As soon as the 4x400 ended at the Meet of Champions last spring, closing the curtain on another track season, Pleasantville coach Alan Laws Sr. still had to make one final exchange.
"You're the guy," Laws told then-junior Kenny Davis, still huffing from running the second leg. "Get the guys together over the summer. You're the man now."This was the typical passing-of-the-torch moment right out of the movies, minus the torch. Davis provided the fire. Laws knighted him captain and in that cinematic moment, Davis became the leader. But leading whom?
Davis was the only remaining piece of the 2007 All-Group 4x400 that included Duke Mack, Alex Best and last year's Courier-Post Boys' Athlete of the Year Alan Laws Jr.
He took cues from his coach and prodded his new relay mates into joining a summer track club.
Along with Davis, senior Jamal Roberts, sophomore Larry Ramirez and Raymond Wilson, a senior who persuaded Davis to choose track over basketball last winter, comprised the relay and, as they would learn, much more.
In fact, with the exception of senior throwers Davin Drinkard and Jamal Thomas and senior jumper Matthew Newsome, the four athletes comprised Laws' entire varsity squad.
A drop from Group 2 to Group 1, as part of a realignment of state enrollments, raised Laws' season expectations and it didn't take long before one heard whispers of the winter of 1999, the last time the Greyhounds won a group state championship. (And even then they had only a share of the Group 2 championship after tying Bridgeton.)
A tall order? Sure. High hopes? Definitely. But, hey, why not? Right? Not according to Metuchen.
Metuchen edged Pleasantville by two points at the Group 1 state relays, a good measure of a team's depth. But already aware that his team's depth was shallower than some inflatable pools, Laws remained upbeat about the Greyhounds' chances come time for the individual-based state meets.
"They (Metuchen) gave us such great competition," he said.
"I knew they were the team to beat -- not the favorites, but the team to beat."
For keeping a sound, unwavering confidence in his team, Laws Sr. is the Courier-Post Boys' Indoor Track Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.
On the same day Pleasantville crashed its new group at the South Jersey Group 1 championships, Davis had his own coming-out party, winning all four of his events -- the high jump, the 55 hurdles, the 400 and the 4x400 -- to lift the Greyhounds over runner-up Haddonfield by 34.5 points.
That sectional championship gave Pleasantville something tangible for it to springboard off of and into states.
"We talked about it and I said `Well, guys, we can pull it off again,'รข" Laws said. "And the way everything fell in place, that's what happened."
Thanks again to another 40-point, four-win effort by Davis, and individual contributions from Wilson, Rameriz and Roberts, the Greyhounds partied like it was 1999, winning the Group 1 state meet with 58 points, 11 more than Metuchen.
"It's like a miracle," Laws said. "We have a praying team and we do everything as a family."
In a season of the unexpected that culminated with a state championship, what was the biggest unexpected contribution?
"Jamal scoring, Kenny winning the 55 hurdles and the high jump and Jamal actually scoring, but Larry Rameriz getting second place in the 800, and Jamal scoring," Laws said before pausing. "Yeah, it was like a team effort."
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