As the athletes walk onto the track, Kevin and Jerry Somerville start practice. The students start stretching as music plays in the background. After the athletes warm up, some of them run laps around the track as Jerry Somerville is coaching them through it. Kevin Somerville is helping some students on the football field learn a new skill. Practice goes along very smoothly as everyone gets adjusted to the beginning of the season. 

Jerry and Kevin Somerville are two of the coaches for indoor track at Revere High School. In addition to that, they coach women’s cross country in the fall and co-ed outdoor track in the spring. Although Jerry Somerville is now retired, Kevin Somerville teaches math at Revere Middle School. They have been coaching track for five years and cross country for two. This will also be the fifth year of indoor track as a whole. Jerry Somerville coaches the distance portion, and Kevin Somerville is there if any other help is needed with coaching. 

Since indoor track has only existed at Revere for five years, Kevin and Jerry Somerville watched it grow from a very small program to one with over a hundred students. They both mentioned how great it is to have such a large group of athletes this year. 

“It’s exciting to see the program grow from something that didn’t really exist at Revere five years ago. We’ve steadily increased over the years, and now we’re up to seventy-five high school kids and then another twenty-five from the middle school . . . So it’s awesome to have such a big group,” Kevin Somerville said. 

Jerry Somerville spoke about how he is also very excited about the larger team this year too. 

“Every year it keeps getting bigger and bigger, we’re getting a bunch of young runners in, the program is growing, and I’m very excited about it,” he said. 

Along with the team growing in size, Kevin Somerville spoke about how much he loves watching the students grow too. 

“You know it’s always fun to just watch our athletes and team grow throughout the year . . . They’re coming in learning some of the skills that go with track like blocks and specialty events. It’s fun to watch that growth happen so that by our last indoor meet, we get to see some great performances from the kids,” he said.

Jerry Somerville also mentioned the goals he has for this indoor track season and how he wants to get them to the all star meet at the end of the season. 

“I want everyone to get into good shape, have a good indoor season and go into the outdoor season ready to really compete,” he said. 

Evelyn Tucker, a senior at RHS who has been running cross country, indoor track and outdoor track since her freshman year, says that Kevin Somerville is really great at coming up with details at practice to help the athletes run. 

“He’ll [Kevin Somerville] come up with little details, like we always have to find a finish line, always get past that finish line when you run, always finish there. He really just tries to make it a good place for everyone,” she said. 

Tucker also said that Kevin Somerville is such a great coach because he knows everything about the athletes and exactly how to help them improve, even if that means he talks a little bit too much. 

“Every single banquet he can’t stop talking because he knows everything about you, everything that’s going wrong with you and how to help you,” she said.

Ally Meixner, a junior at RHS who has run cross country since her freshman year and indoor track and outdoor track since her sophomore year, mentioned how successful Kevin Somerville is at making the practices a great place for everyone.  

“Coach Somerville, he really makes our practice plans suitable for everyone. He really makes practices succeed in the postseason,” she said. 

Meixner talked about how the highlight of a lot of their practices is the speeches that Coach Jerry gives. 

“Coach Jerry loves to give speeches, but they’re very scripted because he has to write them down first, because that’s just the way he does it. He loves to give those every practice, and Coach Somerville will tell him to stop talking. It’s really funny because then he just keeps on rambling, so that’s always the highlight of our practices,” she said. 

Meixner also spoke about how exciting it was being at the state meet for cross country. She says that Jerry Somerville could not stop talking about it at all of their practices and meets. She said that it was great to see him there. 

“Coach Jerry, at every practice or meet, he’s always just focused on the state meet, so when we were there, it was really cool because he was just so happy . . . He was just so fun and was just in his element you could tell. He loved it there,” she said. 

Meixner said that Jerry Somerville loves to talk about the athletes to other people and really cares about them. 

“He always likes to brag about us, and he’s like a grandpa to us,” she said. 

Jerry Somerville said this himself too, he says that his favorite part about coaching is being with the athletes and helping them improve.

“The kids are awesome, and I really enjoy being with them,” he said. 

Kevin Somerville says that his favorite part about coaching is also the students. 

“I just really like working with our student athletes at Revere, we have such a great group. They make it really easy to put the right information in front of them, watch them take it, grow with it,” he said. 

Kevin and Jerry Somerville will continue their indoor track season all the way to March and possibly bring some of the athletes to the all star meet at the end of the season. They will soon enter their outdoor track season and finish out the school year with another successful season.