Rockville High School Running Star Gets Hall Of Fame Nod

VERNON, CT — A three-time all-conference cross country performer who also broke the Rockville High School track & field 2-mile record as a sophomore, Pat Brand (Class of 1975) is the second announced 2019 inductee into the Rockville High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

The hall will conduct its seventh-annual induction ceremony Sunday, Sept. 15 at the high school.

Brand has joined Julie Blowers Bertsch, the first individual from the gymnastics program and first varsity player from the volleyball program to gain induction..

Athletes from 17 different RHS programs have been represented in the first six RHS Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Cross country will become the 18th sport represented.

A 1 p.m. reception precedes the 2 p.m. induction ceremony. Tickets are priced at $20, with children 12 years of age and younger admitted free. Tickets can be reserved by contacting committee chairman Scott Smith at 860-604-6618 or at smithsc33@sbcglobal.net.

Brand contributed to four sports at Rockville between 1971 and 1975. He participated for four years in cross country and outdoor track & field and for two years in indoor track & field – all under former head coach Jim Balcome. He also competed in basketball as a freshman and sophomore.

A three-time All-CVC selection in cross country (the honor based upon regular-season performances), Brand received the cross country program’s Top Freshman Runner Award in the fall of 1971, and began to hit his stride in both cross country and track & field as a sophomore in 1972-73. In a performance described as both "brilliant" and "surprising: for an underclassman, Brand finished fifth overall in cold and windy conditions as RHS’s No. 1 runner in that November’s CVC Championships, and at season’s end was voted team MVP on a cross country squad acknowledged at the time as "best in history."

Brand went on to finishes of fifth in 1973 and third in 1974 at the CVC Championships, helping the 1973 team to a share of the CVC regular-season title and the 1974 squad to an undefeated (7-0) CVC season and the outright regular-season title (team scores were not kept at the CVC Championships).

In the spring of his sophomore year, Brand broke the track & field program’s 2-mile record with a time of 9:57, a mark which he went on to lower several more times during his career. En route to All-State honors indoors as a senior, Brand was clocked in 9:31 at the State Open indoor meet at the University of Connecticut.

A week after his career-best third-place finish in his final CVC Championships performance as a senior, Brand led all RHS runners at the finish and sparked the Rams to the Class L Sectional championship. Brand crossed the finish line sixth overall in that race, with his execution over the 2.8 mile layout critical to the team’s success after two teammates had fallen victim to the hazardous University of Connecticut course conditions when they both lost their footing in the mud.

Rockville’s finish in the sectionals that year qualified it for the Class L meet, where it placed third (first among CVC teams) among 18 teams and moved it into the State Open a week later, where it placed eighth overall. Brand led all area runners in that race – the final official one of his cross country career – with a 40th-place finish among 102 runners in “chilling winds”.

In addition to breaking the program’s 2-mile record and earning All-State honors indoors as a senior, Brand recalls qualifying for the first-ever Connecticut East-West Coaches Indoor Invitational at Southern Connecticut State University as a junior as a career highlight. As the unofficial No. 1-ranked runner in the East (six runners from the eastern part of the state and six from the west qualified), Brand was clocked in 9:44 in the 2-mile race.

Upon graduation, Brand went on to a four-year cross country and track & field career at the University of Connecticut, where he served as a senior cross country captain.

Brand holds a B.S. Degree in Finance & Accounting and a Master of Business Administration from Connecticut.

Pat met his wife Sue at UConn and the couple have been married for 38 years and currently reside in New York City after raising their family in Fairfield. He credits Sue, a former cardiac intensive care nurse, elected official and Fairfield Board of Education Chairperson, for supporting his passion for distance running. They enjoy spending time with their four grown children, Patrick, Catie, Jimmy and Elizabeth, who also were exceptional high school track athletes.