PEABODY — As the dog days of summer draw nearer and the season winds down to a close, the kids participating in Going the Distance (GTD) summer programs at Peabody High are just getting started.
At the helm is Fernando Braz, the former Peabody High and Boston College track and cross-country standout, 2023 Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association Outdoor coach of the year, and The Daily Item’s 2023 spring track coach of the year.
He founded the program in 2011 with Dave Smith, who died unexpectedly earlier this year. Braz said Smith’s family established a scholarship fund for GTD individuals who need financial assistance.
“Every summer I look forward to seeing athletes of different levels of ability, confidence and fitness engaged in one goal, and that is to be the best-conditioned athlete by the end of the program for their fall season primary sport. It is really what I enjoy most,” the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Famer said. “We welcome everyone, and those who need a little help financially, get it, thanks to the scholarship.”
GTD offers personal one-on-one coaching, XC Edge, a cross-country training program that focuses on agility, balance, race strategy, form, flexibility, and All-Sports Edge, a program to help athletes train for their fall seasons. The goals of the program are two-fold: improved performance and, more importantly, injury prevention and avoidance.
“Everything we do is injury-prevention based,” Braz said. “We follow the kids through the fall, so we’ve kept data and we have yet to see an ACL tear in the fall. It’s a scientifically-proven approach that focuses on flexibility and agility and the hips, so kids learn how to not get injured.”
This summer, some 330 athletes from 19 different schools registered to participate.
On Friday, approximately 250 athletes, ranging from 8-year-olds to college students, braved temperatures in the mid-90s to get their workouts in. From the football team pounding the bleachers, to runners working on agility and race-strategy skills, to college athletes working the ladder, everywhere you looked, there were kids doing their best to step it up a notch.
And, everywhere you looked, there was Braz, directing the whole operation like a field general.
“He’s everywhere,” said GTD Website and Registration Director Alex Fossa, a former Peabody High track standout. “You look one way and he’s next to you and then he’s off coaching someone else. He’s always moving. There’s never a dull moment; from the second he gets here at 6:30.”
In addition to Fossa, GTD boasts an impressive group of alumni who trained with Braz, starting with Peabody’s own Heather MacLean, an All-American who holds four school records at UMass Amherst and competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Lynnfield’s Kate Mitchell has also trained with Braz. The All-American holds multiple Boston College records and recently committed to the New Balance Boston team, joining MacLean.
Recent Peabody High graduate Aja Alimonte plays soccer at Merrimack College. The rising junior has been attending the camp since she was a high-school freshman.
“I’m here to get ready for the preseason both mentally and physically,” she said. “I ran track a little bit in high school and coach Braz coached me. He is the best. I trust him completely.”
Former Peabody High and Boston College soccer standout Hayley Dowd has also been attending the camp for years. Dowd turned pro after college and now plays for Djurgården of the Swedish Damallsvenskan. These days, she is in charge of the collegiate group.
“I’m enjoying it but have had a few injuries and that’s why I am here, building back up,” said Dowd, who boarded a plane later that day to return to Sweden. “I think my dad actually dragged me out of bed when I was in the seventh grade. He said, ‘Come on, let’s go. We’re running.'”
GTD’s staff includes several highly-respected coaches.
One of them is Braz’s son Shane Braz, a Peabody and Stonehill College cross-country and track standout. He teaches English at the Pickering Middle School in Lynn, where he will be coaching the track team this fall.
“It’s awesome to see these kids so into it,” Shane Braz said. “I love helping them get ready for the fall. This motivates them to build relationships, become better versions of themselves, and I’m so happy to support them on their journey.”
Dowd said she enjoys the camp because of the camaraderie.
“It’s hard to work out alone,” she said. “It’s fun to train with other girls. We talk and complain and take breaks together, so it helps all of us get through it.”
Alimonte said she feels so lucky to have a coach like Fernando Braz, who is so passionate about helping athletes get better.
“There are athletes who crave this kind of training but don’t have someone like coach Braz,” she said. “Everyone trusts him so much. Sometimes I take it for granted because for me, it’s just casual and what I’m used to, but it’s just awesome to be able to do this.”
Shane Braz said he is impressed with the work ethic the kids bring to the program.
“They are all working their butts off to become better. My job and the other coaches’ job is to make sure they’re ready for what the fall is going to throw at them. We’re happy to help them with their struggles, like getting up on a 95-degree day like today,” Shane Braz said.
Fernando Braz said he loves watching the way the kids collaborate with each other.
“They develop lifelong friendships,” Fernando Braz said. “And I love to see the progression from week one, when they probably don’t want to go at it again, and then in week six, see the fitness and the intensity that the program has brought to them.”
