EAST HARTFORD –- Dat Tran, a high jumper who finished second in the State Open in 1988 for East Hartford High, came from Houston Wednesday afternoon to honor his former track coach.
Hector Ortiz, the State Open cross country champion in 1984 and an 1985 East Hartford graduate, came from Stowe, Vt.
On Wednesday, East Hartford High officials announced that the high school track would be named after Bill Baron, who coached track and field for over 50 years at both East Hartford and East Catholic in Manchester.
Baron, who is retired from coaching but is still the director of the state track and cross country championships, didn’t know what was going to happen. His wife Marie told him he was going to East Hartford to officiate a track meet so he arrived blissfully unaware of any ceremony until he saw the hundred or so people gathered near the track.
“When I see all the people that I coached and worked with, it’s just an awesome feeling,” Baron said. “I want to thank all of you for all the work you did all the years. Anything that’s here is because of the athletes I had who were willing to put that effort in. And we had a lot of good athletes.
“I’m surprised. Now I can have an answer when the other coaches ask me, ‘When are they going to name the track after you?’”
Baron, 81, went to East Hartford High, graduating in 1960, and ran track there before heading to Manhattan College. His first job was coaching at Ridgefield High (where he won the Class M cross country championship in his first season) but he returned to East Hartford in 1967 and remained there until 2001. He coached with Marie at East Catholic through last year and over the years, coached numerous state champions and won six state titles.
“Now I know how to answer the question when the other coaches ask: ‘When are they going to name the track after you?’” Longtime track coach Bill Baron is honored Wednesday when the @Ehhs826High track is named after him #cttrack pic.twitter.com/23wZvE6qep
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) May 1, 2024
Thomas Anderson, the superintendent of East Hartford schools, was one of his runners, graduating from East Hartford High in 1988.
“Thank you, Mr. Baron, for the 560 days we spent together and other thousands of days with other athletes,” Anderson said to the crowd. “Unknowingly, you influenced us all. There was some yelling. Mostly stern talks. But many lessons that led to school and state records, New England championships and All-Americans. There were many before who did great things and many after who did great things under his leadership.
“I don’t think you realized the impact you were having on the lives of your athletes, nor the impact you have on the children of those athletes because of the messages you put out.”
Anderson, who got cut from the basketball team as a freshman and went out for track, went on to be a member of the 4×400 relay team that was ranked sixth in the country and the State Open runner-up track team in 1988.
Ortiz remembered Baron telling him the day of the State Open meet that one of the local newspapers hadn’t mentioned his name as one of the favorites.
“He said, ‘Hector, they didn’t mention your name in the paper this morning, you make sure you show everybody that there’s another great runner in the group,'” said Ortiz, who won the championship.
“I just remember some of the lessons he taught me. You get out of it what you put into it. Just having a belief in me, pushing me and challenging me. I wanted to run for him, not just for myself.”
Tran thought he still might hold the school high jump record (6 feet, 8 inches). But he returned to his alma mater Wednesday for other reasons.
“Coach Baron was an influential part of my life and my success,” Tran said. “He doesn’t know it. As a teenager, you don’t communicate well and you don’t express yourself well and you just don’t know. As you get older, you realize and you look back at the people who influenced your life and instilled values of competitiveness, hard work, perseverance which ultimately led to your success. He’s one of the people on top of the list. I wanted to come back here and show my support for him and show him I appreciate everything he did.”
Alison (Hanscom) Caruso, who lives in Manchester, came to honor the coach who helped her win a State Open cross country title in 1994 and get a track scholarship to the University of New Hampshire. Caruso is still running and has competed in over 20 marathons.
“He was just the best,” she said. “He was so thoughtful in his approach to running and guiding you as a student athlete and really trying to build you as an athlete for life.”