Julie LaFreniere sat at the helm of her minivan, seats removed from the back, on her way to a show. And she was not alone. With her were some of her 17 suri alpacas with their shiny dreadlocks hanging.
A divider stood between the front seats to ensure that the alpacas wouldn’t get in the way – a necessity in any vehicle.
It was a normal thing at the time. She brought her alpacas to shows as well as her eight border terriers – to different shows, of course – for several years before life got too busy. She was even a sweepstakes judge for national specialty dog shows in the United States and in Canada.
The head women’s cross country and track & field coach at UMass had an overloaded balance of hobbies to juggle.
Coaching took up nearly all of her time. She worked through all three seasons – whether that be at a practice or meet for the Minutewomen, or recruiting either at high school meets or over the phone.
On a typical day, LaFreniere would wake up at about 4:45 a.m., take care of her border terriers in the kennel area before heading out to the barn by 5:45. She’d tend to the alpacas until about 6:45 when she’d jump in the shower, eat breakfast, hop in the car and get to work by 8 a.m.. After working all day, she’d coach practice until about 6:30 at night, go home and take care of her dogs. Her father would have dinner ready so that she could eat and go right back out to the barn with the alpacas.
That was her normal routine until it, like everything else, was brought to a dramatic hault because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
LaFreniere meant to retire from coaching after the spring outdoor track season, but in mid-March it was announced that the NCAA was canceling all spring sports seasons. The Atlantic 10 Conference Championships for outdoor were to be held at UMass – a ceremonious exit for the 13-time coach of the year in cross country and track combined – but, with one swift motion it was all wiped.
“It was like, ‘Oh,’” LaFreniere said. “I knew I was retiring but I thought it wasn’t for a few more months. That’s when I realized I’m no longer a coach. I will not be doing this. We all talked, but I had to leave because I started crying. I didn’t want my athletes to see me cry. I shed a few tears for a couple of days, and then it was like, ‘Well, it is what it is.’”
After devoting her entire life to the sport and being around for almost the entire existence of the women’s program at UMass, her exit after 33 years was short-changed.
Before becoming an institution at UMass, LaFreniere sat as a junior in a Gardner High School classroom. She was removed from class to go down to the principal’s office. When she sat down the principal told her that the Title IX law had just passed and that she could try out for the boys track & field team.
As quick as she was made aware that she could try out was as quick as she was turned away. The track coach, who was also the school’s football coach, made it clear that he would cut any girl who tried out.
There had never been any cuts before. LaFreniere, then a quiet and shy teenager, told the track coach, “Well, if you’re going to cut girls, you’re going to have to cut boys too.”
And just like that her passion was ignited.
“He helped create a little feminist in high school,” she said about the principal.
During the fall of her senior year, LaFreniere became the first girl to run on the boys cross country team at her high school. She ran junior varsity, and after a race in neighboring Fitchburg she sat on the bus alone.
“All the boys got to shower and there were no shower facilities for me, so I put my stinky self back on the bus and was just sitting there waiting for the boys to shower up,” she said. “My cross country coach walked on the bus and told me I had beat every JV cross country boy in that race and they all quit. The entire JV squad quit, and he came to tell me that on the bus.”
When she raced along the streets with the boys, she could hear people gasping and saying, ‘It’s a girl! There’s a girl!’
“That’s how unusual it was back in those days. I had long hair and wore it in pigtails with a little bandana on, so they could tell I looked a little bit different,” LaFreniere said.
After high school she attended UMass where she assumed there was already a women’s running program. It turns out that when she arrived, she would again have to play the role of pioneer. In the fall of 1975, LaFreniere’s sophomore year, women’s athletics was gaining ground with the creation of a cross country and track & field program.
The NCAA did not yet recognize any women’s sports, so the program was a member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). In that first year, the UMass women’s cross country team won the New England Championship and took ninth place at the first AIAW National Championship in Iowa.
In 1976 and 1977, LaFreniere was awarded with team MVP honors for both cross country and track & field.
LaFreniere knew that she wanted to be a coach in high school. It was her passion. She loved instilling confidence in women so that they would not only improve on their success in running, but also become strong leaders in the future.
“I personally like to see women supporting women and helping people out,” she said. “In all my years coaching my goal was to get women to believe in themselves. I think if you coach men and women over the years, men tend to have a lot more confidence than women. Some of my best athletes did not have a lot of confidence even though they were kicking everyone’s butt, they still didn’t believe in themselves.”
After graduating from UMass in 1977, LaFreniere coached high school running at Amherst and South Hadley. She returned to UMass to get her master’s degree in sport management while also coaching part time for four years as the head women’s cross country coach and an assistant for men’s and women’s track & field.
When LaFreniere completed her degree she taught physical education at Gardner Elementary School and also coached the district’s indoor and outdoor teams until she received a call from her former college coach, Ken O’Brien.
The head coach for the UMass women’s cross country and track & field programs had left for a job at Boston College. There was an opportunity for her, and naturally, she took it.
The indoor track season at UMass turned out to be the final one in her career.
The ultimate goal for the Minutewomen was the Atlantic 10 Championships. They entered the Mackal Field House at Rhode Island prepared for a dog fight. VCU had won the last two years and on Day 2, it was coming after UMass.
The final scoring came down to the last two relay events – the 4×800 and the 4×400.
The 4×8 runners were nervous as they readied to go. They ended up placing fourth, but earned five points for the team. This mathematically clinched the championship for UMass, and the Minutewomen knew it.
But they didn’t celebrate until after the finish of the 4×4 – the final race.
LaFreniere was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, and her team was the only one at UMass to win a conference championship during 2019-20.
The VCU coach approached LaFreniere after the meet, shook her hand and said, “What a great way to go out.”
Everyone knew LaFreniere was retiring, but no one knew that the indoor championship was the final meet of her career.
“It was hard,” LaFreniere said. “I expected to have one more season with my athletes.”
As preparation for the outdoor track season began, the coronavirus outbreak spread and plans changed by the hour. Spring break trips were canceled, including the track team’s trip to Florida. Following that cancellation, the entire spring season was canceled.
“It was like, ‘Well, we’ve got to put our big girl pants on and at least we came out on top,’” LaFreniere said.
Back home in Petersham, LaFreniere can now sleep until about 6:30 in the morning. She takes care of her dogs and is able to sit and leisurely enjoy a cup of coffee. She then goes out to the barn to take care of the alpacas for about 45 minutes before going about the rest of her day.
She has time to relax.
She can go pick apples with her 88-year-old father in the fall – something she was unable to do the last couple of years because of how busy she was. She plans on becoming an official American Kennel Club (AKC) judge for the border terrier breed.
She plans on breeding one of her border terriers and having a litter in the summer. And of course, she can spend more time with her alpacas.
Her athletes also expect to see her at cross country meets, cheering them on at the side.
She has been a pioneer for women in sports since the beginning and she will continue to be in the future.
