By Kim J. Harmon

Speed – speed in between the tackles and speed in between the hurdles. That is precisely what made Kyle Tobin such a fearsome threat on the football field and such an unbeatable force on the track.

Speed.

Kyle, 18, was a blur on the football field, gaining 1,332 yards and scoring 11 touchdowns and helping lead the Nighthawks to a 9-1 record with an exciting trip into the CIAC Class L state semi-finals.

And he was a blur on the track, capturing the South-West Conference championships in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles (for the second year in a row), finishing second at the CIAC Class L meet, finishing 11th at the CIAC State Open, and finishing 16th at the New England championships.

Speed.

And with all of that, Kyle was another easy choice as The Newtown Bee’s Newtown High School Male Athlete of the Year.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Kyle’s parents – that’s Jim and Mary Lou – didn’t allow him to play Pop Warner football (with an understandable fear that their kid could get hurt) but when he joined the Newtown High School football program as a freshman, that lack of early experience hardly slowed him down at all.

It’s because he still had the innate ability – plus a good role model.

“My biggest influence was my brother, Sean,” said Kyle. “When I was a sophomore and he was a senior, he always gave 110% and I wanted to be like that.”

Kyle didn’t get any real playing time until he was a junior, and even then he was living in the shadow of the Nighthawks’ top running back, Sean Raby. No, it wasn’t until his senior year – when he got paired off with a guy by the name of Adam Hayden – that Kyle really started to shine.

“Kyle runs by people,” Hayden said last fall, prior to Newtown’s win over Masuk in the annual Thanksgiving Day game. “He’s so fast. He’s small, but he’s not afraid to go up the middle. I love watching Kyle run. When I’m out there, too, I just try and block harder.”

No one needed to block for Kyle on the track – and that’s because no one could catch him. Sure, some people might whine about his technique (or lack thereof), but Kyle has the credentials to shut ‘em up.

“Compared to sophomore year,” said Kyle, “my technique has gotten a lot better – although it still needs a lot of work.”

But whatever technique he has enabled him to win both the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles at the South-West Conference championships as a junior and as a senior.

Now, that’s quite a feat.

“I knew there would be some tough competition (this year),” said Kyle on his efforts to earn the double repeat, “but I looked at it as I was the defending champion and I had to go out there and do my best every week.”

It would have been a perfect story had Kyle gone through the entire SWC team unbeaten – but he didn’t. There was that one day, that one bad day, when he was beaten by Frank Fallone of Brookfield.

“I ran a bad race,” Kyle admitted simply, “and he ran a much better race than me.”

Kyle beat Fallone – and everybody else for that matter – at the SWC meet, though. And then in the CIAC Class L state meet, Kyle finished second in the 300 (at 41.63, just .65 seconds off the lead) and third in the 110 (at 15.66, just .34 seconds off the lead) amidst a wicked crop of the fastest hurdlers in the state.

“I was surprised I did so well,” said Kyle, who will be heading on to Southern Connecticut State University. “Looking at some of the (seed) times before the meet – they were just incredible. I’m very pleased, though, because I wanted to make it to New Englands again. That was my goal.”

And after finishing 11th in the 300 at the CIAC State Open, Kyle entered the New England championships seeded 12th – finishing 16th overall. “It was a bad track,” Kyle said, “and I ran it a little slower.”

Sixteenth? So what – it was still a tremendous season not only for Kyle, but for the track team he helped captain with Blair Balmforth, Tony Napoleone, Jeff Heller, and Dave STrong. The ‘Hawks finished 12-1-1 (with a rousing and long-awaited win over Pomperaug) and took second at the SWC championships.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” said Kyle. “I didn’t think we would be that good.”

What a way to go out, huh? The football team finishes 9-1 and reaches the CIAC Class L semi-finals and the track team finishes up 12-1-1 and earns second at the SWC championships.

“The only thing I could have asked for is two SWC championships,” said Kyle, who said he owes a lot to coach Marsha Caine, coach Ed O’Bloj, and coach Carl Paternoster. “But to have just one loss in each and to do as well as we did is great.”