After 29 seasons, Hopedale cross country coach shows no signs of slowing down
HOPEDALE - Hopedale High School cross country Coach Joe Drugan turns 79 on Friday and shows no signs of slowing down. "I love the sport," he said.
Joe's been coaching Hopedale for 29 seasons, a career that only began when his field hockey coaching wife Andrea, who won a state championship, surprised him on his 50th birthday.
"She says to me 'Let's see what you can do.' I said, 'What are you talking about?' She said, 'I know you can run!' But I said, 'I don't think I can coach,'" Drugan said.
He can coach. Four state championship teams, three state runner-up titles, 14 Central Massachusetts Championships and 54 invitational meet titles.
Twenty of his kids have run on the collegiate level, with five of them becoming All-Americans.
"It goes all to them," Joe said. "I just coach them. They have to do the work."
Joe certainly has an appreciation for Hopedale High School and his team. After doing it now for 29 seasons, his boys have an appreciation for their coach.
"He's a tough cookie," said Phillip Carroll, a junior captain on the team. "That's one way to put it. He never gives up on us."
"He can be a little pushy sometimes, but you know, no matter what the workout is or how tough he's being, you know that it's for a good cause and that he's trying his best and wants the best for you," junior captain James Seaver said.
Drugan also has another job. He's been a security supervisor at Gillette Stadium. Over the past 20-plus years, he has worked Revolution matches, concerts, and of course, New England Patriot games. He uses that job to motivate his runners.
"Whenever there's a day when we're not particularly motivated or maybe we're feeling a little lackluster he'll talk about the guys on the Patriots, how hard they work and that'll give us a little boost of energy," junior captain Jackson Hunt said.
And as for how long joe will he keep doing this?
"Age plays no factor in something that you like," Drugan said.
The Hopedale Blue Raiders finished 7-1 in the Dual Valley Conference. They'll compete against 20 other teams in their division in the all-state meet on Saturday at Fort Devens.