December 4, 2011 - Palatine XC Club Places Fifth in the Nike Cross National Meet

After years of trying to get selected or to qualify, we finally broke through this season and were chosen as an at-large qualifier to the Nike Cross National meet in Portland, OR.  The boys went out yesterday and made the most of it, finishing 5th overall with 255 points.  Check out the results.  The race was extremely close with only 13 points separating fifth and ninth.  Do you want to know what it felt like?  It felt like vindication.  We ended up finishing one spot above our pre-season national ranking and silencing more than a few critics who devalued our performances due to the closeness of the Illinois state series.  A survey of predictions heading into the meet showed us chosen around an average of 17th place.  Rob "Watchout" Monroe who does the ESPN Rise Powerade Fab 50 put us at 32nd in his latest rankings, which have something to do with his inscrutable speed ratings.  We were more than happy to upset those predictions and uphold the tradition of national success from Illinois teams. 

Indeed, we felt all year long that we were among the best teams in the nation and thought it was telling that Illinois' stature on the national scene seemed devalued in a year that we were doing well.  For some reason we have never been in the favor of the selection committee and have been left out in a number of close situations.  Last year's debacle with Nike was a case in point, and we resolved after that to do the only thing we could control: get better.  The boys put together a resume that could not be ignored, survived one of our worst races of the season at NXN Midwest, and then ran an aggressive champion's race at NXN.  Watching as a spectator for once, it was immensely gratifying to see our team succeed at a level we had believed possible all along. 

Since 2004 and the inception of Nike Cross Nationals, the Illinois state champion has never been excluded from the race and has never finished lower than 14th.  We were proud yesterday to add our team to the already lengthy roster of Illinois success.  Check it out:

Seven top-five finishes in eight years is an incredible string of success, and it speaks to the depth of our state that those finishes do not just come from York.  The Dukes are the only team to make the meet every year since its inception, and I think the prevailing opinion early on was that York was the only quality program in Illinois.  In the early years before Regional qualifying, the selection committee clearly placed little value on the rest of the state.  In 2004 we lost twice all year long (both times to York) and had to sit home and watch the National meet as York proved they were the best in the nation.  Since the qualifying process was installed, Illinois teams have been dominant in the NXN Midwest Regional and shown that our state is powered by incredible depth.  Five separate teams have been in the top five nationally.  No state can boast that type of depth and parity.  It just goes to show what I have known to be true since 2004 - to win the Illinois state title you have to be one of the best teams in the nation. 

I wish the NXN committee would recognize the depth of this excellence and give Illinois its own region or consider more than one Illinois team for an at-large berth.  Does anyone really think that Neuqua Valley would not have scored well in this meet?  They defeated us once by a handy margin, defeated York at the Illinois state meet, and were never soundly beaten by our guys in the two times we did manage to beat them.  The same is true for our guys last year.  The committee continues to overvalue California in the at-large process despite the fact that Cali has its own regional.  Two of the four boys at-large bids went to California and those teams performed as usual - nearer to the bottom than the top.  I saw a message board post online that showed that California has been given 8 at-large bids to the boys side of the meet with only one of those teams making it into the top ten.  What more do Illinois boys teams have to do to prove that success in Illinois cross country leads to success on the national stage? 

Writing Updates - I was going through my files before making our team yearbook, and I came across the letter I wrote to the boys back in early June when we had our organizational meeting.  In retrospect it is incredibly prescient.  I am still blown away that everything worked out exactly like we thought it could.  What a season!  Read it here.

News Updates - Dave Cox wrote a nice article about the boys for Trib Local.  Thanks Dave!

History Updates - I happily added a new page for NXN team finishes with a picture of our boys, their club coaches, and myself.  A page for individual performances at Portland Meadows will follow soon.  I also sprinkled a ton of new pictures throughout the History section, including some new photos on the MSL All-Conference page, a photo of the 1971 team on the MSL Team Champions page, and a couple of team pics on our State Team Finishes page. 

Picture Updates - I put together a gallery of pictures from my trip to Portland, Eugene, and the NXN race.  There are some pics of Meri, J.J., and I, but most of them are my weak attempts at pictures from the day of the race.

Video Updates - There is a ton of content about NXN on Runnerspace.com so check that out.  Below you will find the race as well as some brief interviews with the boys.

Pre- Race Interview | Post-Race Interview | Closing Ceremony

Mary Ann Graham also sent me an Animoto video of the boys at the NXN Midwest Regional.

Nike Cross Nationals - Aggressive Start Leads to Top Five Finish

More Odds and Ends

Zach Gates informed me awhile back that a video of the Illinois state meet 4 x 800 from last year was available on FloTrack.  I had such a great time watching those four guys get All-State so it was great to relive it.  Check out Ryan McGough's massive rig on the first leg.  He and I determined that he would take a huge risk and try to run 1:53-1:54 on leadoff.  That plan worked until about 680 meters.  Then it got ugly.  Share his temporary pain and his ultimate gain as he and the boys finished an All-State 8th place:

Prelims are also available on YouTube

November 26, 2011 - Palatine Boys XC Club Earns a Berth at the Nike Cross Nationals

It has been many years in the making, but we learned today that the boys were selected as an at-large team for the Nike Cross National meet on Saturday, December 3rd.  Great races by Columbus North and Elmhurst York denied us an automatic qualifier out of the NXN Midwest regional race, but the committee saw fit to reward our consistent performance this season with a berth in the national meet.  After some close calls in 2004, 2005, and 2010, we finally get a chance to prove ourselves on the biggest stage.  I am happy to say that the boys earned this opportunity not through politics, but by improving their performance.  We could have run better at NXN Midwest, but our improvement and record over other top quality squads helped us earn the selection. 

Odds and Ends - News and Notes from the Palatine Running Universe

It has been hard to move on from our first state championship, both in everyday life and on this web site.  In this update I wanted to bring you a bunch of odds and ends that have been floating around in the month following our big win.  The boys and I still have recognition awards coming up from the District 211 school board and from the Mayor of Palatine, Jim Schwantz.  Those will hopefully be preceded by a great showing at the Nike Cross National meet this coming Saturday.

Immanuel Lutheran Wins Boys State and National Titles in Cross Country

About three years ago in the spring I received a random e-mail from a man named Ken Heinrich.  He said that he had just been hired to start a cross country program at Immanuel Lutheran in Palatine.  I had coached a number of Immanuel guys over the years, but the school was primarily known as a basketball powerhouse courtesy of John Ulrich, Sr.  Coach Ulrich has coached the boys and girls to numerous Lutheran state and national titles so it showed that the potential was there to succeed on a high level.

Well, what Coach Heinrich has accomplished in the past three years has been simply phenomenal.  The boys and girls have both won state the past two years, and the boys program has gone on to win in the first two years ever of the National Lutheran CC championships.  Immanuel benefits from strong participation and rules that enable all runners in the school - regardless of grade - to score.  Mostly, though, they benefit from hard work, a clear vision of success grounded in faith and school pride, and the tireless work of Ken Heinrich.

I was lucky enough to attend their awards ceremony (complete with spotlights and music) to see all of the students introduced and the banners readied for hanging in the rafters.  I also said a few quick words about how inspiring it is to see young people setting big goals and succeeding.  Finally, I got a picture of the Immanuel state title trophies alongside our recent state championship trophy.  For one year at least, Palatine is Titletown in the state of Illinois!  Congrats boys and girls on another great season.  Check out the article from the Daily Herald.

Harper Junior College Wins NJCAA Nationals with Two Palatine Alums

One of the great subtexts of our season has been watching the growth of alums Ryan Wojdyla and Zach Gates in Harper's reinvigorated cross country program.  Legendary Schaumburg coach Jim Macnider took over the program after he retired from coaching on the high school level, and he immediately set about turning Harper into a national power. 

Simply by recruiting the MSL and increasing expectations, Coach Macnider and the boys were able to defeat seven time defending champions Suny Delhi and win the school's first national title by a score of 60-97.  Ryan Wojdyla was All-American for the second time as he finished 14th while Zach Gates finished 41st as the seventh man in his first season of college running.  Find full results here.

Taking the Trophy Home to Meet Keith Janosch

For many years now Keith Janosch has been the driving force behind junior high running in our community.  Ketih coaches at Sundling Junior High and has built a dynasty of success in cross country.  His seventh and eighth grade boys and girls teams consistently win the District 15 Ed Kuhrt Invite that closes the year, and many of his alums have gone on to star at Palatine, Fremd, and St. Viator.  Keith stresses fun, fundamentals, and team work in his program with an eye toward sparking an early interest in cross country.  Keith's programs have produced Palatine All-Staters such as Glenn Morris, Sarah McIntosh, Tess Wasowicz, Kevin O'Brien, James Macatangay, and many more. 

On our current team both Tim Johnson and Tim Meincke started their running careers at Sundling under Keith's guidance.  To pay him back a bit, Tim and Tim took the state trophy over to Sundling and got a picture with the current team and then with Coach Janosch.  What a proud moment and a fitting tribute to a man who helps keep our cupboard stocked with enthused and ambitious young athletes. 

Coach Quick Speaks at Thornwood's Cross Country Banquet

Ever since he took over as cross country coach at Thornwood this past fall, I have been corresponding with Brian Evans.  I have known him for years as an assistant coach in both cross country and track, but he and I started to talk more as Brian sought to establish a new tradition of success for Thunderbird CC.  I was privileged enough this past week to attend Thornwood's post-season banquet and give a talk to the boys and girls runners.  I want to thank Coach Evans and Coach White for inviting me.  I certainly had a blast getting to know the athletes and seeing a program at its building point toward greatness. 

Right away I accomplished a goal for all fans who were present at the IHSA State track meet last spring.  I met London Hawk!  He was the warrior who ran the 800-400 double last year.  After a "disappointing" 1:54.60 to finish only 8th in the 800 meter final, he came back 30-40 minutes later and won the 400 meter dash in a time of 47.91.  To top off his day, he anchored Thornwood's 4 x 400 to a 3:17.20 effort and a third place finish.  London took his strong competitive spirit and work ethic to Nebraska where he is a freshman on scholarship. 

After Coach White and Coach Evans gave their talks and awards to their teams, I had the tall task of giving them all some wisdom.  Coach Evans introduced me first by saying that the team had already seen a series of speakers this season that included Al Carius, Joe Newton, and Joe Mortimer.  Great.  No pressure following that company.  Joe and Joe are #1 and #2 in career-dual wins in Illinois while Carius had just coached North Central to its 14th NCAA Division III national title.  So I gave the assembled boys and girls what I had that was unique to give: my youth.  I certainly do not have (or will ever have) a resume to compare to that list of greats, but I am a lot closer to coaching a team like Thornwood than any of those guys are.  I remember what it was like to barely make the Sectional meet, to feel disappointment when we failed to qualify to the state meet. 

This year's Thornwood boys team was a key player in invites throughout the year before winning their division of the SWCA Conference and placing third at the IHSA Regional.  With the door wide open at the downstate Sectional, they did not have their best race and finished 10th overall (one place in front of Moline, my alma mater).  It was obvious that the boys and coaches had worked harder than ever before only to face disappointment in the biggest meet.  Despite that, I was impressed by their resolve and their dreams. 

After listening to Coach Evans talk about their future together, I was ready to transfer to Thornwood and lace up my shoes to help them get to state.  Thornwood has only qualified once (in 1979), and it is their dream to make the state finals next year behind a strong group of returnees.  Below you see why they will have a chance.  These guys learned about the value of summer training, the importance of morning runs, and the true beauty of running as a pack.  Check this picture below if you want to see the truth: at the two mile mark of their Regional race, the Thunderbirds had a 2 second split.  If they are figuring out the importance of bleeding for each other on the course, state-wide success can't be far behind.

The Palatine Turkey Trot - A True Community of Runners Gathers at Harper College

For the first time since we moved to Palatine, my wife and I decided to stay in town and run the Turkey Trot.  We also hosted a party at our house so that all of our returning alumni could swing by and celebrate the program's first state title.  Many of these guys were instrumental in returning our program to state prominence, and it couldn't have been any sweeter than to celebrate our win with the guys from our 2003 trophy team: Matt Moss, John Lancaster, James Macatangay, Tim Brodeur, Brian Brodeur, and Tim Larson.  If Glenn Morris wasn't still on active duty in Okinawa, we would have had the entire top seven of that breakout team all together again. 

The next day I woke up and decided to put my out-of-shape self on the line against all manner of current and former Palatine guys.  I am only now returning to form after destroying my feet in my October marathon so I had no idea what to expect.  All I really wanted was to be part of the Palatine spirit, and I most certainly accomplished that.  While the current top seven ran the two mile race as a tune-up for our potential NXN bid, I started out hammering in a great pack of Palatine guys: James Macatangay, Brian McLain, Paul Kwak, Colin Morlock, Eric Blyth, and Vlad Novikov.  I was so happy to run with those guys again that it really made me feel bad to have to beat most of them :-)  The course is definitely short of two miles so times have to be taken with a grain of salt.  Check out full results from the 2 mile and 5 mile to see all the Palatine Pirate family, friends, and alums.  Quite a few of our guys are also...ahem...unaccounted for in the results.  Damn bandits. 

All in all it was a fantastic "family" reunion of former Pirates, parents, current athletes, and future stars.  My wife and I are hoping to make this a yearly tradition for our family.

Fathers and Sons - Ron Deluga Raises Another Generation of Runners

I have been privileged to meet both Rick and Ron Deluga at various points, and I corresponded with Ron this past summer about our coming season and about his son's own growing interest in distance running.  It sounds like Ron and his son, Jake, had a great fall:

I wanted to drop you a quick note and congratulate the boys and you on a very exciting season and a huge success.  You gave me & my son (Jake) some advice at the start of summer and it really paid off.  We have been following the exploits of the team and using them as motivation and examples for our own running.  We took your advice and had a really nice summer starting slow letting pace and things come intuitively and both getting in shape together, which was very fun.  Then Jake had a very positive and exciting season full of fun and success. 

He is now (knock on wood) officially a runner, after two weeks off, has started the winter program up at school this week and is talking about training with the high school boys this coming summer so he can be even better for 8^th grade CC.  This year for 7^th grade CC,  his team won the district meet and he finished with a 6^th place run in his 9 school district meet (something like 85 boys) and ran his best 3200m race at 12:36 in that district meet.  The kid runs tough, from the front, and will turn himself inside out in the middle half of the race trying to stay in contact with the 3 or 4 boys who were significantly stronger than he was and then do a great job of hanging on to finish.

Congrats again on the teams huge success and thanks for the advice, it paid off and I had a great season following you guys and watching my son grow in confidence every race.    I attached a couple pictures, he is the mop haired kid in the Krimmel racing singlet. 

I don't know about all of you, but Jake certainly looks like a future star to me!  Congrats Jake and keep having fun with your dad.

November 5, 2011 - Palatine Pirates Win the IHSA State Title

(Check down below for the full update as of Monday, 11/15/2011  The highlight video for the Boys 3A race is also up now on IHSA.TV.  Lots of great coverage of the boys.)

NXN Midwest Updates - Running as the Palatine XC Club, our boys placed third at the NXN Midwest competition yesterday.  Columbus North and York grabbed the two automatic qualifying spots while we will have to wait for the selection committee to choose us as one of the four at-large teams.  We have a great resume this season and should be competitive for a spot.  Check out the results.  I also added our top times to the All-Time list for Terre Haute as well as updating our All-Time list for team finishes.

Videos from the Recognition Assembly

It is a Palatine tradition to hold a Recognition Assembly for any team that wins a state trophy.  I have been privileged enough to speak in front of the school on two other occasions, but nothing could compare to this moment - our first state title.  For whatever reason our team and what I had to say about them struck a chord with our staff and student body.  I challenged the audience to reach out and try to touch their dreams and invited everyone in the school to come by the main office and "touch a piece of a dream" by getting their picture taken with our state championship trophy.  The results speak for themselves.

Check out our gallery of photos of students, teachers, and staff "touching the dream."

My wife filmed the entire assembly, and you can watch it on YouTube.  Below you can find part one and then I posted links to Parts 2 and 3.  Enjoy our moment along with us.

Part 2 | Part 3

News Updates - I did a long interview with Mike Newman down at Detweiller after the race, and he compiled some of my thoughts into a nice story.  Thanks so much, Mike, for the fun interview and for being as much of a running junkie as I am.  I really enjoyed talking together throughout the year about all things cross country.  Alan Sutton also published a nice piece about us on his blog at BigSutty.Com.

Check out the newspaper stories from The Daily Herald, The Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago Sun Times.  Mike Newman has also posted his recap on DyestatIL.  It's right below Bob Geiger's recap of the girls race. 

Video Updates - As usual Steve Clingerman delivers with another great YouTube video of the race and the post-race celebration.  Thanks Steve!  MaryAnn Graham also sent me Animoto videos of IHSA State, IHSA Sectional and Regional, MSL F/S Conference, MSL Varsity Conference, and MSL JV Conference.  My sister in law, Kelly Young, also took some video of me giving the state trophy to my brother, Chad, as well as some footage of us getting our medals, chanting Palatine XC from the stage, and my kids chanting for me.

There are also a bunch of other YouTube videos of the race from various perspectives.  The O'Fallon video is really well done and includes quite a few shots of our guys since the race was so close.  This one is just a shot of the finish from 200 meters out.  Chicago Prep magazine also posted a nice interview with state champ Leland Later.

Picture Updates - I have a great gallery of pictures from Eddie Graham as well as IHSA Sectional and IHSA State galleries from Cindi Johnson.  I know that tons of other people were taking pics, and I'd appreciate CDs/DVDs that I can turn into more galleries.  I'm especially looking for shots of the race and of the coaches afterward.

History Updates - Where do I begin?  Our whole experience was a great piece of history, and that is hard to capture on a web page of statistics.  I did update my favorite lists: All-State Athletes, State Team Finishes, State Team Stats, and All-Time Best Performances in the state meet as well as the top fifty performances at Detweiller.  I re-did the All-State page and added finishing photos of both Tony and Peter.

Our times did not turn out to be that fast.  We ended up running the fourth best Palatine performance based on time behind the teams from 1980, 2005, and 2010.  I'm not quite sure why the race didn't meet expectations for time.  We ran 10-15 seconds per guy slower than we did in September, and it seemed that a number of the top 3A guys did not meet their times from earlier in the season.  No matter.  Time is time and cross country is cross country.  If you love time, find a track.  All that matters is that we won.

With our two All-State finishes on Saturday we are nearing second place all-time in terms of All-Staters.  York has an unbelievable 101 All-State finishes after their two yesterday while we now trail only Schaumburg in the big class after Peter and Tony garnered All-State honors.  Schaumburg has 29 while other top programs trail just behind: Palatine (28), Naperville North (25), Moline (22), Lyons Township (20), and Lockport (20).  If you expand to all classes, we are still chasing Elmwood (34) and Porta (29) while pulling into a tie with Winnebago (28).

Results Updates - Results are posted on the IHSA web site, but I'll link to all of them here.  I also added links to all the races to my IHSA State Results archive.

IHSA State Championship - "In the End, It's All About Guts and Desire"

Where do I begin?  How can I tell you what this experience meant to all of us?  I will do my best, but it suffices to say that the memories the guys and I forged this season will be some of the most long-lasting and special ones of my life.  The season unfolded like a story, and the entire ending felt just like a fairy tale.  In real life, dreams all too often stay in the realm of fantasy.  Fairy tales are not real.  Somehow, though, our dreams came true and we got to live the perfect moment all of us had imagined for so long. 

In truth I'm saving most of my writing about this past weekend/week for the book I have been writing about the boys, but I'll give you all a glimpse of the way the race unfolded for me and then our reactions.  I want to close all of this with an absurdly long and detailed list of "Thank You's" as a tribute to the people who made this all possible.

Each year the IHSA apportions starting boxes randomly, and they are assigned by the place a team finishes in the IHSA Sectional meet.  We knew that we would have a tall task in the state final if we won the qualifying meet since the Schaumburg Sectional was slated for Box 5.  Anyone knows that can be a challenging position since the entire field to the outside converges down at the first turn, often causing inside runners to walk around the turn.  If you want to establish early position, you have to get out and roll.  York has famously used a one second delay method in the past in order to move outside, but we are not quite on that level of expertise.  We prefer to just start the race on time and do our best.

The inside box also played into our hands a bit.  Proving that we rarely learn from past experience, we ambled out of the box at Busse Woods the week before and proceeded to struggle the entire race to move through traffic and find our usual running groups.  The year before we had done the same thing and lost the sectional to Lake Zurich.  So we met after our sectional race, one year later under the same tree, and proceeded to have the same conversation.  Who are we?  How do we race best?  This group has never run well from behind, but has often excelled from early positions near the front of the race.  In the 2010 state meet we took a desperate shot to the front of the race and put all of our cards on the table in an attempt to win it all.  We played through the two mile mark near the lead, but faded to fourth as Neuqua Valley ran us down for a trophy in the stretch.  We missed a trophy by nine points, but we loved our race.  It was just a bunch of "jackasses" roaring to the front without thinking, running purely on emotions and desire.  We had been winning deep into the race for the first time ever and vowed that next year we would do the same thing but with more experience and fitness behind us.

So standing under that tree, we had to decide what to do with our season.  We had been winning races the previous three weeks by rather narrow margins, looking fully like a team running not to lose.  But did we have the courage to put our "favorite" status on the line and take the same risk as we did the year before?  After some brief conversations, Tim Meincke looked up and captured the moment: "Jackass 2: Not quite, but yes."  That's why we call him our world-class astronomer/philosopher.  So we resolved to just risk it all again by sending our first four guys right to the front of the state meet.  Our trio of Meincke, Zambrano, and Brown would hook up and run a building race with the hope that one would end up being the fifth man to take us home.

As the gun went off, I loved how our guys executed in the first 400 meters.  Our front four of Gregorio, Tomkiewicz, Garcia, and Johnson ran like a fist and did not merge in to the middle as so many others do.  They ran straight to the first turn and were virtually alone when they got there.  Our back three hooked up around mid-pack and looked perfectly relaxed.  All week long we had rehearsed for a 2:15 opening split, but I knew the guys were fired up when they recorded a 2:12 in our start rehearsal the day before.  All four hit that exact split in the state meet with Johnson trailing perhaps by 1-2 seconds.  Our back group was perfect - a trio of guys hooked up dead on the 2:20 we had practiced throughout the week.  I strongly believe that executing the first half is the key to the state meet, and I was delighted to see our guys running the race plan we all believed would work.

I jogged over to the entrance to the triangle and had to patiently wait and pace around for the race to come to me.  I stood next to this young girl, probably 10 years old or so, and had to warn her that a grown man would be going crazy right in her ear in about two minutes.  On top of that I had stripped down to my racing uniform in the team huddle.  I told the guys that there was no way that I was going to train all summer and fall and miss the big race.  Maybe not my finest look, but apropos for the time and place.

As the race finally made its way around the curve and toward the entrance to the back loop, I was in love with our audacity.  Tony and Peter were tailing the leaders (both were top 10 at that point) while Marcus and Timmy J were running side by side just off of York's #1 man, Scott Milling (see above picture).  I firmly believed that all the work our guys did in the summer would leave them strong enough to handle the shock of the opening mile and maintain their places.  Each of the four faded a bit in the second half of the race, but none gave away any huge amount of points.  It was clear by then that the whole race for us would come down to our #5 man.  By this point Monkey and Z had split up a bit, but I remember seeing Tim go into the back loop looking poised, calm, and collected.  He was moving but not driving.  I loved his body language and took off through the exit bridge on a dead sprint to the 1 1/2 mile mat.

I had spent the four weeks before the state meet rehabbing my foot after destroying my plantar fascia in the Prairie State Marathon.  The work and rest paid off since I booked it to the back corner.  Adrenaline is a beautiful thing.  Niggles followed me to the mat (ostensibly to give me splits since my kids lost my watch), but I had ceased to care about time.  As usual this was my first chance to assess the team race.  I loved what I saw.  Our front four were putting it on York and Neuqua really hard and Meincke was moving well.  Little did I know that O'Fallon's tough crew of boys had taken the lead.  The splits off the mat indicated that it was a four point meet at halfway: O'Fallon 118, Palatine 122.  I didn't know it then, but I sure figured it out later: Tim Meincke was going to have to win us the state meet.

I sprinted down the road to make sure I got across the course before the leaders hit the north end of the course en route to the two mile.  At this point I finally lost it.  I got inside the ropes right near the 600 meter to go pole and gave the guys the message I had been hoping to deliver: "We're up big!!  Our race!!  Our race!!"  Marcus Garcia looked me right in the eye and picked it up again.  I loved how he and Timmy J were still hooked up, but it was clear at this point that Tony was suffering.  I never worry about Tony because even his weak races don't vary much from his great ones, but he was suffering in here, dropped from the lead group and shaking his head.  I've seen that body language enough to know when he is toast.  A slight doubt crept into my head, but then I remembered.  It's Tony.  He's tough for a reason.  You know his reason?  It's who he is. 

As the race left me and headed up toward the two mile point, I talked to my coaches and spread them out along the last diagonal stretch before the race heads to the finish.  Our guys were positioned well, but now came the part we had not planned for - the third mile.  We literally looked at our guys in the huddle before the race and spelled out what we wanted to execute in the first two miles.  After that, we had no plan.  They had to want to win the state meet for themselves and for Palatine.  Generations of Palatine runners have called that "the moment of truth."  You either have "guts and desire" in that moment or you don't.  Those are two fairly simple mantras that all Palatine guys know.  As I waited at the 600 meter to go mark, I just hoped that these guys loved and cared about each other like I thought they did.  As I milled around, pacing frantically in my race jersey, I ran into my friends Joe and Jan Erb, the co-head coaches at Winnebago.  They had stayed around to watch our guys try and win, and they both looked at me with mild amusement as I waited for the moment to happen.  They're vets at winning state titles in Bago so it must have been funny to see me going crazy and trying to get our first one.

As Leland Later popped around the evergreen tree just before the 2 1/2 mile mark, I had to endure what CC coaches fondly refer to as "the wait."  Will my guys still be there?  Peter popped around first, still near the front, but Tony was not in sight.  I started to worry, but it was no matter.  Tony was still in there plugging along, and then I saw the most beautiful sight: Tim Johnson pushing the pace off of Marcus in the state meet.  All year long we had chided Johnson to inspire his teammates and run an aggressive and tough style of race.  He finally ran that race, and the chills went up my spine as he and Marcus passed me side by side hammering toward the 600 meter to go mark.

That left Meincke.  It was clear from the 1 1/2 mile mark point that Zambrano and Noah were cooked on this day.  All our hopes were tied up in whether Meincke could actually finish a cross country race.  For four years we had worked to build a way for Tim Meincke to race well over the three mile distance.  An impulsive athlete, Monkey is known for his competitive spirit and his toughness in the 800 and 1600, but he had never possessed enough patience to put together all his talent into great cross country races.  One year before, he had been fourth at the 800 meter mark before finishing 135th overall.  He had all the passion, all the impulse, all the desire, but none of the practical racing skills.

I will never know exactly how he did it or exactly what happened from the 1 3/4 mile mark to the 600 meter to go mark.  I have no idea what Monkey did.  All of a sudden, though, he was there.  Exactly where he was supposed to be.  And he was firing on all cylinders.  In an emotional team meeting the morning of the race, I had tried to talk to each guy in turn about what they had meant to me as people and as athletes.  When I got to Tim Meincke, I told him how I would drive around Palatine in the summer, or run around by myself, and I would think about this season.  Every time I thought about whether we could win the state title or not, my thoughts always returned to one question: Can Tim Meincke finish uphill in the state meet?  Fighting through tears and my sadly cracking voice, I had told him in the team meeting that watching him finish and win the state title for us would be the highlight of my career.  And there he was.

I bolted across the field, knowing that we had York and Neuqua Valley if we could just put it in the chute.  I sprinted up to the ropes all crazed and gave each guy one final shot in the ear at about 350 meters to go.  Again, Marcus looked me right in the eye and went to his arms.  Had I known how close it was between O'Fallon and us, I might have carried one of them to the line.  Monkey went by me ripping and I took off in a dead sprint to the line.  I can tell you all that I did not see Peter, or Tony, or Marcus, or Johnson finish in real time.  These pictures show them driving to the line.  But I did follow Tim Meincke.  I saw the whole thing.  I sprinted straight up the middle of Detweiller, screaming like a madman, watching him blow people away, and run us to a state title.  6 points.  We won by 6 points.  Those points all came in small dribs and drabs as five guys decided that they wanted it just a little more than anyone else.  Olympian Mike Durkin said to me afterward, "I don't know what you told those guys, but every one of them hit the zig-zag and was charging."  He was absolutely moved by the will our guys showed in the end of the race.

About 100 meters from the finish, I stopped watching Meincke and stood with my arms in the air, surrounded by my freshmen and other fans who were streaming toward the line.  We had done it.  All season long we had set one goal: run our best race in the state meet.  I knew immediately that we had given our best effort and celebrated like we had won.  We believed wholeheartedly that our best effort would win, but little did I know how good O'Fallon's best effort had been.  I knew we had beaten York and Neuqua, but I had not been watching O'Fallon, whose guys pulled off a valiant and determined effort of their own.

As I jogged up toward the coaches box, I ran to the end and stood up on the fence and tried to find my dad.  He came running out with a sheet of paper in his hand, showing me our places and our raw score at 140 points or so.  We stopped there for a moment and I gave my dad a hug.  No one but the two of us will know what that meant, but I can tell you now that I am sitting here right now crying as I write this.  On some level a sport is an incredibly silly thing into which to invest so much time.  But any good coach knows that relationships with young people are not silly.  Good coaches know that helping young people to set goals, work hard, love one another, and reach for their fullest potential is not silly.  Doing something that unites fathers and sons is not silly.  My dad and I had been after this moment for our entire lives.  To share our best race with him, to share our state title with him is something none of you will understand.  That moment was just for us.  It was a forever moment.

As I stood there frozen in tears and utter pride in my boys, my mom and brother came out to meet us as well.  My mom has been an impassioned coach's wife for her entire life (she's one now by proxy even though my dad is retired).  We hugged and I knew how much this meant to her, how proud she was of my work with these kids.  Then I looked at Chad.  Now I was already crying, but the look in my brother's face is one I will remember forever.  Chad was born with cerebral palsy and has been unable to walk since his birth.  My brother spent 108 days in the hospital after he was born as a 3 lb baby, and his entire life has been a miracle ever since.  Chad is simply the toughest person I know and lives his life through athletics.  I have always been convinced that my brother was the grand champion my father never got to coach and to share this moment of joy with Chad was beyond compare.  He wept mercilessly.  No one can guess what it meant for him to witness a state title.  Again, all of this makes sports seem too outsized and serious, but you all would have to meet my family to understand.  We have all worked toward this end point in one way or another our entire lives.  Call it misguided and criticize as you will, but for the Quicks this was a dream come true.

My wife and kids walked out next, and it was great to know that my kids could have cared less about the result.  Mads and Christopher spent much of the day playing in the woods with their Aunt Kelly, and the true highlight of their day had been going to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch before the meet.  Meri, though, was carrying J.J. in the Baby Bjorn and clearly knew how much this meant to me.  She makes all of my coaching possible and knows how much pursuing my passion means to me.  I don't know if I can think of a stronger homage to a person than to say that they work to make someone else's life the best it can be.  There is no way to thank my wife enough for letting me be who I am.

With the family celebrations done, I had to find my boys.  I staggered through the crowd, searching vainly but finding no one.  I ran into Bob Carroll and had one of the great handshakes of my life.  Bob has been one of my mentors as a teacher and a coach throughout my time at Palatine, and it meant the world to me that he came down (retirement and all) to support the boys and girls.  Finally, I saw a giant huddle of Palatine people and knew that I had found them.  I busted into a sprint and came crashing into our huddle at full speed and full volume.  The picture above says it all.  We laughed and cried and celebrated even though we did not know the result.  We had run our best race.  It was beyond gratifying to know that our pursuit of that goal was something they believed in all along.  The feeling of running your best race is unsurpassed in our sport.  No effort can surpass the best effort you have to give.  For the first time all year long, I walked away from a race and had no complaints.  If someone had defeated us, then they deserved to win more than we did.

Slowly we migrated our way over toward our team camp, celebrating and living it up.  In order to build our collective karma, we had maintained a staunch humility toward the universe and our competitors, but we had also promised each other that we would celebrate with unfettered joy if we won.  We wanted to start that celebration, but Tyler Squeo's finish video squashed that moment.  I had given Tyler my coach's pass so that he could film the finish, and he and I went off to the side of the team camp with Coach Sheehan to watch the video.  Unlike most, I had never discounted O'Fallon.  They ran a 51 second split in the Sectional when their top guy was only 9 seconds off of Edwardsville's senior star Garrett Sweatt.  Furthermore, Tauwon Taylor, Moline's head coach, had told my dad that they were the real deal and had performed like crazy on a tough Sectional course at Maxwell Park.  In fact their efforts had mirrored the race I hoped my team could run - two guys at the front together, two more locked up about 20 seconds back, and a fifth runner within 40-50 seconds of the lead runner.  Reviewing the video I realized that their junior star, Alex Riba, had run the race of his life and closed it down all the way to second in the state.  I saw Tony passing their sophomore star, Perrier, but then I realized that our stellar runs from Johnson and Garcia had added little to their score since Becker and Sarpy, their #3 and #4 guys, had run so well.  It was all going to come down to the fifth men.

I headed back over to the results area to endure the long wait.  Each year, the IHSA video reviews the state meet for torso finishes even after the chips have registered for timing purposes.  Everyone in the truck knows who has won unofficially, but no one knows what the outcome of the video review will be.  The nerves are compounded because everyone and no one knows a person in the truck.  I was still hopeful based on my calculations, but I'm not going to lie.  I thought we had maybe celebrated prematurely.  I put my sweats back on and waited.  In my head I just kept thinking, "This was our perfect race.  It has to be a winner."

After awhile in the coach's bullpen, I started to hear strong rumors that we had won.  I refused to listen.  I had dreamt for years about looking at those tangible results - the ones that can't be changed no matter how well or how poorly a team had run - and seeing Palatine's name at the top.  In 2007 I stood with Mat Smoody and watched as the IHSA official lowered the board, and we saw our name in third.  We had hugged with joy and sprinted to our team area with joy in our hearts and tears in our eyes. 

This time was different.  I saw Mike Newman walking toward me and knew that we had won.  Mike is an ex-York runner, and he knows what it feels like to win a close state meet and to lose a close state meet.  He and I have bonded all season over a mutual love for this sport so I was happy that he bore the news.  He told me that we had won.  I told him, "No way.  I want to see it on the results."  He pulled out the sheet from his notebook, and there it was.  Palatine 114, O'Fallon 120.  We had done it.  He asked me for an interview, but I told him there was no time.  We had to find the boys.

The pictures above and below do that moment of realization a small bit of justice, but nothing can compare to the moments Sheehan and I shared as we looked each other in the eyes and knew we had the news our boys wanted.  We sprinted side by side up the road toward or team area.  Everything there was quiet and apprehensive.  I ran in at full speed, threw my coaching pass and bottle of water in the air, and dove into our tent saying the only thing that mattered, "It might only be by six points, but we WON!!!"  Pandemonium.  Ecstasy.  Relief.  Joy.  Another forever moment.

You could never imagine the release of that moment, but it was like fifty years of emotions came pouring out all at once, a pent up release of collective joy.  It is hard to quantify what this win meant to the men who have represented this program so long for decades, but living it in the moment with these boys was a beautiful combination of pride in our incredible achievement and a humbling knowledge that we did it for everyone else who never quite got it done.  To have been there in the moment when we finally broke through, to have lived the dream so many aspired to was overwhelming.  In that moment, we were honored to represent all of the men of Palatine.  After dedicating our season to the memory of Coach Joe Johnson, to stand there at the pinnacle was more than we could have imagined.  It was divine.

The rest of the afternoon is a blur.  We made our way to the awards.  We congratulated our fellow competitors.  Then, we celebrated.  I had wanted to be on the top of that podium my entire life.  Whether I was a competitor or a coach was no matter.  The state trophy is nothing more than a symbol of an experience.  That said, it is a mighty symbol and I know now that nothing I ever experience again as a coach will quite measure up to the first one.  If this is the only one, then I have lived every coaching moment I ever care to live.  To be up on that stage with those boys after everything we committed to one another was the dream.  To do it together was the dream.  I cannot express how much I love those boys and how proud I am to have been through the process of this year with them.

After we all got lined up on stage they brought out the state title trophy and handed it to Tony.  He has been our heart and soul for three years now and there was no more fitting image of this team than him holding the state title trophy aloft.  Like a child, I couldn't contain myself and I ran over there to grab it next.  All my life I have watched teams in all sports win the big prize, and I would be damned if I let that moment slip away without hoisting that sucker over my head.  Do you want to see what pure joy looks like?  See below.

The rest is just celebration and memories.  We took the pictures and shook the hands and gave the hugs.  On the way out of Detweiller Park, as we were the last ones to leave, Marcus told Noah to turn on "We Are the Champions" by Queen.  Yeah yeah, I know it is hokey and cliched, but when I was seven years old and wore my Queen Greatest Hits tape out on my Walkman, I always dreamed that I would sing that song after winning the state cross country title.  To have Marcus bring it up was a beautiful piece of personal synergy.  We turned the volume up all the way and sang it as one, loud, fiercely, at the top of our lungs, with air drumming and screaming fully included.  We had done it.  In the end no one can ever take away those memories, and those moments of satisfaction and love are what I will remember forever.  To have shared the experience with these boys from beginning to end is more than I ever could have hoped.

For my family and I cross country is obviously a family affair.  It was J.J.'s first state meet so he became an indifferent but necessary good luck symbol (much the same way Sophia Parks was for her daddy at her first state meet in 2009).  Mads and Christopher sat under a tree and compiled a stack of twigs while we celebrated, and we later forced them all to take a picture which I am sure will be our family Christmas card.  You can see that Christopher was done - he had tripped and hurt himself right before the photo and had seen enough of celebrating for one day.  Mads just enjoyed it all in her own bemused way.  Last week though I started to realize that they had paid attention.  Dave Davis blew up a picture of me hoisting the trophy (thanks Dave) and sent it via Tony to me.  Later that night I found that Christopher had appropriated it for his room and placed it on his dresser.  He told me that it makes him happy to see daddy with the trophy. 

In the most important way this entire accomplishment was about the boys.  For me, though, it was about more than just them.  Sharing this moment with my family was the realization of our collective dreams.  In one moment it made all those miles on yellow school buses and all those long road trips to disappointing meets all worthwhile.  I have no idea how many races my mother has seen, but to have her be a part of this one had to make all the other ones just a bit more worthwhile.  I had the great thrill in 2005 to meet my brother on the course and have him tell me that Steve Finley had won the state meet.  Chad sits right on the line and had the best view of that famous last step.  To share this day with him was beyond special.  And lastly, how can I explain what this meant to my dad and I?  We talk running non-stop all year, but he had invested his heart and soul in helping me this season, driving to all of our meets and working to keep me calm.  I have had many coaching mentors over time, but none will compare to my dad.  When I was young, the Geneseo and Moline parents used to call me "The Shadow" because I followed my dad everywhere.  I am so proud to have walked in that shadow for all these years because it was the only way I could ever get to see the light.  I wanted to win for the boys, but deep, deep in my heart it was always about winning for my dad.  To give it to him is everything I ever wanted.

So here at the end of another great season, I am not quite sure what the future will hold.  The men of the future (pictured below) will get to add their chapter to our program's legacy, and I couldn't be more excited to work with them toward their hopes and dreams.  In a perverse way, the first one is the toughest.  The ones that follow have way less pressure.  All I know is that I love the guys we have coming up, and if we enjoy the process and each other we will probably find a way to keep winning.  After all, the greatest lesson I can teach them is that loving the process is the only way to get to the result that you love.  I was going to be able to live with whatever place we got as long as we ran our best race.  Hopefully we can keep working hard and doing our best and the rest will take care of itself.

PALATINE XC!