"Everything this team has accomplished to date was a stepping stone toward the season-long goal of not simply qualifying for the 3rd Nike Team Nationals, but to win it.
Photo Gallery of Bridgetown (Coatesville) at the 2006 Nike Team Nationals
The NTN program shot of the guys before departing for Portland.
(Thanks, Kyle, for the Last Gasp Classic plug)
Districts near the mile: Kyle and all five Coatesville scorers in the picture. 
Everything this team has accomplished to date was a stepping stone toward the season-long goal of not simply qualifying for the 3rd Nike Team Nationals, but to win it.
The runners and coaches of Coatesville know they are in for a fight. And even being mentioned as one of the teams capable of winning the whole thing makes them proud. But they've been close before, and this season, they have taken no chances, or prisoners. There simply barreled through their training, the competition and the outside distractions to run the table in PA, convincingly.
They know these opportunities are rare, and it was the missed opportunities of 2004 and 2005 that have served as the fuel to make this year's team as good as it has become.
Three of the seniors on this years scoring five - Tom Pannulla, Sean Ward and Jason Leonard - were on the squad that came within five points of upsetting 2004 NTN invitee Cedar Cliff in the PA state championships. Most young teams would be thrilled with a runner-up spot at the state level... but the disappointment and even anger on their faces as they waited to receive their awards that year was palpable.
Missed opportunity #1.
Fast-forward to 2005. The team added two guys - twins Kyle and Owen Dawson - who had transferred back to Coatesville in the spring after a brief time attending Downingtown West. With Kyle as a scorer in 2004, they would have beaten Cedar Cliff. So expectations were high for 2005. But again, disappointment gripped the team as their states race was off, and they finished 4th.
Missed opportunity #2.
Head coach Keith Andrew says he believes the losses in 2004 and 2005 were the catalysts for the level of success of this year's team. "They were determined not to have those things happen again. They learned from their mistakes, corrected them, and allowed us to prepare them properly."
It's on to 2006, and the five seniors are faced with opportunity #3.
Over the summer, they rededicated themselves to their training and to each other. They mapped out their goals for the season with their coaches, head coach Andrew and assistant coach Dave Lapp. As a state championship team in 2000, and competing in the toughest league in Pennsylvania; a league that has now won six of the last 11 AAA Boys' Championships; they knew they had the makings of a great team.
Andrew says they set goals. High goals. Run under 15:30. Win every meet. Correct that - win every meet by a lot. Win the District 1 title. Win states. And earn an invitation to the 3rd Nike Team Nationals.
You could see the fire in their eyes as the season began. And even after winning every meet by scores that never topped 51 (Their point totals at Big Valley, Gettysburg, Carlisle, Steel City and District 1 were 16-26-30-40-51, with five-man spreads of :48, :46, 1:06, :45 and :49) they capped their in-PA run with a paltry 26 points and :42 second spread off Kyle Dawson's 3rd place 15:17 at States.
And you could see they were not done. Andrew says that he backed them off the week before States, "but not as much as usual. You could tell we backed off."
The week before, they came off a typically tough week of practice and unleashed a record-setting 15:27 team average and an enviable 49-second spread at the District 1 Championships. The incredible part? Their 5th man was 15:47. You do the math.
After States, Andrew says it was back to work. "States was not going to be the end of our season. They are so mentally strong, so everything just carried over to the past four weeks."
Andrew says that no matter how the race at NTN turns out, this year's run has been a great accomplishment, and for him, a memory for a lifetime.
Winning a national cross country title (PA has never won Foot Lockers) wouldn't be the only first for the PA team. Getting to Portland on Thursday was a first-ever flight for Andrew. "I couldn't think of a better reason to fly."
Despite missing out on the NTN experience,
Radnor's Liz Milewski and Hannah Granger made the trip
to Foot Locker Northeast and wished their new friends
from Hilton NY (Allison Sawyer and Caroline Schultz)
luck at both NTN and, as it turns out, Foot Lockers, a week later.
Select photos by Rich Rosato and Brandon Miles from NTN
"Everything this team has accomplished to date was a stepping stone toward the season-long goal of not simply qualifying for the 3rd Nike Team Nationals, but to win it.
Photo Gallery of Bridgetown (Coatesville) at the 2006 Nike Team Nationals