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Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 7Sep 15th 2016, 5:00am
Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 6Sep 8th 2016, 4:23pm
Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 5Sep 8th 2016, 4:22pm
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Put Your Hand On Seven - Part 5

Published by
DyeStatIL.com   Sep 8th 2016, 4:22pm
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By Michael Newman, DyeStat Illinois Editor

 

Chapter 5: East End And Intra-Squad

 

The start of regular season practice signaled the start of many things. It meant that on the third day of practice, we would run 25 quarters again on the cinder dust bowl. It also meant until school started, we would have all of our practices at East End Park. I cut my teeth at that park. I learned how to run pace. I learned how to not quit when moments became unbearable. The one thing that we would learn at this park as a team in 1978 was to run as a pack.

At the beginning of each cross country season, Mr. Newton would give out a pre-season notebook. I just received the 2013 notebook and it is nearly quadruple the size that mine was my junior year. Five percent of the book covered team rules, techniques on how to properly run, and notes on proper nutrition during the season. From June until the night after state that year, I did not have fast food. It was a sacrifice that I was willing to make. The rest of the material in the book was motivational. There were articles with inspirational quotes, notes, phrases from Lombardi things like that. One the first page of the notebook there was a letter from Mr. Newton.

Phil Williams was the first to finish at the Intra Squad race at East End Park.Later in life, working in management, when I would start a project, I would always start off with a mission statement. This was Mr. Newton’s mission statement for the year. There was one thing that we had heard him say all summer that he put in that letter:

“MEN, to win in 1978 we need a total commitment to excellence. We will receive tremendous competition from teams like Fremd, Glenbard West, Thornridge, Maine East, and Riverside. But you must remember that competition is basic to human life and it makes men out of boys. And the MEN OF YORK have always welcomed competition. We do not need any superstars this year. We just need 7 guys who know THE PRICE TO BE PAID FOR EXCELLENCE, THE WORTH OF PAIN, THE DESIRABILITY OF JOY, AND THE SELF’S ABILITY TO ACHIEVE.”

“We have no secrets. York’s simple formula for winning is that our team must come first. When you come off the course, the first thing you MUST ask yourself is DID WE WIN? If you can say YES, then and only then can you think about your own individual accomplishments.

There were individual goals to be had as well. I had an individual goal and I think it was one that all of us shared. It was: How will I be able to help my team win a state championship? There was no I want to finish in the top 30 or 40. There was no greed on this team. How do we do it together was the theme.

We spent the end of the first week of practice at the park. We ran segments on the first two days. Segment running was running an intense pace for a certain time period. The key was staying together. If someone started to fall back, there would be a cry of encouragement to get your butt back up here. When there was a one minute rest period and you did fall behind, it was your job to get back up in that group. There were times when if you did fall back, you had to lead the next segment. We were a team. We would win together. We would lose together. But we would not let one another drop back.

Every time we would pass Mr. Newton, he would yell words of encouragement telling us to stay together. We stayed together because it was the only way we knew we would win the team championship. Everyone was afraid, in a way, of dropping back. We had a deep team. No one wanted to lose their spot. No one wanted to let the others down as well. In one of those segment runs, we passed the area where Mr. Newton was standing.

“Hey Hey Hey!” he exclaimed. “Put your hand on seven. You men look great!” It was better than hearing 'What the hell is going on with you guys?' And we did hear that occasionally, but as the summer wore on, we heard it less and less. Seven of us together. Seven runners focused going for a seventh title. Put your hand on seven.

The Saturday before we started school our workout consisted of an hour continual. It was a test for all of us. A test against history in a way. Mr. Newton in our morning meeting before that workout would go through how runners in the past did, giving us the inspiration to get through it. The goal was simple. Stay together as long as possible. It was a battle of attrition in the last 30 minutes of the run. I wanted to have at least 10 laps in before thirty minutes and let the chips fall where they may. I finished in the middle of the pack, running 20 and three-quarters laps. Heds, Willie, and Henry ended up at 21 laps. I was upset that I let them go in the last 10 minutes, but it was a big improvement over what I had run the year before. I was tired, but happy when I left that park.

The entire week was getting used to school. A new year. New teachers to get used to. New schedule to figure out how I would get from class to class. The one thing that I liked the best was I had a three-period gap from my last class to gym and then practice I could take my books home after my last class, eat lunch at home, get some homework completed, and then get back to school. I NEVER ate lunch at York during my four years. That is how my schedule always fell.

At the end of the week, it was all about getting ready for the Intra Squad meet. It was a 1.8 mile time trial at East End Park where we would race against our teammates and in front of the alumni that would be there. It gave us a check point to see where we were at. For me, it was a disadvantage because it was such a short race. During the week, I had that hanging over my head.

Mike Wagner leads out pack at the Intrasquad Meet.The misconception that most everybody outside of the York circle has is that it gives a true indication of the team's strength. What most people do not know is what happens before that meet. The day before that time trial, we have a brutal workout. A one mile time trial followed by 10x440s then 10x220s. Then 20x 110s to end the day. It is a blueprint of what we do during the regular season. We did not rest for a meet during the year until we got to our conference meet. During the heart of the schedule when we would have a race on Thursday, then on Saturday, our Friday run would be a recovery run. When it was only a dual meet on Thursday and we would run hard, the Friday/Saturday runs were extremely tough. The invites during the season were important, but the most important race was state. The workouts pointed to that meet. That has not changed now. Even though there is the Nike Regional and National meets, the focus is on state. Those other meets are the cherry on top so to speak.

We had nine guys in Group One. We all ran the mile in between 4:43-4:46. For the quarters we each traded off the lead. The same with the 220s. I know the purpose that Mr. Newton had was to work us hard and then see how we reacted on the next day. Most days Henry and I walked home together even though we lived in separate directions. It gave us a chance to catch up on everything. One day I would walk his way. One day he would walk my way. On this day, we got to the train tracks and we separated. My legs were hurting. If they could cry, there would have been uncontrollable sobs from my calves. Do not ask me how I got home. That mile walk felt like it took forever.

I was hungry but also not. I knew I had to eat something because it was a 14-hour turnaround until the time trial. I was in bed early trying not to think what the next day would bring.

The one thing that Sebastian Coe would say is that you could be in the best physical shape in your life going into a competition, but if the top 2 percent of your body was not, then you would not accomplish anything. I was excited to run as I got to East End Park that Saturday morning. There was a cloud of doubt that I could be up there. I was in the best shape of my life so far and I knew I was physically able. My doubts took control.

Twelve of us were together as we passed by the mile between 4:56-4:58. Wags was towards the front leading us through. He started to fade as Heds, Willie, and Boydo started to take the pace. With one lap to go, they started to pull farther ahead from me. I was watching the action going on in front of me like I was in slow motion. What was happening?

Willie, who was a 4:20 miler, had the wheels at the end of a race, and ran 8:51 for the win. Not a bad time considering what we went through the day before, but it still was not close to a record. Henry ran great sticking with the pack and finished second. Heds, Boydo, and Freegs were close behind. Our split on five was only eight seconds. Newton was happy. Mike Custer, Lisy, Doug Horn, Rags, Brother Mac were ahead of me. I ran 9:11 and finished 11th. Wags was close behind me. In the meeting after the run, Mr. Newton told us that this was the first step of the year, but we still had plenty of work still to do. He also told us that the Timely Times Coaches' Poll came out for the pre-season. York was rated seventh. Fremd, Glenbard West, Maine East, Thornridge, Sandburg and Willowbrook were all ahead of us.

The reason that we rated so low in the poll is because coaches knew we had little returning state-meet experience. They did not know the guy who was our lead returnee, Tim Krull, was out with an injury. From the outside, it looked like York did not have a chance. They did not know what kind of work we had done during the summer. It did not matter to us what the rating was. Yes, it did piss us off, so maybe that #7 rating was given to us. It was kind of ironic also.

Put your hand on seven. We were going for York’s seventh state championship. We had seven runners working together. And we began the season ranked No. 7.

The alumni had their picnic after the run was over. The varsity runners had our picnic at the Hedmans' house. There were plenty of laughs going on. I put up a good face trying to enjoy myself, but a load of turmoil was happening within me. That night at home, I was struggling with the fact that it was only the alumni meet even though I finished 11th. What was going on with me? I put in almost 1,400 miles this summer. Didn’t I do enough? All I knew when I fell asleep that night was that I had to try harder in the next workout. The season was not over but it was already getting away from me.

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