HANOVER — Though his name is next to the title New Hampshire High School Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year for 2024, Hanover head coach Steve McConnell said the award recognizes the work of the entire coaching staff.

“We are fortunate to have a coaching staff that are experts,” McConnell said, who was recently recognized by U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. “They are amazing people, and they are consistent.”

McConnell said many high school programs see coaching turnover and that can hurt chances for success, but the Hanover track and field team does not have that concern. The team’s throws coach, Megan McGuire, has been with the program 20 years. Sprints and jumps coach Patrick Kelly has coached for 10 years, and distance coach Dorcas Den Hartog has been there for five years. Zane Rodriguez has coached javelin for about 10 years.

In this year’s NHIAA Division II championship meet, the Hanover boys scored points in every event group: jumps, throws, sprints, distance and hurdles.

“That doesn’t happen without coaches who can coach those events,” McConnell said. “We could not have done it without them.”

McConnell’s award was decided by the USTFCCCA, a New Orleans-based organization that named state winners in both boys and girls high school track and field. Among the criteria used to evaluate teams across the country, the association looked at placement in state championships, margin of victory and how the teams performances compared to previous years.

The Hanover boys won the D-II state championship by almost 30 points, 93-66, over second place Coe-Brown. It was the Bears’ first boys championship since 2002, McConnell said. In 2023, the Hanover boys finished second in the state championship.

During his coaching tenure of 11 years, McConnell said the team has grown in numbers from about 40 or 50 athletes when he started to 70 this spring. The middle school program has seen participation grow from about 40 to more than 100 this year.

McConnell attributes a large part of that success to the connection he has developed between the high school team members and the middle school team.

“The high school athletes coach the middle school, and it becomes a win-win for everybody,” McConnell said. “The middle school(ers) get to be coached by people they look up to and people who know the system and what is expected. And the high school(ers) coach their future teammates so when they get to the high school, they are already familiar with the program and the expectations. They get to be leaders and they have the experience.

“It is good for the kids and it has worked out really well,” he said. “I think that has made a difference.”

Hanover graduated some of the key performers from the state championship, including Lucian Gleiser, James Chafouleas, Aidan Bradley, Will Parker, Jeff Vidou and Joaquin Martin, but McConnell believes that will have a strong team again next year with some very strong underclassmen, including freshman Ben Groves and sophomore Liam Kitchel, who were on the winning 4x400 relay team at the state meet.

The girls teams, which finished fourth in the state meet, will also contend in the coming years, McConnell said: “The program’s success feeds on itself and I hope that will continue.”

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.