How many times have I been to Van Cortlandt Park in the
Bronx? More than 100 times, easily, as a coach for the past 26 years and even
as a collegiate runner back in the Dark Ages of the mid-1980s. But for all
these times along Broadway in Riverdale, Saturday was the first time I was
there as a parent, for the Manhattan Invitational high school meet -- watching
the FDR Presidents cross country team, which features a gangly senior who
happens to be my son. What a great experience for these Presidents, who have
emerged as a strong team in Section 9 after years of mediocrity and
irrelevance. Last year, they won their first-ever Mid-Hudson Athletic League
(MHAL) cross country title in 2015, hopefully the first of many. Their young
coach is fiery, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He has made XC and track a cool
thing to do at FDR, and the Presidents are pretty darn good. Of course, this is
a biased opinion. You view things differently as a parent. But the trophies and
banners are real, and naturally we are proud of this.
So yeah, it was weird being at Vanny alongside so many of my
college coaching acquaintances, who were there recruiting. I suppose I should
have been recruiting as well. I was wearing my Marist track hoodie, as usual.
But really, my heart was not into recruiting. I was there to cheer on the green
and gold of FDR. The boys did well but they were disappointed to not have done
better. The 4km high school course at this meet can get clogged up quickly and
early, and they weren’t accustomed to that. I’m sure they wish they could run
the race over. My kid did fine; he’s the fifth or sixth man (depending on the
day) on a pretty strong team. He had a nice finishing kick, passing about a
dozen runners along that stretch of Broadway where I have lost my mind (and my
voice) screaming at generations of Marist runners. He was bummed to have missed
a medal by about two seconds, but so it goes. He and his buddies gathered for a
pasta party the night before, they are gathering for a camp-out in the freezing
fall darkness this coming weekend, they have run hundreds of miles together,
and they are forming memories that will last a lifetime.
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