437 wins and still coaching

BOLTON -- When Don Gribbons took over as cross-country coach at Nashoba Regional High School, Richard Nixon was president, baseball did not have a designated hitter, and the first ''Godfather" movie was just hitting the silver screen.

Some 33 years and more than 400 victories later, Gribbons still can't wait for practice every afternoon and still gets nervous before big meets.

Gribbons, who coached his only son, Devin, and eldest daughter, Megan, says he will retire in two years when his youngest daughter, Caitlin, a sophomore, graduates from Nashoba Regional.

''Yes, I think my coaching style has changed over the years," said Gribbons. But he added: ''I still enjoy being out there every day."

Devin, home from South Bend, Ind., where he is a student at Notre Dame University, noticed how much his father has mellowed. ''Devin was on hand for a meet that we should have done better than we did," said Gribbons. ''In the car on the way home after the meet, he berated me for not giving them a tongue-lashing."

Gribbons just smiled. How can he be upset? He is doing what he loves doing.

And it all happened by accident.

Gribbons was not an athlete when growing up in Worcester in the 1960s. He attended Doherty Memorial High School, but did not play sports. ''I'm second-generation Irish. My father worked for the fire department and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. There were eight of us kids. We all worked after school and we all went to college," said Gribbons, now 55.

He was introduced to cross-country in college. ''I attended Worcester State College and I made friends with a couple of guys on the team. Coach [John] O'Connor got me to come out for the team," he recalled.

Gribbons developed an instant affection for the sport. He said he was ''just a good runner on a great team."

Other runners on the team included Rick Riley, the athletic director at Marlborough High School; Brian Wallace, track coach at Wachusett Regional High School; Kenny Wachol, track coach at Northbridge High School in Whitinsville; and Gary Jusseaume, a track coach at Assumption College in Worcester. ''The whole contingent became some of the best coaches in Central Massachusetts," said Gribbons.

It was a ''fluke," he said, that he wound up at Nashoba Regional. ''I had plenty of opportunities to teach and coach when I graduated from Worcester State," said Gribbons. ''But when I met the superintendent of schools, Roland Miller, there was a connection. He seemed to be the type of person I wanted to work for, so I came to Nashoba and I never left."

His first duty, besides teaching science, was to coach cross-country and track. And from the time he came to the Bolton campus, the Chieftains have been winners.

According to athletic director Pete Richards, who came to Nashoba Regional one year before Gribbons, the cross-country team has won six league championships and two district titles. ''His record is 437-136, including this year's team, which is 9-3," said Richards. ''He has always been a taskmaster, but he has earned the respect of all of his runners. All he asks of them is for them to give it their all, and they do."

Gribbons credits his runners.

''We've won our share of championships. But no matter, we've always been competitive. I've been lucky. We've had some great kids. The whole concept of the program was to be a team, and if that meant some very good runners sacrificing to help the rest of the team, that was our goal."

He doesn't lose touch with his former players. Many come back to visit, and some graduates even compete against the current varsity in an alumni cross-country meet the second Saturday of every September. Gribbons said that is one of his most enjoyable days of the year.

The alumni race impresses the athletic director. ''It is something special. He has 35 or 36 alumni runners return every year," said Richards. ''Sometimes they will fly in from California on a Friday, run in the race on Saturday, and fly back to California the next day."

The alumni race is one of those events that Gribbons will miss when he steps down.

''I'm ready to step aside and give someone younger an opportunity to run the program," said Gribbons. ''I'll definitely miss it, but it's time someone like Kevin LeCoste [the current girls' cross-country coach] has the opportunity. Kevin is, hopefully, the one to take over the whole program."