When he stands with his team at the starting line of the Eastern Connecticut Conference cross country meet Thursday at Norwich Golf Course, Bruce Douglass will hold the distinction of being in attendance for and coaching in every single league championship in history.

The way Douglass figures it, he had to stop sometime.

For 44 seasons the girls’ cross country coach at Ledyard High School, Douglass recently announced his intention to retire from teaching and coaching to move with his wife Cynthia to Standish, Maine, near his childhood hometown of Scarborough. His last day at Ledyard is scheduled for Nov. 4.

“On one hand it’s business as usual because I have a team to coach,” the 66-year-old Douglass said. “On the other hand it’s bittersweet because it’s my last one. … Everything is bittersweet. My last dual meet, my last home meet, my last banquet on (Nov. 2). I’m doing all these lasts.

“In many ways, it’s really tough to walk away, but like I told the kids at school, No. 1, I don’t want to die there. There has to be an end. It’s never convenient."

Douglass, who started the girls’ cross country and track programs as the first varsity girls’ sports at Ledyard, won five state championships in his 23 years as track coach and was named the National High School Coaches’ Association Girls’ Track and Field Coach of the Year in 1993.

In cross country, he has a dual meet record of 326-160, 12 ECC titles, five state runner-up finishes and a second-place finish at the 1988 State Open.

A chemistry teacher at Ledyard since 1972, Douglass amassed 513 career dual meet victories in the two sports.

“He can tell whether you need a pep talk or to just be left alone and I think that’s a really important ability when you coach a mental sport like cross country,” said Ledyard graduate Katherine Bossardet, the 2004 Class MM state cross country champion and now a member of the office staff of the Coast Guard Academy athletic department. “He’s also just a genuine person. … There’s no self-service in his coaching; he just loves the sport and loves to share it.”

"Having someone like Bruce Douglass in your life makes you appreciate stories," said 2016 graduate Megan Brawner, second in Class MM last season and currently a member of the cross country team at Division I Central Connecticut State University. "Freshman year he told the group of newbies that he had enough stories to last us our four-year stay and I didn't believe him. ... His honesty and compassion is pure and that is what makes him a special coach."

A graduate of Scarborough High School and the University of Maine, where the 6-foot-3 Douglass began a career as a national-level racewalker, he prides himself on all of the coaching moments, every single one, no matter the caliber of the athlete.

He also takes with him distinct memories of the beginning of his career at Ledyard and of the moments building toward the ending.

The beginning: some of Douglass’ athletes were in front of a board of education meeting in the mid-1970s, making their pitch for girls’ track and cross country as varsity sports, when a member of the board asked them why they needed varsity letters if they could just as easily wear their boyfriends’ letters.

“That was the wrong thing to say,” Douglass said. “I had some of the top kids academically in the school; they were well-spoken and they could counter anything.”

The ending: Douglass calls Ledyard athletic director Jim Buonocore and principal Amanda Fagan the best at what they do, referring to Fagan as “brilliant.”

“She’s the best principal I’ve had. She has re-established spirit in the school. She’s re-invigorated the school,” Douglass said. “I’m so blessed to leave with such a great principal.”

Douglass and his wife, who sold their home in North Stonington, will renovate their cottage on Sebago Lake in Maine, which sits on part of the 58 acres of land originally purchased by Douglass’ great-grandfather for $600 in 1903.

After that?

“I have no idea,” Douglass said. “I have books to write. I’ve been taking pictures at track meets and cross country meets my whole career. I’ve been scanning all that stuff. There’s tens of thousands of photographs, a lot of them people have never seen. I guess I’ll post them on Facebook.

“… Everybody counts. You have your good years and your bad years, but the kids are great. Whoever shows up gets coached. They just keep improving. I can say that all my runners have improved every year. You can’t complain."

Said Douglass: "I get choked up a lot now. Cynthia thinks I’m overly sentimental."

v.fulkerson@theday.com