Rob Murray is running out of room for his laurels.

He keeps leading the boys’ Cross Country and Indoor Track teams to one title or honor after another, and in turn keeps receiving plaques and trophies of his own.

The latest honor — induction into the FCIAC Hall of Fame — was announced earlier this fall. The ceremony will be held in the spring.

Like any good coach, though, he gives his athletes, current and former, the credit for this latest laurel, in particular this year’s cross-country runners that finished No. 2 in the FCIAC, No. 2 in the state, and No. 3 in the New Englands.

“The varsity team, it was the most dedicated as a whole,” he said. “They showed great passion, desire and determination.”

Several of his runners this year made the All-FCIAC First and Second teams.

Murray is the school’s third boys’ cross-country coach, officially taking over in 2000, coming after Dan O’Grady and Robert Taborsak. For track and field,however, he is the sixth coach, after O’Grady, Taborsak, Mike Wixted, Ted Farah and Marty Ogden.

Since taking on the job, he has led the school to 41 cross country championships, 45 indoor track and field championships and 39 outdoor track and field championships, totalling 125 trophies.

When he was a runner at Danbury High School and later on Southern Connecticut State University, he had a relationship with the coaches that “taught him consistency, the importance of team ethic, and finally, leadership,” that helped him develop into a better runner and today, a strong coach who leads the boys’ cross country team to success after success.

Murray is pleased with the latest honor, but he gives his teams the credit.

“I feel this is a reflection of all the student athletes and what they have achieved as student athletes, because it’s about them and their goals, their work ethic, their pursuit of excellence, their ability to perform in the biggest moments of the sports of cross country and track and field,” Murray said.

“This induction is also about the programs of cross country and track and field,” he continued, “and all the coaches and parents that have been the foundation to the sacrifices everybody has made to chase perfection every season, every year, over the past 16 seasons as head coach. “

Speaking of his coaching philosophy, he says it starts with solid preparation.

“Planning starts even before training and before meeting the players, where I outline the whole season plus set my goals” he said. “Training is 2½ hours a day and cut into 3 parts, where we start with a 45-minute warm up, then comes the various running activities ,and finally the post running or supplementary activities.”

Murray said he focuses on training the players mentally and physically to prepare them for races and championships. 

The coach describes himself as “goal-oriented, focused and serious.” He also firmly believes that “the sport of cross country is simple but demanding, yet requires determination and focus.” He added that, “ I am a sportsaholic as well, and love to watch any other sport that has competition.”

Asked if there was any previous season or team that the current teams look up to or one he will never forget, coach immediately answered with “My dream team and season was in 2007. We were the fastest in New England and came 5th in the whole country. They had a perfect post and regular season.”

Bradley Fox, a senior cross country runner, was inspired to join the sport by his older brother. When asked about his relationship with Murray, he said that, “I am strongly connected to coach, as he has expectations, always makes sure that every player is at every practice, and finally, runs with the whole team to set his own example.”

Regarding the Hall of Fame honor, Fox said, “I feel proud that my great coach has won this prestigious award. He deserves it, as he has been training successful cross country athletes for more than a decade.” 

Fox also made it clear that the Danbury Hatters were not satisfied at all with the way that the last conference race ended, coming in second to Staples. He also had high belief in the team, saying that “we have a strong top 5, and they have the potential to win states.” Unfortunately, they came second, on Friday Nov. 4, bringing home the 10th trophy from the State Open XC Championship. They would go on to finish third in the New Englands.

Tyler Granja started running before his freshman year to get in shape, but finally liked it enough to compete. Granja said he also has a “strong relationship with coach Murray because of his individual coaching of each player, and he calls and texts each player to tell him what to improve on, and to motivate the players.”

Granja said Murray kept the HOF news to himself, so he was surprised to hear the news. He deserves it, Granja said, because “he is a smart and a great coach.”