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"Bye Bye Brooks" by Abe Johnson

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The 2026 track tryouts are a 2-day experience which Dalat International School is currently right in the middle of. The track team this year is shaping up to be mostly younger talent with a few archaic track members still sticking around. Those few long to help the new members understand the love of their old track coach, Coach Brooks, who led the team to victory, and triumphed over the Track ACSC of 2025.

When asked about the old track team from last year, esteemed track captain Aidan Boyd (12) said, “It was family, led by the patriarch of the track fam, Coach Papa Brooks, who was more than just a coach, more than just a papa, but a mentor, in both my spiritual formation, and my physical development as an athlete–he was a lover, not a fighter, and when we were difficult, he would first love us, then fight us, as a good coach papa would do, which he was, to me, and to the rest of our esteemed ACSC champs, the Dalat Treagles, Treagles meaning Track Eagles.”

Aidan continued, “Losing him has been very hard on me as the Junior varsity track captain of last year as he was one of the coach that gave me the title and responsibility. I was not the Junior Varsity track captain but the track captain that also happened to be a junior, that was another joke we had with him and his dear son William Henry Brooks who is also very missed by the former ACSC Track and Field Combined champs the Dalat Eagles. The joke was just an example of one of the many ways that my life has been changed and made better by my dear Coach Papa Brooks." This succinctly shows the bond that the old track team forged with their beloved coach.

When asked about Coach Brooks, esteemed head librarian, and avid book reader, Ms. Smail had this to say, “Henry’s dad, board member…” She trailed off afterwards, filled with deeply rooted emotions, like a tree, because trees have deep roots. Which is so fitting as Mr. Brooks was like a tree with his deep roots in the community and the ways that he reached into so many spheres of the school while also being the root of so much joy. 

So as the new track team gets its own roots, I hope they can remember where they came from.

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