This year’s Shore Coaches Invitational, the largest XC invite in the state, has been cancelled, N.J. MileSplit reported Friday.
The meet was scheduled for Oct. 3 at Holmdel County Park.
Shore Coaches, which began in 1970 with three boy races, has grown to 26 boys and girls freshman, JV and varsity races.
There were some 4,853 finishers in the various races last year, an average of nearly 200 per race.
With states and the Meet of Champions already cancelled, it appears there won’t be any major high school meets this fall at the legendary Holmdel 5,000-meter course.
In a joint statement, meet director Brian Decker and Shore Coaches president Todd Briggs explained the decision:
Briggs tweeted out that the Shore Coaches does support holding an abbreviated XC season this fall:
Back in 1970, when the meet was held at Ocean County Park in Lakewood, Westfield, Sterling and Bernards won the initial team titles, and Dan Adams of Gateway and Mike Butynes of Sterling won two of the individual titles that first year.
The meet wasn’t held in 1971 or 1976 but has been held every year since 1977.
The meet moved to Brookdale Community College in Lincroft in 1974 and has been held at Holmdel since 1979. The girls meet was added in 1977.
Next year’s meet – hopefully – will be held on Oct. 2, 2021.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 