The Brophy Cross Country team will look to new team leaders this season after many of last year’s top runners graduated.

Last year, the Broncos finished fifth at the AIA State Championship meet. The roster of nine included six seniors.

“You can project where teams might be based on who’s coming back, but we’re a completely different team than we were last year,” said Head Coach Mr. Oscar Borboa ’06. “The guys who were going to be varsity level runners for us now are completely different runners than they were last year.”

The new faces are headlined by Zach Loiselle ’23, Justin Cook ’23 and Connor Brown ’24. 

Loiselle did not start running competitively until his junior year. Although this is only his second season, Loiselle is considered by Mr. Borboa as a team captain, along with Cook.

“I think that the team’s greatest strength is that we are all super close and at every practice and race we push each other to become better runners,” Loiselle said. “Everyone on the team helps each other make it through tough workouts which translates into races.”

This will be the sixth year that Mr. Borboa has been head coach of the cross country. He ran cross country in high school, which he found to be a very positive experience. 

“Being on the cross country team in high school was such a meaningful, positive experience, the discipline that it helped me develop, the friendships that it helped forge and you know, the opportunity to compete, you know, at some really exciting levels,” Mr. Borboa said.

Mr. Borboa hopes to recreate this experience for the cross country runners this season.

“What I look to do and what we look to do as a staff is to provide the best overall experience for as many Broncos as possible,” said Mr. Borboa.

The Broncos run nine events throughout the season, culminating in the AIA State Championships and Nike Southwest Regionals in November.

Mr. Borboa believes the team has top-five potential at the State Championships. “It’s just a matter of whether or not they believe,” Mr. Borboa said.