A sprinter who stayed the course

I remember the scene vividly:

I was sitting at my son’s Little League practice one blustery and chilly late winter early evening, last March. More accurately, I was sitting in the front seat of my car sipping on a cup of Stewart’s coffee, with my heater blasting out warm air, as my son and his teammates shagged fly balls and fielded grounders on the 35-degree evening.

While sitting in the car, I spoke on the phone with Tyler Schwarz, then a sprinting recruit from Fairfield, Conn. It was one of the more difficult conversations I have ever had with a recruit, and with a recruit’s parents.

The topic was track facilities – or the lack thereof – at Marist College. Obviously, this is a topic that I can talk freely about. But in Tyler’s case, the conversation revolved around the impending construction at the McCann Fieldhouse/Arena, which included the removal of the old 10-lap-per-mile track. This construction project had a profound interest on Tyler and on his college decision.

Tyler started considering Marist in the fall of 2010, and that interest continued with a visit to campus in the late fall. The track-removal became known to me in early March, before Tyler had made his decision. So it was important to me, in the interest of full disclosure, to inform Tyler about this.

We went back and forth. I did not candy-coat things. I told them things would be difficult, but reminded them that most high school kids train outside during the winter. I also reminded them what a great school Marist was, and not to base the final decision solely on facilities.

Tyler stayed the course and attended Marist. Had he decided to go elsewhere, we would not have blamed him. We are glad he kept with his original decision.

Along with his dedicated sprint teammates, Tyler has worked hard and improved under the watchful eyes of Coach Terry Horton. All our sprinters have been doing well. On Friday night at Mets, Tyler ran 22.93 for 200 meters – a breakout personal performance for him, and one of the fastest times in school history.

As a reminder: Tyler is a freshman.

While I was not there to witness it, the texts with the result update can as great and gratifying news as I stood 200 miles away up at BU.

We are glad that Tyler stayed the course, and we are proud of our sprint/field event squad – men and women – for working hard, persevering and making us a more well-rounded program.