HYANNIS – One of Barnstable High School’s Athletic Hall of Famers will have more than just a tale of his Red Raider glory days to tell his grandchildren one day.
Dr. Jonathan G. “Jon” Way of Osterville, a 1993 Barnstable High graduate and former three-sport all-star and two-sport captain and one of the Red Raiders’ all-time greatest long-distance runners, survived two blasts from a hunter’s shotgun Monday afternoon near Mary Dunn Pond. The hunter, Sean Houle, 47, of Marstons Mills, allegedly mistook Way for a deer and was subsequently arrested and arraigned on multiple charges yesterday in Barnstable District Court.
Dr. Jonathan G. Way of Osterville, seen here with one of his study subjects – the eastern coyote.
Photo courtesy Adirondack Wildlife
Ironically, it’s usually Dr. Way who is busy helping injured animals or pursuing his extensive, career-long research on eastern coyotes.
Dr. Way, a research scientist at Clark University in Worcester who has authored two books and has degrees from UMass-Amherst, the University of Connecticut and Boston College, was a Division 1 Collegiate cross country runner for the Minutemen while an undergraduate at UMass. His brother Jeff and sister Nicole Way also starred for the Red Raiders and ran cross country and track at UMass. He is currently seeking a publisher for his third book on his eastern coyote research.
“I’m happy to be alive, indeed,” Dr. Way said. “It was great to get a good night sleep after the past 30-hour ordeal.”
Dr. Way was enshrined in the Barnstable High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. He set the Barnstable High cross country record at Hathaway’s Pond in 1992 (15:39) and set the course record at Falmouth High School the same year (15:43). He was a three-time Old Colony League all-star in cross country, four-time Cape Cod Times All-Cape & Islands First Team runner, twice was named a Boston Herald All-Scholastic and in his senior year was also named a Boston Globe All-Scholastic. His high school cross country records – set 20 years ago – still stand.
He was a two-time All-Conference runner at UMass in the Atlantic 10 Conference (1995 and 1996) and named twice to the Atlantic 10 All-Academic Team.
Dr. Way is currently at Clark working on a long-term study he developed on eastern coyotes (or coywolves as he calls them) that inhabit eastern Massachusetts. His two books, Suburban Howls – an account of his research findings and experiences studying eastern coyotes in Massachusetts – and My Yellowstone Experience, runs an organization called Eastern Coyote Research that helps supports his long-term ecological and behavioral study of coywolves in Massachusetts. He also works part time with the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center examining the effects of mortality on coyote population demographics, and frequently travels to the Yellowstone area to watch wolves and bears and other wildlife.
Just three weeks ago, Dr. Way was a guest speaker at Wild Care Cape Cod’s 2nd Annual Birds, Beds and Breakfast Weekend benefit in Provincetown. Each year, the benefit helps raise funds and awareness for the care of wildlife in distress. Wild Care of Cape Cod is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation located in Eastham.
Dr. Way said that he reached out to state legislators earlier this year because there are state agencies who have been blocking him in his attempts to continue his research on eastern coyotes.
Perhaps now they might listen.
Sean Walsh is the sports editor for Cape Cod Broadcasting Media. His email is [email protected] or you can follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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