Maine high school cross country.
Christian Sleeper completed his outstanding four-year running career with a fourth-place finish at the Oct. 30 state meet. But when the final results were posted after the race ended, Sleeper’s thoughts were aimed toward his coach.
“I was happiest for him,” Sleeper said. “He had come close, but he’d never won one. He wanted it so bad and he got it.”
D.J. Flynn, another of the team’s seniors, recalls a teammate saying after the state meet that he’d been waiting four months for this, before coach Alden piped up that he had been waiting 30 years.
“That’s when it really hit me that this was special,” Flynn said.
Alden, who teaches social studies at CHS, has now been involved in coaching for 30 years. He was raised in the town of Smithfield and attended Skowhegan High School and the University of Maine at Farmington before making his way north to Caribou for his first teaching job.
Alden began his coaching career at the middle school level with cross country in 1980, then moved on as the girls track and field coach at the high school in 1983. He took the boys cross country position in 1990 when the school competed in the Class A ranks. His teams did not qualify for the state meet his first three seasons, but was able to in 1993 and his squads haven’t missed a year since.
Since moving to Class B in 1999, Caribou has placed either first or second in Eastern Maine eight times. The Vikes placed third in the state in both 2001 and 2006 and came the closest to a championship with a runner-up finish in 2007 before this year’s breakthrough, which ended up being the school’s first cross country title since 1938.
P.J. Gorneault is a coaching colleague of Alden’s. He is the head coach of last year’s state champion Caribou girls Nordic ski team and also lends a hand to Alden in both cross country and track and field. But Gorneault was also a member of the Viking XC running team from 1993-96 and credits Alden for his work in establishing a successful sports program.
Gorneault said there were nine runners on the team his freshman year, and the numbers increased to 16 by the time he was a senior. Now the roster consistently includes 25 or more runners.
“The most defining thing about him as a coach is his team-first attitude,” Gorneault said. “He also makes practices fun and truly cares about all the boys that run for him, sacrificing so much personal and family time for the team and for Caribou High School.”
Gorneault, who won a Class A individual state championship in 1996, said he learned some important life lessons from Alden during his high school years.
“He taught me that nothing was going to be easy and if you want to succeed you need to work hard and be patient – which isn’t easy for a high school kid,” Gorneault said.
He recalled Alden using a compassionate voice after Gorneault had struggled in a regular season race in Millinocket his senior year and telling him “that running is like life … you are going to have ups and downs and you will never overcome them unless you learn from your mistakes.”
Gorneault then said Alden switched to his coaching voice and in front of the entire team yelled, “P.J., that is the last race you are going to lose this year!”
The pep talk certainly had an effect, according to Gorneault.
“I believed him and went on to win my last four races, including the state meet,” he said.
Alden is known as being a master motivator and even though sometimes the tactics he uses aren’t always comprehended by his runners at the time, they make sense later on.
“At one point in a practice a few days before the state meet, we all ran our home course tied together with ropes,” Flynn said, “and it was to emphasize that we were all in this together as a team. Little things like that really help.
“It’s amazing how he’s able to get us in sync as a team.”
Flynn said another motivational device Alden used to get the team ready for the state meet was pinning individual characteristics on each of the runners.
“He talked about Christian’s heart, Caleb (Chapman’s) strength, Ryan (Washington’s) ability to stay relaxed, my focus and had something for all seven starters,” Flynn said, “then he told us we’d be able to borrow those traits from each other during the race.
“That kind of thought emphasizes team even more and let us know that we’re all in this together. We focused on learning how to trust each other and it really helped.”
CHS Athletic Director David Wakana said Alden has the team do a number of team-building activities, such as suppers, Mt. Katahdin climbs and going on runs that are “fun for the kids so that their mind is not on the run.”
“He challenges them to believe in themselves and to go beyond what they think they are capable of,” Wakana added. “He finds a way to build team camaraderie and he makes every athlete feel special.”
Flynn joined the Viking cross country team at the beginning of his junior year after having played soccer his freshman and sophomore seasons. He envisioned participating in an individual sport, but it turned out to be much more than that.
“The team aspect blew my mind away,” Flynn said. “We became each other’s best friends.”
Sleeper admits that he had to endure some tough workouts during his four years on the team, but knew that Alden always had a purpose for everything he did.
“You work hard, you get in better shape and it makes you run better in races,” Sleeper said. “Coach is a hard worker himself. He’s always doing a million things. But he wants to do well and he likes to win.
“He knows how to motivate people and to get you excited.”
Gorneault recalls that has been the case since the days he ran for Alden.
“He’s a competitor and after all these years of coaching the fire inside him is still burning hot, as can be seen during any cross country meet,” Gorneault said.
“He’s out there in his white shirt and maroon shorts, socks pulled up, yelling and running around like a mad man. It was something that always got me pumped up for a race when I competed and still does,” he added.
Wakana likes the way Alden coaches, and more importantly the way his teams always represent the school with class.
“Roy is energetic and very knowledgable on the sport, but he still keeps everything in prospective,” Wakana said. “He makes sure that the kids are looking professional for meets, that they do their school work and that they are good school citizens.
“Roy has made cross country at CHS a program that kids want to be a part of due to the atmosphere he has created and the success the team has enjoyed,” he added. “He makes a painful sport fun for his athletes.”
