AYF Olympics: Coaches’ Comments

This section is a compilation of quotes from some of the coaches involved in this year’s Olympics.

Detroit chapter

This year’s winning Detroit chapter was coached by a team of several alumni. One of the new Olympic Kings, Alex Sarafian, shared his thoughts on the Games this year:

“I was not really a coach this year, but more of a coordinator. Our chapter is at a nice point where we have a lot of active members and good leadership developing within the chapter. They took the initiative very early in the year to start thinking about and planning for Olympics. We have a nice blend of older members driving leadership, and younger members bringing enthusiasm and energy. I think we saw that during the Softball Tournament and on the track. “We had big numbers participating this year. We had many members that scored a lot, but no high scorers. Case in point was the men’s 400 meters. Providence won the event, with Detroit taking the next three places and therefore more points. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some individual performances that were key to the team’s scoring: Knar Topouzian’s win in the women’s pentathlon and her cousin Shant took silver in the men’s. Ara Markarian stepped away from the Pentathlon this year to take 13 points in individual events. Stephanie Dolik and Aram Najarian both took home gold in tennis. Meline Topouzian scored three silvers in the pool, and Nick Dolik added two. The Cholakian/Tcholakian cousins added a number of medals as well. And together, the team won four of the five track relays, and took silver in all of the swimming relays. “It is always hard to take the show on the road, especially all the way to Providence. However, we have solid members at the core of our team. I would expect to see the Nercesians, Topouzians, Cholakians (with and without the T), Tossounians, Bagdasaraians, Markarians, Kourtjians, and Shahrigians to all be there. We also have a number of Juniors that will be of age next year. I am hoping that the rest of the team will follow and we can have a nice showing in Providence. As always, no bold predictions from me. I am just hoping that we can turn the excitement of winning in front of the home crowd into motivation to rally the troops again next year.”

Daron Topouzian, another alumnus coach, also reflected on the Detroit efforts:

“We were shooting for significant participation and expecting to win, recognizing that East Coast teams would not be at full strength. Track participation was good, swimming participation was low from our chapter. Did get a number of first-time participants from Detroit this year that did add to the excitement. Looks like a good crop coming up. Lots of athletes, not necessarily track and field or swimmers, but really good athletes. Practices were one to two times per week in the month of August. Attendance was low. Coach participation was hit and miss. Armen Nercessian organized the chapter and scheduled the practices. “Next year is in Providence and we need to mobilize a number of strong participants to ‘take it on the road.’ I expect we will. We should have a decent number of 16-18-year-olds anchoring the team. I would like to see the Olympics place more emphasis on athletic participation in the future!”

Providence chapter

Providence came in second this year as they did in 2013. Coach Bob Tutunjian shared some of his impressions:

“We knew some time ago that we would not be able to challenge Detroit this year. Last year we were able to bring a good team to D.C. and we just wanted to represent the chapter well once again. The last time the Olympics was in the Midwest was 2011 and we had the worst showing in history. We were also faced with many members visiting Armenia this summer with the Homenetmen. As a result, we did not have any group practices, but I knew several members worked out on their own. So in the end we had 18 members participate and I was hoping to exceed 100 points as our goal. What impressed me was the willingness of everyone to do whatever was necessary to maximize our performance as a team.

“First and foremost was Chapter President Sarah Varadian who keeps the organization going year after year. Athletically, Sarah has always told me two things: that she cannot swim at all and that she cannot sprint more than 100 meters. But this year when we needed a fourth person for our swimming relay and our 4×200 relay, she jumped in (with some persuasion) and we won gold in both events. She also medaled in three individual events.

“There was also Dalita Getzoyan who has always been a very active member and is part of this year’s Central Executive. Dalita wanted to participate in the track and field events this year for her first time. She asked what events she should enter and I gave her my input. She showed up for each event and in her third one, the grueling 400-meter run, she was able to get 4^th place and score a point for the team.

“We also had two Junior-aged members, Alyssa Kanis and Tarvis Hintlian, compete in their first Olympics and both won medals (Tarvis won five golds!). There were other exhausted members doing back-to-back relays at end of Sunday’s events, even though the relays had no effect on the final standings. They did this just to represent the Providence chapter and do the best we could do.

“Next year we are hosting the Games with every intention to bounce back and challenge to win the Cup. We will get back many members who could not come this year as well as some new Juniors. But it will take the same type of selfless effort that we brought this year to Detroit to accomplish the goal.”

New Jersey chapter

New Jersey placed third this year. Mark Alashaian commented:

“The kids came into the weekend with two goals: Win a 5^th straight softball title. Place at least 3^rd in total team scoring. New Jersey had not finished that high in many years and they really wanted to do a chapter dance at the Sunday night dance.

“Unfortunately we lost in the semis of softball, but the kids worked hard all day Sunday and supported one another to tally 71 points, the highest total for our chapter. Lots of credit to Ara Sarajian and Kyle Dinkjian, for making sure no one left the track early and we had enough participants to compete in all the relays. Several younger members stood out: Ariana Chipolone, Theresa Jelalian, Shayna McCarthy. All three participated on relays with Arev Dinkjian. The kids are very excited about next year in Providence and then to be the hosts in 2016. We have a bright future with several 14- and 15-year-olds waiting to participate that are currently Juniors.”

Philadelphia chapter

Avi Keshgegian has helped coach Philly since the 2011 Olympics. He gave his thoughts on the “Sebouh” performance this year:

“Early in the summer we had a lot of ‘maybes’ in terms of participation in Detroit, but as the summer went on more more people dropped off because of work and school conflicts. I have no doubt if we had our team from last year, plus the additions we made for this summer (Paze Yeremian, Stephen Ajdaharian, and Jessica Sarkisian), we would have been in serious contention for the top spot. We were still able to have decent representation, but were nowhere near full strength. I think it left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths not finishing in the top three. The “Sebouhs” will definitely carry that disappointment and use it as motivation for next year in Providence. We plan on coming full strength, and can’t wait for the opportunity to redeem ourselves.”