When you think of Timberlane Regional High School two things come to mind, wrestling and Mark Behan! Mark Behan has coached Timberlane Regional High School cross country, indoor and outdoor track for over 25 years, and counting! He is an avid runner, having been a high school athlete himself, just barely across the border as a Haverhill Hilly, and then later at Providence College. Mark is an accomplished marathoner and road running extraordinaire. Mark is synonymous with humility, the little I know of his own running accomplishments I have learned from others. Mark has inspired hundreds (maybe thousands) of athletes during his coaching career by encouraging them to do their best, learn about the sport and have fun!
Mark’s philosophy on running is simple, start where you are at, work hard, have patience, and the gains will come! Whether it is a modestly talented freshman or the most elite high school senior, he loves encouraging all to make gains and give their very best. He is a lead-by-example kind of coach, putting in the miles alongside his athletes. He is known for “getting lost” in the Plaistow and Atkinson town forests, which can help get in some needed miles in the cross-country season. He has coached some incredible athletes, but my guess is though, Mark’s proudest moments may not come while his athletes are wearing TRHS colors, but seeing where they go in college and beyond.
Mark is an avid fan of the sport and incredibly knowledgeable, and he passes this wisdom on to his athletes. He can fill you in on NH high school, college, and the professional running scenes, all while keeping an eye on the New England local road runners too. Mark finds time to pass his expertise on by coaching post-collegiate athletes too, and these old goats have seen some incredible gains! His knowledge is not just in knowing PR’s, he understands the methods of coaching distance running at the high school level, along with the true long-distance events. I can say personally I have enjoyed many PR’s under his tutelage, while a TRHS student, and as a post-collegiate athlete. He enjoys sharing his knowledge, passing it on to the next generation.
Mark’s passion for the sport has been contagious, as a few of his former athletes are now amongst him in the NH coaching community. To his credit, he showed them and countless others how pushing your limits can be so much fun! He is also known to show the kids areas in their hometowns, or the surrounding ones that they never knew existed and are great places to run. I have such fond memories of runs from the Kimballs and getting lost in those Hampstead woods, or joining Mark and some of his old running buds for a long run down in Haverhill or Andover, Mass. One of the sneaky things about Mark is he has a great sense of humor. There were so many laughs and fun times on our easy runs, he enjoys some good banter and is very witty. He strives to make the sport fun, engaging, and fulfilling.
By mixing in digging deep in races, understanding how to train smart, and having fun while you are out there putting in the miles, Mark Behan has mastered the art of coaching. Some days, you just try to stay upright while you’re slipping and sliding in the snow getting ready for indoor track, other times it’s hot summer evenings down at Winnekenni Castle, or maybe it’s time to cap off cross country season with the annual Newburyport Maudslay Turkey Trot. He showed me a sport I did not understand but fell in love with. I am incredibly grateful to have been a TRHS xc and track athlete, and to have Coach Mark Behan as a great friend and coach!
2023 - Jeff Wilson
It is my pleasure and honor to present the Peter Lovejoy Coach of the Year award to Jeff Wilson.
Jeff has been a high school coach for years. He was an assistant to Peter for years, and then moved on to working with John Eastman and finally being the head coach for Souhegan High School. Jeff came to running after having his dream of being an Elite Basketball player destroyed after being cut from his High school team. He moved on to XC and track at Xavier HS in Conn, and he was on many a State Championship team. I can’t tell you how many times I heard how great his high school team was, going undefeated. Jeff after High School entered the monastery. After finding out they didn’t have a XC or track team he moved onto Boston College.
Jeff coached his son Keith to being one of the better runners in NH. Jeff has coached 6 State Championship track teams. I don’t know how many before I came to Souhegan. Not counting his XC accomplishments. He has coached one of the fastest runners in America in the 3200. Jeff has coached numerous runners who have gone on to run for colleges like UConn, West Point, Air Force Academy, Bucknell, Brown/North Carolina, UVM and many more. Jeff is now working on recruiting his grandchildren to run for him.
I don’t know of anyone of his fellow coaches or his athletes that haven’t liked Jeff.
It is also my pleasure to not only call him coach, but also to call him Friend.
Congratulations to Jeff Wilson.
2022 - Mike Shevenell
Portsmouth Christian Academy has been blessed to have Mike Shevenell as a coach since 1996, coaching nearly year-round for cross country, winter track, spring track, and even hosting fitness clubs between seasons.
While he’s coached talented athletes - even record-winning athletes and teams, Coach Shevenell is far better known for his faith and integrity, and for the relentless love and support he shows his athletes.
He has the unique gift of quickly recognizing each individual’s strengths, drawing them out and encouraging them into what he knows they can become. His standards are high, yet without pressure or judgment. His athletes remember him for his mentorship and the knowledge that he was proud of them, and that he cares more about his athletes’ character than their times or distances.
He loves to be with his team – in the trenches with them, not on the sidelines. Even throughout injuries over the years - his biggest complaint was never the pain of the injury or recovery. It was always how much he missed being with the athletes! He’s always running, lifting, stretching and being silly right along with the team.
He can make anything fun - especially goofy competitions, whether with weekly Fruit Relays or by tracking PRs for how quickly the team could change their clothes or retrieve their dinner and get back on the bus…and then he memorizes these stats and more with the ease of breathing. He knows all PRs and school records off the top of his head, able to recall them in casual conversation or use them to inform shockingly accurate predictions for his athletes.
Under his leadership, hundreds of athletes have learned to set and achieve goals, learned to have a healthy relationship with fitness, and most of all, learned to love running. 72 seasons in and still going strong- for so many reasons, it is an absolute honor to present this year’s Lovejoy award to Coach Mike Shevenell.
The Peter Lovejoy Award was instituted in 2014 to recognize veteran coaches of cross country and/or track and field who have contributed significantly to New Hampshire athletes over many years.
Peter Lovejoy (1937-2013) began his teaching/coaching career at Simonds High School in Warner, NH in 1960, and he continued at Kearsarge Regional High School in 1970 where he coached and taught until the mid-1980’s. He then retired and returned to college. He received his Master’s Degree at Springfield College in 1985 and his Doctorate’s Degree in sports psychology from Arizona State University in 1988. After teaching for a year at the University of Illinois, he returned to New Hampshire and resumed coaching - both cross country and track for several years at Souhegan High School in Amherst, NH. Peter coached for approximately 30 years in New Hampshire. Many of those years he coached all three seasons - cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.
The Peter Lovejoy Award will recognize annually one cross country/track coach who has served New Hampshire athletes for a minimum of 20 years. People may be nominated for the Award by sending a one-page application stating the nominee’s coaching experience along with specific reasons for his/her consideration for the recognition. The nomination paper should be submitted to the NHTFCA prior to March 1.
Past recipients
2021 - Mike Smith, Mascenic Regional High School
Mike has been associated with Mascenic HS cross country and track & field on and off for more
than 30 years – starting as a successful middle/high school athlete and now mentoring young
athletes as the successful head coach of those programs.
He reacquainted himself with the team in 2000, taking over the helm of both programs that
year. And while it took a few years for the team to find firm footing, eventually winning state
cross country titles in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014 and recently in 2017, the teams and individuals
have been going strong ever since. Mascenic has had 10 different athletes who have won 30
individual state championship titles.
In addition to his high school teaching and coaching duties at Mascenic HS, he is also the head
coach of the Valhalla RC junior olympic cross country program, a USATF sanctioned club that
since 2017 has had national championship qualifying athletes. Still putting in the miles as an
athlete himself, he shares his wealth of knowledge, experiece and fierce love of the sport by
coaching an adult program through the Monadnock Regional Milers. “Wednesday Night
Workouts” occur weekly at Con-Val HS from April through September and focuses on getting
adults to run faster over a variety of distances.
As if there were 36 hours in his day, he is a member of the NHIAA Outdoor Track & Field
Committee and also a valuable member of Tim Cox and Greg Hall’s staff at NHTF.com and
NHCC.com, acting as a contributing editor, Division 3 expert and at times conscience of the
sport. Not only does he provide previews and recaps of seasons and competitions, but we all
benefit from his occasional reflections regarding current topics within our sport. With his
gravelly voice, when not generating articles, Mike is one of the voices of NHTF and NHCC as a
race commentator.
It goes without saying that without the support of his wife, Gretchen, and their
children very few of these accomplishments would have been possible.
2020 - Tim Cox, Coe Brown Northwood Academy
A coach is often thought to be and referred to as a teacher. No NH coach better exemplifies this reference
than this gentleman. When asked what is most important to him with respect to the teams and athletes he
coaches, you would hear: a willingness to step outside of their comfort zones, a conscious choice to
become the best version of themselves, and a desire to become a student of the sport well after their time
at Coe-Brown ends.
Winning is of little importance to the Coe-Brown Academy coaching staff, but because they all follow the
example of Coach Tim Cox, the success of the Coe-Brown programs cannot be overstated. His dedication
to and involvement in the lives of his athletes has itself come full circle many times, and in fact three
former athletes are now themselves members of the Coe-Brown coaching staff. These athlete-coaches
have enlisted to pay forward what Coach Cox taught them, and along with their mentor, will touch the
lives of hundreds of more athletes in the future.
Of the thirty-eight current outdoor track and field school records, only three girls and one boys records’
remain from before his tenure. Coach Cox, along with Coach Brent Tkaczyk, also started the indoor
track program in 2005, and have had a hand in all of the current indoor track and field school records, as
well. Individual Coe-Brown athletes have also set a number of Class I, Division II, and New Hampshire
State outdoor and indoor state records under his tutelage.
Individual and relay divisional champions that Coach Cox has coached include every girls’ event with the
exception of hurdles, 4x100 relay, and vertical jumps. On the boys’ side it includes every event except the
100, 4x100 relay, and vertical jumps. Coe-Brown athletes have at the state level won many individual
championships including the 100, 200, 800, 1600, 3200, 4x800 relay, long jump, discus, and shot put.
Three Coe-Brown athletes have even won New England championships in the 800, 1600, and long jump.
Using the team championship as the truest standard of success to measure any coach, Coe-Brown won
four straight outdoor track & field girls’ titles (2012-2015), a boys’ title (2019) and now a boys’ and girls’
title in 2021. Together they have built a running program which has generated 25 state championships in
cross country, indoor and outdoor track while also coaching athletes and teams on the national level.
He is the co-founder of the highly successful, wildly popular, and nationally renowned
newhampshiretrackandfield.com and newhampshirecrosscountry.com. His roles are legion - editor-in-
chief, front-end collaborator, correspondent, interviewer, commentator, social media – just to name a
few. As if all that weren’t enough to fill a day, he is also a member of the NHIAA Outdoor Track & Field
Committee
It goes without saying that without the support of his wife. Jen, and their children, very few
of these accomplishments would have been possible.
2019 - Suzanne Johnson, Londonderry High School
Suzanne has been involved in track and field all of her life. She was an individual state champion at Salem High School, and continued her track career at the University of Rhode Island. In 1982 she was hired as a Social Studies teacher at Londonderry High School and has been there ever since. She started as the girls junior high school coach and since 1984 has been the head coach of indoor and outdoor track for Londonderry High School. For 36+ years she's been the face of girls track and field at Londonderry. Suzanne goes beyond coaching, building community within her team. Her talents have often brought her recognition, but she always remains humble.
2018 - John Goegel, Merrimack Valley HS / Bishop Brady HS / Concord HS / Belmont HS
2017 - Bernie Livingston, Kennett HS
2016 - John Snell, Merrimack HS
2015 - Stan Lyford, Portsmouth HS
2014 - John Eastman, Kearsarge HS / Souhegan HS