The Valley News will profile a local high school head coach weekly during the summer. It’s a chance to better know some of the people guiding the area’s student-athletes. Today, we meet Hartford High track coach Mike Perry, 63, who led the Hurricanes from 1993-2004 and returned in 2012.
Road Course: Born in Hartford, Conn., Perry moved to Lebanon when he was 7 with his parents, Ernest and Maxine, and his older brother, Richard. They eventually settled at 12 Eldridge St. Around age 12 or 13, Perry began to participate in races of roughly 1½ miles that wound through neighborhood streets. Future Lebanon High baseball coach Doug Ashey and girls basketball coach Marty Brown were among his competitors. Perry claims that once he began winning regularly, foes started taking shortcuts.
Free-Range Kids: The youngsters also roamed through the woods atop their neighborhood, when the forest was larger before the construction of Interstate 89. They spent hours at Wiffle ball, played basketball on the courts at Sacred Heart School and staged games of “slow-motion football” in the snow. The sport was the same, but running was not allowed.
Childhood Injury: Perry suffered a serious head injury when struck by a car on Mechanic Street at age 7. Perry said he was the third child hit within a year by the driver, whose family paid the medical bills for surgery and during a six-week coma. “The doctors took all the bone fragments off my brain and later put a plastic plate over the hole, but they didn’t give me much of a chance,” said Perry, who nonetheless went on to play junior high football. “It really messed up my short-term memory. To this day, I put things in order, make notes and label things.”
Running Man: Perry discovered running was his forte and when his buddy, Tom LeBrun, would drive to Hanover to lift weights in Dartmouth’s Leverone Field House, Perry would run there and catch a ride back, even in the winter. “My mustache would be frozen,” he said. During weekends, he liked to run a loop from Lebanon to Hanover to West Lebanon and home.
Family: A 1973 Lebanon High graduate who was a track standout, Perry was married at 18 and divorced at 19. He remarried at 23 to Diane, who’s the administrative assistant to the town of Hartford’s police chief. Their living children are Nicole, a teacher at Sunapee’s Mount Royal Academy, and Alisha, who works for a medical supply company. Nicole’s twin, Heidi, passed away five years ago from a heart ailment. When Diane’s brother died, they became guardians for his son, Kai, who owns a local carpentry business.
Ouch: Perry worked in the stock room at Hanover’s Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, drove a truck for a welding company and finished with 27 years for Thermal Dynamics in West Lebanon. In 2008, he suffered a back injury and has endured five surgeries, which led to him stepping down from his first stint coaching the Hurricanes.
Grassroots Level: Perry began coaching track by starting the program at Hartland Elementary School in 1989, when his daughters competed there. “I’ve been blessed with great athletes, and I know my (physical) limitations,” he said. “I can’t get down and show them things like I used to, but the kids understand and are real good about it.”
Shaky Footing: Hartford High has no track. However, athletic director Jeff Moreno, a former competitor under Perry, helped facilitate the installation of a new practice area for jumps and throws. “The event that’s hurt the most is the hurdles, because you don’t want to practice that on asphalt, and doing it on grass isn’t the same,” Perry said. He noted that local schools cooperate to allow access to tracks and specialized coaching.
Growing Storm: Hartford’s girls track program had 15 members when Perry returned and nearly doubled that number this past school year, when it posted indoor and outdoor runner-up finishes at the state level. “I’m a hallway hound,” Perry said of his recruiting efforts. “I watch gym classes for kids who could be good athletes. Our bigger numbers really help scoring down in fourth, fifth, sixth place at big meets.”
Hall Pass: During indoor season, the Hurricanes run through school hallways. “You start, go left, left, right, left and finish by the main office,” said Perry, who credits the janitors for working their schedules around the activity. “We set up three foam hurdles on the second floor hallway.”
Expert Advice: The Hurricanes, who won boys state titles in 1994 and 1997, also benefit from assistants Don Newton (javelin), Alan Haehnel (pole vault) and Dave Bouthillier (shot put, discus). Perry handles the runners, and the four collaborate on advising the jumpers.
Sticking Around: Perry said he’d like to coach at least another decade, inspired by how track shaped him as a teenager. “I think I worry more than the kids do,” he said. “I want them to do their best, but I’m there with a shoulder if they don’t have a good day. I see the program getting better and better, and we do pretty good with what we have.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.