By Dan Plouffe
It’s the last race of the 2026 national capital high school cross-country running championships on Oct. 27 at Mooney’s Bay, a very significant moment in the career of Kirk Dillabaugh, and he is delivering some impeccable words of wisdom while coaching his latest set of recruits.
“Once they’re on their way out to the second loop, we’ll just basically follow the last runner, taking down the rope,” Dillabaugh shares in the game-planning huddle for course teardown. “The rope – all you do is take it off the stakes and lay it on the ground. Don’t wind it up, or I’ll have to lay it on the ground because we have a big spool to wind it onto.
“The stakes – take the stakes, and then as soon as they get too many to carry, just put them down in one little pile.
“The flags are the tricky part, and the flags are the ones that get me the maddest because people just pull the flags out of the ground and throw them wherever. Flags all have to go facing the same way, and all the red flags and the yellow flags have to stay separate from each other, so try to keep them neat.
“And same thing, just keep pulling them out of the ground. Then once you have too many, and there’s a spot where your stakes are down, just put all the stuff down on the ground. That way, when I’m done, I can just drive around and stop three places and pick up all the stuff.”
Throughout the event, Dillabaugh has fielded piles of questions about buses for OFSAA, hotels, registration and anything in between. And the man who is the heartbeat of cross-country running in Ottawa has also received many, many thank yous as well.
That’s because the guru who breathes life into the sport was taking part in his final city finals before retiring from the school where he’s built a dynasty at Glebe Collegiate Institute.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do without him,” states Stephen Hoogenraad, who has known Dillabaugh since he started coaching track at Nepean High School in 2001. “He’s always encouraging everyone, he’s just such a fun guy, and he takes on a big organizational role all the time. He’s had a huge impact.”
Aside from excellent course takedown service, Dillabaugh’s Gryphons gave him the best parting gift possible. Yes, it was a 16th-straight aggregate city title for the Glebe cross-country program, but it was also the first time all six Glebe teams have qualified for an away OFSAA provincial championships (they’d previously achieved that feat when four host berths were available in 2024).
“I’m really excited,” Dillabaugh highlights. “It was a great day. We’re always close. We’re always in there fighting for every category. So this year, just all the pieces fell into place, and we performed well on the day.”
According to Glebe junior girls’ champ Roan Gerth, there was no luck in it at all, every Gryphon wanted to perform as a tribute to their coach.
“It definitely adds motivation just to make him proud for his last year,” Gerth indicates. “I’m really upset about it (being his last meet). We have other amazing coaches, all the coaches we have are amazing, but Dilly really organizes a lot of things, and I think it’s definitely going to be a big change once he leaves.”
The last day is set for Jan. 29 at the end of first semester when Dillabaugh will depart after more than a quarter-century at the helm of the great Gryphons.
The University of Toronto grad started teaching at Glebe in 2000, although his first OFSAA trip as a coach was during the semester he spent at Osgoode Township, when Greg Quinn became of the first of several hundred Dillabaugh-coached athletes to qualify for the provincials.
On top of the unprecedented 16 city crowns, Glebe celebrated five consecutive OFSAA overall girls’ titles from 2012 to 2016 and another in 2018. The Gryphons won Ottawa’s first-ever team and aggregate OFSAA gold in 2012, and there were championships for the novice girls in 2017, the junior girls in 2012 and 2018, the junior boys in 2018 and most recently 2023 senior boys, featuring 2022 individual junior boys’ champ Saul Taler.
Mei Mei Weston won junior girls’ gold in 2015 and Yves Sikubwabo won unforgettable back-to-back OFSAA senior boys’ titles in 2010 and 2011.
When the past OUA top-10 finisher first started coaching, he recalls there were many strong schools, so it was tough to imagine building such a dynasty.
For rookie coach Dillabaugh, “I think I’d be pretty stoked” to know that his team would go on to win 16 consecutive city crowns, he reflects.
“I wanted to build a program that kids would be looking forward to being a part of,” Dillabaugh recounts. “The bigger the program, the better. You know, the wider the base of the pyramid, the higher the pyramid can be, right? The more kids you get out for the team, if they’re having fun and training, the results will follow.”
It was about far more than chasing championships for Dillabaugh, who enjoys that it’s a sport where no one gets cut from the team.
“Everybody runs,” he outlines, noting the only requirement to race at cities is to attend a minimum of 10 practices. “The kids enjoy coming out to practice. They enjoy being with each other. They’re friends. They have their friends on the team.”
There are some volunteers in sport who are highly dedicated, but do it out of a feeling of duty. Dillabaugh absolutely loves it.
“It’s just that camaraderie. I look forward to going to practice every single day, seeing the kids and they look forward to being there. And you know, today was a great day,” he smiles, showcasing trademark ever-positive spirit as the temperature peaked at 7°C and featured a few showers.
“Where would you rather be? Sitting in a classroom or even running around inside a gym? We’re outside. It’s a beautiful day. The atmosphere here is incredible.
“Cross-country coaches and spectators, they’re just great. The athletes make great fans as well, they’re yelling at their teammates. There’s just people everywhere, cheering and yelling and ripping around to get to the next spot to cheer for their teammates.
“But you get kids yelling at the kid who’s near the back of the pack just as loud as they’re yelling at the kids at the front of the pack, right? They’re cheering on their friends, and everybody gets cheered on. It’s just a great, supportive atmosphere, and it’s so fun to be at.”
With 60 Gryphons in blue and yellow, Dillabaugh has appreciated having help this year and last from fellow teacher-coach Marieve Fontaine, who will take the helm next season.
“She’s got a good relationship with the kids, and she’s much more organized than I ever was,” Dillabaugh laughs. “It will be left in good hands.”
At this year’s cities, the Gryphons won team titles in half the races – novice and junior girls and junior boys – and were runners-up in the rest.
Asked for the keys to the program’s success, Glebe’s lead junior boys’ runner Frank Schreiner didn’t hesitate.
“I mean, Kirk, Mr. Dillabaugh is amazing. He’s just the best,” Schreiner signals. “That’s mainly why I run, because of him.”
Dillabaugh’s enthusiasm and passion for the sport is infectious and he’s always determined to do as well as possible, adds Schreiner, who was among several Gryphons boys sporting florescent pink shorts on the Mooney’s Bay course.
His coach has certainly been known to bust out colourful outfits on occasion, as commemorated on the race bibs secretly made by coaching colleagues Carl Martineau, Seb Lalonde and Richard Johnston for his final Gryphon Open earlier this season.
“I really appreciate it,” the long-time Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club coach says of the tribute. “It’s a little embarrassing, but at the same time, a lot of fun, and it’s a nice memento to keep.”
Alongside coaching, convenor and organizing duties, Dillabaugh contributed to the sport by pushing to have female and male athletes run equal distances. Quick to cheer on all Ottawa runners just as enthusiastically as his Gryphons, he is also the semi-anonymous blogger behind the national capital championships preview, adding buzz and entertainment, while serving as a resource for all teams to have a sense of where they might need to position themselves in each race.
He puts unmatched thought into team racing strategy and helps his athletes develop individual plans and targets.
“He’s so nice,” Gerth underlines firstly. “He raced university, he raced in high school and he really understands the sport.
“He understands the levels that people are at, how they train, so when they race, he really knows what they can push themselves to.
“And he’s very supportive. Having a coach who’s like, ‘OK, you can do this,’ and then I set my limit to there instead of myself thinking that I can only push up to a certain limit. I feel like he really knows his athletes and knows how well you can really do.”
When Glebe won its historic title in 2012, lead runner Claire Smith told the Ottawa Sports Pages that her team went into the race with hopes of a top-10 result, but their coach had a different idea.
“Mr. Dillabaugh did the math and thought we had a chance at first place,” Smith explained. “We thought he was dreaming a bit but I guess he is pretty good at math.”
That season was among Dillabaugh’s favourite moments since his daughter Adara and son Darion were on the team, and his wife Sarah (who has represented Canada internationally in cross-country running) was teaching at Glebe as well.
“It was a whole family affair. All four of us there at OFSAA, that was a great memory,” Dillabaugh recalls. “Winning it was an added bonus, and that started off a real waterfall for us in terms of success at OFSAA.”
Dillabaugh has bought a house on Manitoulin Island along with his wife, whose family lives there. He’s looking forward to golfing, and he plans to continue coaching.
“It will be in a different place and starting all over again, so there’ll be a certain element of excitement to that,” says Dillabaugh, who intends to return to Ottawa for big races.
“This is where I’m from, and still know a lot of people, so I’ll definitely make every effort to come back.”
Dillabaugh hasn’t really reflected on it being his last national capital meet because he’s always so busy on race day – delivering course disassembly instructions is a prime example – but he expects it’ll hit once he’s on the bus riding back home from OFSAA.
He appreciated that his athletes wanted their city finals performances to be a tribute to him, but quickly adds with a smile: “This isn’t my last race – OFSAA’s my last race. So hopefully they bring it again.”
The Ottawa Sports Pages will share race-by-race recaps from the 2026 national capital high school cross-country running championships, which included roughly 1,100 athletes in total, next week in the lead-up to the OFSAA championships on Nov. 9 in Sudbury, here on OttawaSportsPages.ca.