Cross Country, Track
By Dan Beck
Jake Brophy can’t fly under the radar anymore.
That much was evident after the Central Bucks East harrier broke the record on Hershey’s “Poop-Out” course at the state meet , winning a state title as a junior last year. This year Brophy, a senior, is very much in the limelight. He’s been the focus of a lot of attention heading into Saturday’s PIAA State Championship.
“Most of my high school career, I’ve been the underdog,” Brophy says. “This year I’ve kind of surpassed that. I realized that was going to happen at some point and I’ve just accepted it. It doesn’t faze me and I’ve kind of embraced it.”
His coach, Sam Losorelli, says he’s dealt with the the weight of the expectations less like a high school student and more like a Super Bowl quarterback.
“He’s handled it like a professional,” Losorelli says. “He’s goal-oriented—he knew what he had to do. He’s a coach’s dream when it comes to workouts. If there’s a workout, I’ll explain to him what’s going on and he does it and I can’t say enough about how positive and disciplined he is with what he has to do.”
The pressure to repeat as state champion is real, but Brophy may have all the motivation he needs to accomplish that. That motivation comes in the form of six other guys on the line.
Brophy’s CB East team also qualified for the state meet this year. The Patriots avenged a big disappointment last year, missing the last team qualifying spot by 11 points at the District One AAA championship. Even though Brophy won the district title individually, his team finished sixth in the team race, where only five teams are selected to run at the state meet. This year, East claimed that fifth and final state spot and will be making the trip west to Chocolate World.
“Since freshman year, the goal has always been to get to states and it’s pretty great to get it my senior year,” he says. “We missed it by 11 points last year and that was pretty devastating. We told ourselves that wasn’t going to happen this year and we’re pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s definitely a different feeling than going alone or going with just one teammate.”
“In my opinion Jake would rather have finished third if it meant the team would make it,” Losorelli added. “Winning first at districts would have been secondary to the team making it to states. So this year with the team making states, it’s just icing on the cake for him.”
What makes Brophy so successful? An above average lung capacity, sure, but Losorelli likes some of his top runner’s other qualities.
“It’s his work ethic,” the coach says. “He’s hard-working an disciplined. All the attributes that make a great athlete, Jake has.
“He’s a real student of training. When we put his training workouts together, we’ll have target times. The last thing we want to do is overtrain. He’ll be the first to tell you, ‘hey coach, I think I can go faster.’ The key to his success is believing and having faith in what he’s doing. That’s what makes him very successful—he never questions anything.”
Repeating won’t be easy for Brophy. He witnessed that firsthand when he won last week’s District One AAA crown. A pair of brothers from Downingtown West—Jaxson and Josh Hoey stuck with Brophy well past the two-mile mark. It wasn’t until about 200 meters to go that Brophy was able to gap the elder brother, Jaxson. From there, Brophy kicked it in for the win, but it certainly didn’t come without some nervous moments down the final stretch.
The hilly course at Hershey is a virtual opposite of the flat course Brophy saw at districts at Lehigh University. Brophy is familiar with the course, though. He raced it twice last year (including his state title victory) and once earlier this season at the PIAA Foundation Invitational, which he won handily. Still, Hershey is notorious for producing unlikely champions. Losorelli has faith in his runner.
“He knows he’ll have to be at the top of his game if he wants to repeat as state champion,” he says.
In fourth grade, Brophy began running competitively. He got to CB East in 2012. As a freshman, he took third place in the SOL Continental championship race. A week later on the same course, he bettered his time by 39 seconds to place 16th in the District One championship. At states, he was 30th.
His sophomore year, Brophy placed eighth in the state, before winning the state crown last year as somewhat of a surprise champion. He followed that up with a fifth place finish at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional race in New York. That qualified him for Foot Locker Nationals a few weeks later. The prestigious race in San Diego pits the nation’s 40 top runners against each other. Brophy took 25th in that race last year.
While Brophy and Losorelli remain focused on this weekend in Hershey, the training plan is set for Brophy to hit his peak to ensure a return trip to San Diego for nationals.
Brophy’s path to the top has been anything but linear. Most of Brophy’s early childhood was spent moving around the country after his father, who was in the Navy, was re-stationed. It was while Brophy was living in Washington state that he discovered running.
“My mom was a big runner in high school,” Brophy said. “She kept up running and one day she asked me to go on a run in third grade. It wasn’t very long at all and I liked it.”
With that said, it won’t come as much of surprise to learn that Brophy has chosen to follow in his father’s footsteps. Earlier this week, Brophy announced his plans for next year: The Naval Academy. He picked Navy over celebrated cross country and track programs at Stanford and Syracuse.
“I decided on Navy because I like the idea of serving my country and also like atmosphere that the school creates. I’m really excited to go there,” Brophy says. “[The] Navy has always been a backdrop to my life. It’s nice to fulfill a legacy.”
At Navy, Brophy will not only be joining an elite group of Americans, but an elite pack of runners as well. The Midshipmen dominated the Patriot League Championships last Saturday, taking the first four spots to score just 19 points to win the conference title.
After Brophy is done flying on the track or on the cross country course, he’d like to try flying of a different kind.
“Once I graduate, I’d like to go to flight school and I’d like to fly F-35s in the Navy,” he says.
But for now, the high school senior is focused on Saturday and defending his state title. It’s not an easy task, but just talk with Brophy and you won’t find a more poised individual.
“I know anything can happen and I know anyone can have a good day,” Brophy says. “But I’m feeling pretty good.”
