Brothers, Sisters

Sometimes you know from the first day of practice that a runner has talent and could be really good. Sometimes you have no idea, and you don't realize that someone is going to be really good until they've been running for a while. It's plain hard to predict success in a sport like cross-country, where it might take years of training, tempered by growing maturity for the true abilities of an athlete to emerge.

So one can't help be excited when genetics seems to offer you a shortcut, presenting you with a runner who is the younger sibling of an athlete who has already left his or her mark. It seems a bit easier to make predictions, then...

But is it?

There are lots of examples where the brothers or sisters of former greats became great themselves. One thinks of the Tom and George McArdle of Brookline who helped Brookline go undefeated in XC for five years; Andy and Sara Powell of Oliver Ames (Andy ran a 4:06 mile; Sara ran 4:58); Abdulgani and Khalil Abdi of Brockton; Keith Gill and Kevin Gill of Brockton; and the list goes on...

In the Bay State League right now, there are younger brothers and sisters making their own marks on the XC scene. At Newton North, younger brothers Ben Chebot and Seb Putzeys are a huge part of the team's success so far.

Ben is the younger brother of Jesse and Dan Chebot, twins who graduated in 2005. Jesse's an avid bike racer now, and had a remarkable XC career, improving from 25 minutes for 5K his freshman year to 18:10 his senior year. Dan was the better XC runner, and ran a 16:28 5K as part of the State Champion team. As a sophomore, Ben has shown he is a runner to be reckoned with, as he has moved up to the fifth spot in the Tiger's pack.

Seb Putzeys is the younger brother of Olivier, who ran for North in the late 90's and won the league title in the 2-mile his senior year. He also has an older brother who is a strong swimmer. Seb has made good progress in his two seasons of XC and one of track and is 4th for the Tigers in most meets behind the trio of seniors.

In the case of these two, the younger brothers give every indication of equaling or surpassing their older siblings, a coach's dream come true! But it's not always the case. Sometimes, the younger brother or sister has different talents or inclinations and has no interest in competing with the departed older sibling. It could be a burden to live up to other's expectations.

Siblings might have a little bit better idea of what to expect in terms of progress over the years, but ultimately -- whether a younger sibling or not -- each runner has to find his or her own way. But I can imagine that beating the times of an older sibling who has beaten you up your entire life might be sweet revenge.