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06/29/2017 12:00 AMNorth Haven boys’ outdoor track Head Coach Steve Celmer says that recent graduate Josh Bryson always did “whatever he could to help the team.” Although Josh traveled completely different paths during each of the last two spring seasons, he ultimately helped the Indians achieve tremendous success in both of them, while displaying the heart of a true champion.
Shortly before the first meet of his junior outdoor season, Josh pulled his right hamstring and was essentially sidelined for the rest of the campaign. However, when the Indians were on the verge of finishing with an undefeated record, Josh came back for a meet against Hand and gutted out a second-place finish in the 300 intermediate hurdles, sealing a two-point win that propelled North Haven to its mark of 13-0.
Then as a senior this year, Josh had fully recovered from him hamstring injury and put his fresh legs to work by winning the 55 hurdles at the indoor SCC West Sectional Championship, followed by a victory in the 110 high hurdles at the outdoor Sectional Championship. Along the way this spring, Josh helped the Indians claim another Oronoque Division title by totaling the second-most points on the team with 202.5 between his contributions in the hurdles, high jump, and the 4x400 relay.
“He was the team guy that would do whatever it took...Anytime, anywhere, he was there—no questions asked,” Coach Celmer says.
Josh was a four-year member of North Haven’s boys’ cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track squads who captained all three teams during his senior year. Josh first tried the hurdles as a freshman and learned a lot from his cousin Nick Sbabo, who was a state champion hurdler for the Indians. Josh says he knew right away that the hurdles were the right event for him.
“I love how there are layers to it with getting over each hurdle a certain number of times without stopping. You can clip one hurdle and it will kill your time, or you can bang one hurdle and it can cost you the whole race,” says Josh. “I’ve tried the dashes—the 100, the 200—and they’re fun, but there’s a certain level of intensity in the hurdles that keeps me hooked, keeps me engaged, and makes me want more.”
Josh qualified for states in the 55, 110, and 300 hurdles as a sophomore and, with two solid years under his belt, he set his sights on loftier goals for the latter half of high school tenure, one of which was to get a first-place finish at a postseason meet. However, after putting together a quality indoor season, Josh suffered a major setback at the outset of the outdoor season when he pulled his hamstring while practicing one of his jumps. The injury became an issue for the rest of the year for Josh, who was in too much pain to run.
“It was extremely disheartening...I really wanted to compete that season, and I was uncertain if I would be able to,” Josh says. “We were fortunate enough that we had kids [in the hurdles] that were good, but I was supposed to be the No. 1 guy. But they stepped up, and that pushed me. Those guys gave their all, because I couldn’t, and so I needed to do something.”
What Josh did was persevere through the pain to run the 300 hurdles in a marquee matchup versus Hand. Josh crossed the finish line in second place to score pivotal points in the Indians’ 76-74 victory and, two weeks later, they solidified their undefeated season.
“That was definitely the moment that all high schoolers dream about. An undefeated season is something I never thought we could do, and so to know I made a difference and that me and those guys were able to do that was something that I was definitely happy about,” Josh says. “Coach Celmer took me to the front of the bus and said, ‘I want you to know that we wouldn’t have won this meet without you.’ It was something surreal.”
Celmer will always appreciate the character and selflessness that Josh displayed that day and says that the Indians’ athletes were equally appreciative of his heroic effort.
“That did not go unnoticed by his teammates. Josh was well-beloved by his teammates, because when they see he’s doing something like that, it raises esteem in their eyes,” says Celmer. “That made Josh a good leader and a great choice for captain, because not only is he a reliable person, but he led by example, and you can’t have a better example than what he did his junior year in that particular race. That says it all about Josh right there.”
Josh was still unable to compete in the championship meets during his junior season, and so he entered his senior year hungry to get back on the track and grab that initial postseason victory. With a clean bill of health, Josh had a solid cross country campaign and then ran a time of 8.54 seconds to take first place in the 55 hurdles at the indoor Sectional Championship.
“I hadn’t experienced anything like that before, winning at a big conference meet, but it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders once I crossed the finish line and knew that nobody was that close behind me,” says Josh, who received the Sportsmanship Award from both the cross country and outdoor track teams as a senior. “It was relief, it was joy, it was a moment where I was like, ‘This is why I worked so hard, this is why I want to be at this level, this is why I stayed after for hours after everyone left, this is why I showed up on days when we had no practice.’”
As happy as he was to win the 55 hurdles, Josh prides himself on thriving in the 110 and 300 hurdles, and so it meant even more to him when he won the 110 at the outdoor Sectional Championship this spring. This one was a little more dramatic as Josh had placed second behind Xavier’s Alex Bates in the preliminaries. However, when the gun sounded for the final, Josh posted a mark of 16.07 to edge out Bates (16.12) for his second postseason win and his first on the outdoor circuit. The victory was extra special for Josh because it came during the home stretch of his time at North Haven High School.
“I knew that this was it, and that brought it to a whole new level of significance,” he says. “Knowing that I was going to graduate in a month, this was my last chance to go all out and win, and I knew I had to go out and win. This was it, I knew I could do it, and, with my senior year coming to an end, I was going to make damn sure that I did.”
Now that he’s graduated, Josh gets ready to attend Bentley University in Massachusetts, where he will major in finance. As he reflects upon his high school career, Josh expresses great gratitude to have been part of the North Haven sports family and work alongside so many people who helped shape him into the person that he is today.
“There is a level of tightly wound teamwork that makes up those cross country and track teams, and I am humbled and truly feel grateful to have been part of those groups of people,” Josh says. “I’ll never forget the kids, even the ones that weren’t our top scorers. My fellow captains, my coaches, and the people around me made me that athlete that I wanted to be and the person that I wanted to be, and I don’t think I could have done it without them.”