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A Boston Public Schools (BPS) teacher and career athlete, Coach DaRocha’s work was fundamental in providing the supportive coaching that would propel Said Ahmed and others like him to thrive. His work creating a summer program would be the groundwork from which Boston United was founded. Today he continues to direct the board towards the work he started over 20 years ago. When Coach DaRocha is not with us, he sits as an executive board member of the Mass Track and Field Officials Association and contributing member to the Boston Running Collaborative.
Said Hassan Ahmed was born on December 10th 1982 in Gelinsoor, Somalia. Said and his family of 5, left Gelinsoor after the civil war broke out in Somalia in 1990. He lived in Godey, western Somalia and due to the war became a refugee in a camp in Kenya.
September 9th, 1995, Said and his family arrived in Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury became his home. He is a product of the Mission Hill community and Alice Taylor Housing Authority while he attended the Boston Public Schools. Said attended the Boston Public Schools, Washington Irving and R.G. Shaw middle School. After completing his middle school program, Said attended the Boston English High School and became a track star. As a student athlete, Said excelled academically and was a 4-year honor-roll student. Said had won multiple State, New England, US National track championships. In 1998, he won the 800 meter National Championship at Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.
After graduating from high school, he was the recipient of a full athletic scholarship to the University of Arkansas. He became a multiple Southeastern Conference Champion as well as National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). After completing his degree, Said won a 5 year contract with Nike to represent Team USA. He had traveled around the world as a world class athlete and was three times USA World Championship trial finalist and two time USA Olympic trials finalist.
He is married to Suad and a father of 5. He was recruited to work for the City of Boston in 2008 as an Assistant Unit Leader at Charlestown High School. As a BPS Alumnus, his school age children attend the Boston Public Schools.
As a first-generation college-graduate, he has been committed to the Boston Public Schools, working for the past 15 years in many capacities including classroom teacher, family and student engagement coordinator, and community outreach. He became the first Court Based Supervisor of Attendance and a liaison with the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse – Suffolk Juvenile Court.
He is an entrepreneur and business owner of the Global Language Experts, and founder of two non-profit organizations: United Somali Youth and Boston United Track and Cross Country Club. While working at the Boston Public Schools, he attended Harvard University, Springfield College of Human Services and the University for Peace where he recently completed his Ph.D.
Sekou has been a Boston United coach since 2011. As a high school athlete, he won the MA State Championship for the long jump and placed 6th at the New England Championship in the 200m. After high school, Sekou initially attended Wheaton College where he was a two time All-American and placed 3rd in both the indoor and outdoor 400m events at the Division III National Championships. Sekou later transferred to the University of Pittsburgh and was a Big East champion, an IC4A champion, set his school’s record for the indoor 400m, and was a Division I National Championship qualifier in the 4×400 relay.
Ted joined Boston United after a long athletic career: first as an accomplished athlete and then as an accomplished coach himself with his athletes competing at the regional and national level. A former Boston Public School teacher for nearly 25 years, Mr. Ted — as he is affectionately known — coaches the throwing events for track & field. He began coaching throwing events at Grover Cleveland Middle School and moved onto become the throwing events coach at John D. O’Bryant. Ted has an open-door policy and strives to share his knowledge and experience with any interested student.
With over 30 years of coaching experience, Coach Alice collaborated with Tony DaRocha to build the running program at Emmanuel College, following their successful tenure at Boston Latin School. From the early days of the BPS summer program, later named BUnited, she has been dedicated to fostering athletic excellence within our community.
Alongside her role as a special education teacher for three decades, her background as a Junior Olympic gymnast and high school track and field athlete informs her coaching philosophy, blending technical expertise with empathy.
As a Massachusetts Track and Field official, she ensures fair competition and upholds the sport’s integrity.
Rejoining BUnited as a coach reignited her passion for track, offering her a deeply fulfilling experience mentoring student-athletes and finding new levels of satisfaction in their achievements.
James Dilday is an attorney and was also a track runner in his own right. He won the 60-yard dash in the city junior high championships as an 8th grader as well as city and state championships in the high-jump and 4×440 relay events respectively. While attending English High School, James also medaled in the high-jump at both the state meet and B.A.A. meet (New England Indoor Games). Although he did not run track at Howard University, he did participate in community organizing and the civil rights struggle as a member of Howard’s Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Frankie Gonzalez is a Boston native and sports enthusiast who has worked at the nexus of sport, education, and philanthropy for more than 20 years. Frankie led a Red Sox Foundation program for high school baseball players for 19 years, he facilitated violence prevention workshops for professional athletes with Northeastern University’s Center for Sport in Society, and he worked as a Production Manager at the NFL Super Bowl for 9 consecutive years. Currently, he works as Nike’s Social and Community Impact Manager, overseeing Nike and Converse’s social justice investments in Boston’s Black communities. Frankie came to BUTX in 2015 when his daughter began running with the club, and he has served as a volunteer coach and board member ever since.
Arcel Melo started with BUnited as an athlete in 6th grade. Through training and maintaining his studies with the club, Arcel was able to attend BC High as a scholar athlete. When he is not training or competing himself, he returns to us as a coach at every opportunity. He also supports our board to represent the voice of our athletes as we look to grow our club.
