Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hewitt-Trussville’s Kinley Harris, left, in the Class 7A girls race during the AHSAA state cross country meet at Oakville Indian Mounds Park in November 2019.
Life looks a little different for David and Anita Dobbs these days. They have retired from teaching and given up many of the day-to-day activities that go along with that.
But they have yet to relinquish one thing: the Hewitt-Trussville High School cross-country team. The duo is entering its 31st year coaching at Hewitt-Trussville and the 30th over the cross-country program.
Hewitt-Trussville hired Tom Esslinger away from Homewood in May to lead the Huskies’ track and field program, but for the time being, the couple is still steering the cross-country ship.
The Huskies are hopeful for a strong 2020 fall season, particularly after last year’s outdoor track and field season was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teams finished in the top five in Class 7A at the state cross-country meet last fall.
The Hewitt-Trussville cross-country teams began their season on Aug. 29 at the Waffle House Invitational in Oxford. The girls won the event, and the boys placed third. Maci Mills paced the girls team with an eighth-place finish, followed by Amelia Brady (10th), Kylee Sisk (14th), Kinley Harris (20th), Avery Cahoon (23rd) and Sophia Knox (24th). Nathan Knox placed fourth to lead the boys, followed by Mitchell Phillips (eighth), Sam Lovin (22nd), Alex Jones (32nd), Jack Pate (37th) and Blake Bailey (38th).
“Having not raced since March, a lot of it was knocking the rust off,” David Dobbs said of the fall’s first meet. “Our practices have gone phenomenally well. It was a brand-new course we’d never been on.”
For the girls, all six of the ones in that season-opening race also ran together at the state meet last fall. Out of that group, only Brady is a senior and there are just three seniors on the roster.
Other girls on the team are Chloe Benton, Olivia Browning, Sophie Bryant, Hadley Ekonen, Jahan Fatima, Lauren Frederick, Kate Jordan, Ella Loudon, Gabrielle Moore, Lillian O’Neal, Dhvani Patel, Sarah Kate Potter, Bailey Richards, Abigail Sugden, Sydney Thompson, Avery Vaughn, Lillian Wilson and Anna Grace Wolfe.
The boys indoor team finished third at state last winter and carried that momentum into the outdoor season. Unlike the girls team, the boys this fall are senior-laden, boasting 16 on the roster. They only graduated two of their top 10 or so from last year’s cross-country squad.
Other runners from the boys team are Aaron Himes, Kellen Rutherford, Wil Edwards, Will Gallant, Matthew Antkowiak, Nolan Armstrong, Chase Armstrong, Hudson Bates, Garth Bice, Seth Bollinger, Samuel Brooks, Zac Butterworth, Aran Cane, Jack Cannon, Paul Copus, Alex Edwards, Ethan Finnegan, Chase Ford, Elliott Greene, Joel Himes, Thomas Himes, Jacob Jones, Drennan Jones, Nathan Kay, Rush Lachina, Weston Lovelady, Chris Mauldin, Jacob Moore, Jacob Mullinax, Eli Muncher, Darshan Patel, Luke Phillips, Noah Renda, Cody Serena, Dillon Smith, Oscar Spears, Logan Stewart, Jack Sullivan, Tristan Teer, Sawyer Till, Rex Usry, Alan Vicente, Seth Walker, Eli Williamson and Garrett Yokeley.
Hewitt-Trussville will host the 29th annual Husky Challenge on Oct. 17, with the sectional and state meets set for the first two weekends in November.
“It’s November that counts the most,” David Dobbs said.
