128 Wahnee Road, Torrington, CT, 06790
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Our History
1978 -1982: New Hampshire Running Camp
In 1978, Tom Dowling’s “Run to the Top” began at YMCA Camp Foss in Strafford, New Hampshire, with just 17 campers. Little did anyone know that this small group would launch a New England running tradition that would last for generations.
The 1980s brought a tremendous boom in the running community—and Run to the Top grew right along with it.
In the summer of 1980, Coach Maloney brought his Blackstone-Millville Regional High School team to camp. The experience helped propel the Chargers to a 16–0 season, several invitational championships and a district championship.
Coach Maloney joined the camp staff the following year, bringing his team back in the summer of 1981. The Chargers once again went 16–0, won another district championship, and every invitational they entered. Unfortunately, Massachusetts’ Proposition 2½ resulted in the cancellation of all state championships that year, denying the team a chance to compete for a state title.
The 1980s: New England Running Camp
Following the 1983 season, Tom Dowling moved to the Midwest, and Coach Maloney took over the camp. A new chapter—and a new name—began: Foss Running Camp.
The camp quickly established itself as a destination for young runners throughout New England. By the middle of the 1980s, Foss was hosting more than 100 athletes, and the numbers continued to climb.
By the late 1980s, YMCA Camp Foss had reached its capacity of 255 campers.
Turn of the century
In 1990, Foss Running Camp took another big step, expanding to two, one-week sessions.
Together, the two weeks welcomed 500 campers, with some runners choosing to stay for both weeks. Those two-week campers and the staff developed their own traditions—including the legendary Saturday night combination of Chinese food and mini-golf. It was the kind of tradition that became part of Foss lore. If you know, you know.
Foss continued to operate two sessions for over twenty years. But as high school cross-country schedules changed throughout New England, so did the camp.
By 2021, every New England state had moved up the start of fall practices, making the traditional second week increasingly difficult to schedule. After the 2022 season, Foss Running Camp said goodbye to Week Two.
Then came another major chapter.
The move to Wah-nee
In 2024, Foss Running Camp relocated to Camp Wah-Nee in Torrington, Connecticut.
The move brought a new home while preserving the spirit and traditions that had defined Foss for more than four decades. The new facility offers modern cabins, in-cabin bathrooms, additional athletic fields and playing surfaces, a swimming pool, and a lake—while providing plenty of new roads, trails, and hills for Foss runners to explore.
The move also produced the largest single-week camp in Foss history, with 272 campers in 2024.
Since then, Foss runners have been exploring the roads, fields, trails, and hills of Torrington and Winchester, Connecticut, creating new memories while carrying forward a tradition that began back in 1978.
In 2025, another Foss tradition was born—or, more accurately, an old tradition grew up. What had once been a single-day event known as the “Foss Olympics” was expanded and officially became the Foss Games: a week-long, cabin-versus-cabin competition combining athletic ability, strategy, creativity, teamwork, and plenty of fun. At the end of the week, one cabin earns the honor of becoming the annual Foss Games Champion.
Nearly five decades after those first 17 runners arrived at Camp Foss, the location may have changed, the sport has evolved, and the camp has grown—but the heart of Foss remains the same:
Our campers train smart, have fun, make friends, make memories, and build teams. We encourage every camper join the “Foss Family,” and leave Foss Running Camp a little better than they found it.
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