Hello NHTF Community,
As we face this global crisis which threatens lives and ways of lives, we at the website feel posts of inspiration are appropriate at this time. So, we would like to start a series which places a spotlight on those individuals and/or happenings which truly inspire us to overcome. At the very least, we hope what we share here will provide a momentary distraction. Please enjoy and learn with the hope of taking something with you.
For our initial post, we need to look no further than our own community. We have chosen former NH XC and Track coach and current state official Arthur Demers, who has over come so much to continue mentoring coaches, officials and runners. Learn about his life and especially his response to his greatest challenge, which is truly inspirational.
We obviously have to give credit to Mr. Mike Baldadonis who created and posted this video to his YouTube Channel, which contains other inspiring stories. Please check it out.
2 Responses
I got to first know Art when he was coaching at Pelham. As my guys started to get good it was always Artie’s guys they ended competing against. I remember running along Mine’s Falls in a 10 mile race while Arthur was out along the canal and him remarking how fortunate I was picking up two transfers from Pennsylvania for the upcoming cross country season. Seems like Arthur knew more about it than I did. Pretty sure he still does. Happy to have gotten to know him over the ensuing years.
Thank you Mike. It was always fun and pleasurable to see and compare against the Masenic teams. The first meet as a high school coach was at Masenic High School. I’ll never forget at that meet they combined the girls and boys races. I had a freshman boy I believe finished last in that race. When he was a senior, he placed in the top ten at the Meet of Champions his senior year and went on to run for UNH. He ran for UNH and then went on to receive his doctorate degree in Chemistry from the University of Colorado. He also married a female distance star from ConVal and UNH!