Front to back, Jessica Andrus, Brooke Kilyk and Olivia Sizeland chat with Brandon Track Coach Greg Hyde, who will retire this spring after 30 years. Photo by Patrick McAbee. 
By David Fleet

Editor

It’s Tuesday afternoon on a cloudy 45-degree late April day.

Blackhawk Girls Varsity Coach Greg Hyde is on the high school track—chatting with some of more than 40 team members that braved the chilly elements and warmed up for the daily practice.

For the past three decades, Hyde now 63, has been at the helm of a track program that produced five Oakland Activities Association and six Flint Metro League titles along with three regional championships. In addition, 16 runners went on to Division 1 schools including three to the Big 10 who were coached by Hyde. Currently, two runners are active at a Division 1 and two are at Division 2 schools. In 2015 the Blackhawk Girls team finished ninth in the state and tenth among Oakland County schools. Hyde won the Bill Perry Coach of the Year Award in 2012-13 and 2015.

On May 11 Hyde, who put area powerhouse Blackhawk girls track on the map beginning in 1986, will coach his final meet and retire.

“I would like to thank all the great students and the school administration over the past years that have been very supportive,” he said “There have been some outstanding athletes that have come out of Brandon.”

A Royal Oak native and 1970 graduate of Kimball High School, Hyde did not run track, but was a stand-out hockey player.

“We did not have high school hockey teams at that time so I played in North American Hockey League for many years all the way through high school,” he said. In the fall of 1970, Hyde enrolled at Northern Michigan University and played winger on their club hockey team since at the time there was no varsity.

“I was really too small of a player at that level for a college team,” he said. “I was about 135 pounds, but I was a fast skater and good with the puck. In 1975, the year I left Northern to start my student teaching, the varsity hockey team began playing at the next level.”

Hyde earned his college degree in earth science and environmental science, along with a lifetime teaching certificate from Eastern Michigan University. His first teaching position was at Dearborn Heights, Crestwood High School where he coached track and his team won a city championship.

In 1986 Hyde came to Brandon High School where he continued to teach earth and environmental science.

“The first year at Brandon I was Wayne Thompson’s assistant varsity track coach,” he said. “Then Wayne got the chickenpox about halfway through the season so I took over for awhile. They moved me to the middle school boys track coach, I had 100 boys that first season. Then back to the girls’ varsity track coach, where I would stay for the next 28 years.”

In 2008, Hyde retired from teaching, but continued to coach the girls track team.

“I just love the sport of track,” he said. “I set goals for the teams and we have achieved them. It’s a thrill when I see runners move on after high school and get a scholarship at the college of their choice. Similarly, when the look on the girls’ faces when they get their individual medals after a meet is truly rewarding. There’s great opportunity in track, many athletes gain a healthy lifestyle that carries on later in life.”

Hyde later moved to Sebewaing, Mich.—about an hour and 45 minutes from Ortonville.

“The drive is just too much for me,” he said. “I’ll miss the kids, but I’ve been doing pretty good on walleye fishing out in Saginaw Bay.”

While his years as a girls track coach have been stellar, Hyde is concerned about the future of the sport.

“The AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) has hurt high school sports,” said Hyde. “The AAU is just getting too big. It’s taking over, soon high school sports will be nothing but recreational leagues. The girls are just so involved with other activities in the AAU rather than track and just are not focused. It’s really a shame.”