08/01/2026
From Marty Abair and Cassy Lamothe:
And - BOTC’s 2026 July Agility Trial is a wrap!!! What a great time we all had! Mark Rudd’s courses were fun and challenging. We were finished at a decent hour each day thanks to a great course building crew, a full slate of workers for each class, and Mark keeping things moving. We were finished up and breaking down the ring before 2 PM on Sunday!
I can’t thank my official event team enough – Cassy Lamothe(who was also Volunteer Coordinator), Laurel Macy, and Maria Karunungan (who was also Assistant Trial Secretary) and Carol Perkins. Forever grateful to the rest of the team - Chief Course Builder Elliot Kaplan, Runner Mary Wilmuth, Volunteer Raffle Coordinator Eva Fraser-Harris, Hospitality Coordinator Lauren Hupp and so many others. It truly takes a village and that village ran like a top all weekend.
Many thanks also to our Trial Secretary Doris O’Brien who kept everything at the official score table running smoothly and got the scores out so quickly and to VMO Tom O’Brien.
Congratulations to all of you with new titles:
Deb Newell-Robinson and Aurora – Excellent JWW
Emily Tiralla and Ginny – Excellent Standard Preferred
Marcy Birmingham and Poppy – Novice JWW Preferred
Lauren Hupp and Olive – Excellent JWW and Open FAST
Jonie Silva and Juice – Novice JWW
GM King and Makana – Novice FAST
Steve Conrow and Mystic – Open FAST
Allegra Cords and Phelix – Novice JWW
Mike Dabrowski and Hali – Novice Standard
Sharon Pica and Shine – MACH 3
Laurel Macy and Quick – Open JWW Preferred
Lisa Cox and Gidget – Novice JWW Preferred
Joan Fox-Cota and Bebette – Novice JWW
I hope you all had as good a time as I did. Hope to see you at our April 2027 trial (April 16-18, 2027) at The Field House in Shelburne!
Cassy’s notes- I started doing the volunteer coordinator job back when Janet Induni recruited me. I have done quite a few, this weekend was the best! I did not have to beg for workers, many people worked several classes happily, and I only had to work one! That’s pretty much unheard of! The workers raffle seemed to tickle people. I heard several friendly rivalries for prizes happening. Thank you Eva for organizing and all your helper elves that kept the drawings fun and entertaining.
I am going to try and thank everyone, if I miss you it is not intentional, just the results of a scattered brain. Thank you to Marty for chairing the trial, she never let anything be too much. All the little fires were taken care of before they became big fires. Thank you Doris for being trial secretary and Maria for assisting, the results were out so fast a couple competitors were shocked. Thank you Amy for the little touches of organization, the treat table and the volunteer sign up board made things a little easier. Thank you Lauren for doing hospitality and every job that needed to be done. Thank you Laurel for being everywhere all the time :) it was really nice to have you jump in wherever was needed, Thank you to Mary W. For getting lunches on the days Mark would eat them :) Thank you to Ilene Morgan for coming and volunteering to work last classes of the day and thank you to Nancy S. For coming to help and deliver t shirts. Thank you to Barb Fitch, Martha Friedman and Pam Loeb for coming to help with taking things down.
Thank you to non club members Eliot,Trent, and Diane for lightening fast course builds and being so sweet to competitors who wanted to help but weren’t sure how. You all set a lovely example of how to get it done!
Lastly, thank you to my students who came and helped unload and load the equipments and my car. Matt and Joplin came early Thursday morning to unload the heavy stuff. On Sunday Maggie, Olivia and baby K, came and loaded trailers and dragged my crates out while I hobbled around.
This trial was a success in hosting competitors and giving them a good experience. Mark Rudd came from Michigan on rather short notice to judge for us. Our original judge had a conflict and after contacting 30+ judges, Mark was the first one who could come and wanted to be here. We do have judges lined up for 2027-2029, April and July. We do hope to see you all at the April trial! If you have comments or concerns please let the trial committee know, we value the feedback so we can continue to grow and keep dog sports local.
