Monday, February 19, 2007 - Miles and
Results Updates
Mileage Update - I put up the miles
for Week 2 and
Week 3.
Our mileage was a little down from what I wanted, but the weather was so
ridiculously bad that it is lucky that we got anything done. Week 3
was much better despite having an entire day of practice erased by the
blizzard. Week 4 will be more of the same with most guys hitting their
highest mileage to date. Then, we will take a bit of a recovery week
heading into our first two invites a week from this Saturday.
Results Update - We had our first meet
of the season last Friday night February 16th, and we turned in some okay
results. St. Charles jumped us a bit in the 4 x 800, but we won the
1000 (Smoody) and went 1-2-4 in the 1600 (Patel, Dettloff, Mourousias).
Overall, it was not a bad opener. We looked a bit sluggish, but that
is probably because some evil coach made everyone run a road run before the
meet started. Remember, it's only February, and nothing is going to
stop us from building up that strength base. Check out the
Performance Lists for full results.
Sunday, February 11, 2007 - First Track
Meet is on Friday
The first competition of the track season is
on Friday night at St. Charles. This is a combined boys and girls dual
meet so come out and watch us kick off our season if you have nothing better
to do.
Mileage Update - I put up the
miles
for Week 1 of the track season.
Performance List Updates - I put up
the pages for our
2007 Performance Lists. I also put the season time
goals for each event. The main one again will be trying achieve 30
guys under 5:00 in the 1600. Last year, we ended up with 29 separate
guys under 5:00. Our numbers are down a little this year, but I figure
that we will reach for the best. My other goal is to have 7 guys break
10:00 in the 3200 with all five of our top CC returnees for next year
accomplishing the feat. Last year, Smoody ran 9:47, OB 10:00, Eddie
10:02, Tommy 10:28, and Ammo was hurt. I think we can make this goal
as well. Keep working hard through this cold weather boys and great
things will happen for us!
Monday, February 5, 2007 - Track has
started
Track season officially got underway for the
2007 Pirates on Monday, January 29th. The team is stocked with talent
at a lot of key positions this year, and we anticipate a highly successful
season and a stellar edition of the 75th Annual Palatine Relays on April 28.
Coach Fred Miller is working hard to put the Relays together, and we are
working to exceed his goal of 100 alumni for the Alumni Mile. I have
been creating a Palatine Relays site for quite some time now. Check
out the recent updates as I seek to compile the entire history of the Relays
for both the boys and the girls.
If you are looking to join the track team,
especially the distance group, you need to turn in a completed physical
form, a parent permission slip, and a green emergency card to the nurse.
We will be taking new athletes throughout the indoor season.
Alumni Update - Coach Steve Currins
has put together an alumni page to help everyone track our athletes who are
currently competing in college. Check it out on
the girls
track site. One update I did see this weekend was that Steve
Finley ran 4:15.31 for a full mile to place as the first collegiate in his
race. That equals out to a 4:13.6 for 1600 meters, which is a big
improvement over his indoor PR from 2006 (4:18.0 or so). That was only
his second collegiate race ever so I am sure that he is happy to be making
progress. In other news, I heard that Glenn Morris is redshirting
indoor track at DePaul. .
Fred Miller Hall of Fame Induction
Above: Fred Miller poses with Bruce Ritter
as he receives his Hall of Fame plaque.
On Saturday, January 13th, Fred Miller was
honored as one of eight inductees into the Illinois Track and Cross Country
Association's Hall of Fame. Fred was inducted based upon his more than
25 years of service to young athletes as well as his more general service to
the sports of cross country and track. As head coach, Fred has guided
three separate teams to second place finishes at the IHSA State CC meet and
one team to 6th. He has also been an assistant on a number of other
high placing teams, including a 2nd, two 6th place finishes, and a 12th
place finish Numerous athletes have won All-State and All-Conference
honors under his tutelage.
Above: Fred and the new inductees sit with
all of the attending members of the ITCCCA Hall of Fame.
Fred also served as head coach of the boys
track team for much of the 1980s and as an assistant coach into the 1990s.
He retired from track in order to follow his two daughters as they competed
in high school athletics. He has kept busy as an official at many
indoor and outdoor meets and is in charge of organizing events surrounding
the Palatine Relays each year. In addition to coaching and
officiating, Fred also works at the Special Olympics track meet each year,
serving as head referee for many years.
It is truly a privilege to work with a man
who has been honored as a Hall of Famer, as the IHSA Coach of the Year, and
as the Adaptive Physical Education Teacher of the Year for his work with
mentally and physically handicapped students. Fred brings great
enthusiasm and expertise to all things that he does, and his Hall of Fame
speech centered on the many people who influenced his life both within and
without the sport. Congratulations, Fred, and we all know that the
rallying cry from now until your retirement will be...just one more (season
that is). Way to go.
Above: Recent alumni pose with Coach
Miller. From left to right, they include James Macatangay (2005), Tim
Larson (2004), Matt Dettloff (2007), and Alex Soto, Kevin, Yee, and Don
Macatangay (2006).
Tuesday, January 9 , 2007 - Fred Miller
Hall of Fame Update
As I wrote before, Fred Miller is going to be
inducted into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall
of Fame this coming Saturday. I would love to gather some of his
favorite alumni and team captains to be there. If you are interested
in going, the ceremony will be at 1:00 pm on Saturday at Oak Park River
Forest High School. There is a potluck style lunch first, and then the
presentation of the Hall of Fame inductees. Palatine girls coach Steve
Currins will be introducing Fred, and it would be a great show of support
for former athletes to show up.
Sunday, December 17 - Final Cross
Country Updates
Picture Updates
- I added two new picture galleries. First, I put together pictures
from my mom and Lori Laskowske to create a photo gallery from the
IHSA State
meet. Second, I took a bunch of my mom and dads pictures and
created a photo gallery of all
Madeline Grace
pictures. The latter aren't really CC pics, but this is my site so
you just have to bear with me being a proud dad. Mostly, the baby pics
are for friends and family, but I thought a few CC moms (and maybe dads)
would want to have a look!
Coaches Update - I updated the
Coaches page with new information from this
year's results. Also, on January 13th, Fred Miller will be inducted
into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame. Anyone
who wants to attend can go. I'll put more details about the induction
ceremony out here later when January rolls around. I also posted a new
sweet picture of Fred and I. We've had a great time coaching together,
and our record with the kids shows how much fun we are having.
Polar Bear Shuffle Results - On
Saturday, December 16th, the men of Palatine conducted the first annual
Polar Bear Shuffle in Deer Grove West. The race was handicapped
according to 5K PRs and was 5.8 miles in length, covering the entirety of
the perimeter trail. The overall winner was an under-seeded Coach
Quick, but Sagar Patel had the fastest time in 31:13. James Macatangay
won the alumni division by being the only alumni to successfully follow the
entire course. He bested his roommate, Brian McLain, by a staggering
31 minutes. Rumor has it that McLain may have been lost and allegedly
met Rob Conley's friend from a couple of years ago. Allegedly.
Check out the results and pics of the day later on this week.
State Meet Recap - Palatine Pirates Place
6th at 2006 State Finals
The boys were relaxed heading into the state
meet after winning the Schaumburg Sectional the week before without the
services of junior All-Conference runner Kevin O'Brien. Kevin had
struggled for two weeks with an IT band problem, but he was determined to
run at state and be at his best. His presence certainly gave us a
lift, and it was good to have him back in the lineup. I worried that
the time off had ruined his sharp edge, but OB is a tough one, and I knew
that he would try his best.
We broke from Box 29, which put us right in
the thick of things. You can see from the picture above that we were
right next to York and three boxes away from St. Charles North. Evan
Jager, the eventual champion, and Kevin Havel, the runner-up, were also
nearby. Our plan was to get out at the half in the times that we had
discussed. Smoody and Sagar targeted a 2:15 split while the rest of
the guys dialed in on the 2:18-2:22 range. Times were blazing at the
800. All of our guys came through fast and still seemed to be buried.
Smoody hit the 800 in 2:12 and all five of our guys were through at or under
2:20.
The first mile of the race was totally
smoking. Smoody and Sagar hit the mile in 4:40 and 4:41, Dettloff hit
4:49, OB was 4:50, Alex and Eddie were 4:56, and Tommy was 5:08. We
had trained all year to run these splits and still be ready to maintain for
the rest of the race. The problem this year was that other teams were
ready as well. At the 1 1/2 mark, I knew that we were running fast,
but we were not in great position. I felt that gnawing feeling that a
CC coach only gets when there is a gap too big in the lineup. Sagar
went by the 1 1/2 in 9th place with Smoody in tow around 14th, but the gap
to Dettloff felt big, and it was. OB was ahead of Mourousias, but he
was nowhere near his normal running position with Dettloff. The last
three years, I had felt an amazing feeling at that point of the race, but
this year I was filled with trepidation. We had gone out fast, and our
guys were still buried.
At the two mile mark, our splits were still
great. Smoody (9:42), Sagar (9:43), Dettloff (9:59), OB (10:09), and
Alex (10:11) were in solid position to bring home a trophy. The
problem was that we hadn't finished well all year in the final kick, and OB
was not in his normal running position. We squeaked out wins all year
with OB and Dettloff running together and our 5th man doing his best to stay
within 45-60 seconds of our #1 guy. At state we ran with two fifth men
due to OB's injury.
At the 2 1/2 mark, Smoody had passed Sagar
and was in 10th place, looking like he could charge into the top 7-8.
I hoped that he could kick, but in all of Smoody's best CC races he has
little left at the end. In the picture above, you can see him kicking
with Deerfield's Noble Schermerhorn in a finishing battle for 11th place.
Mat would end up 12th in a remarkable time of 14:35, the 4th best in
Palatine history. Sagar hung on for dear life after his 9:43 opening
two miles, and he managed to keep 14th place and just hold off a ton of
kicking opponents. With two All-State finishes in the bag, I thought
we might be home free. The problem was that all of the contenders also
had at least two great guys up top: York (8, 9 ,15), St. Charles North (26,
28), Schaumburg (17,23), and Neuqua Valley (3, 20). In essence, our
front runners earned us no points against the three teams that would
eventually trophy.
The battle thus went down to the depth guys
on the top teams, and my heart sunk as I saw streams of guys going by all of
our 3-4-5 runners. I am convinced that we lost a trophy from the 600
meter mark into the finish. Gobs of guys were passing Dettloff and
Mourousias, and OB had a lot of trouble in the last mile and didn't look as
sharp as usual. I wanted to believe that we had trophied, but I knew
that York had beaten us and I thought that Sandburg had kicked past us
heading into the finish. When I saw Coach Macnider from Schaumburg, I
got more down because he was at the finish line and knew that his kids had
run great. All year we had beaten Schaumburg, but they always came
back on us and made it close with great kicks. Those great kicks won
them a trophy in the last 400 meters of the race. When coupled with
the great run by St. Charles North and the solid pack race of Waubonsie
Valley, that put us 6th in the state.
Our top five placed 12th (14:35), 14th
(14:41), 66th (15:12), 98th (15:24), and 108th (15:31). In most years
those times would win a trophy, but Illinois is just too tough now.
Six of my seven guys ran PRs, but we got smoked in the last 800 by a bunch
of teams that we had beaten during the year. I am incredibly proud of
this team, and not disappointed with our finish. The only problem that
lingers in my head is that we beat Schaumburg four times, and they got third
in the state. This finish is obviously to their credit, but it hurts a
bit more when you know that a team who won a trophy was beatable. We
just didn't get it done when it mattered most.
I'll remember the 2006 season as a
transitional one when we tried to move on from the athletes who established
the distance running renaissance at Palatine. Glenn Morris was at the
core of this rebirth, and it was a challenge to move on without him and
prove that we could be champions still. In the end, we won the MSL
West, the MSL, and the Sectional, placed 6th in the State, and had two
athletes earn
All-State honors. Most programs would take that any day of the week,
and our goal in the future is to continue to give ourselves opportunities to
win the big one. It is tough to win a state trophy in Illinois, and
our athletes are dedicated to keeping the program up to the expectations set
by former and recent athletes. We will be great again next year with
five athletes returning, and the state will be ultra-competitive.
Let's hope that we can keep training hard and being good people. The
results and the fun will then take care of themselves.
Above: The Quick family poses after
the 2006 IHSA State finals. Meredith is conspicuously absent because
she was home taking care of Madeline grace, who was born just three weeks
prior to the race.
