10 years after ...

The IC4A cross country meet means a lot to me. Actually, all IC4A meets are loaded with significance – in all three seasons.

The cross country meet is tinged with bittersweet feelings, as it is the end of the line for graduating seniors in a sport they have probably done for 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 years. And while there are two more seasons of track, there is nothing like the team-bonding camaraderie that is fostered with cross country. I have had many a graduating senior shed a tear or three at the finish line at Vanny on IC4A Saturday.

Today, there were no tears that I could find. Instead, there was nothing but goofing, smiling and food. Oh man. The food was great! Thanks again, Loyal Parents of Marist Running!!!

One of my fondest memories in my earlier coaching career with the men’s team came at the IC4A Championships in 2000 at Van Cortlandt Park. We had come off a disappointing finish at the MAAC meet in Disney (not a Magical trip!) a few weeks earlier. But we knew we had a GREAT team. We just needed to prove it. At the 2000 IC4A meet, we proved it.

We were in the University Race back then. I knew we had a chance to do well. Imagine my surprise when, off in the distance, I saw Mikey Nehr – my brash and confident junior out of West Babylon – coming out of the woods in first place! He was followed closely by several of his teammates who were running in the top 10. And then P-Diddy (Pat Driscoll) topped it off with the race of his XC race of his life as our fifth man … and we won the meet! Awesome!

Somewhere on my office wall, I have a wrinkled and fading picture of the top 7 from that day, next to the first-place plaque that will forever hang in there. While the memory of that fine day lingers, what’s more rewarding is that, 10 years later, there is still a strong bond with those guys.

In fact, of the 7 runners on that championship team, no fewer than four of them were at Vanny today to cheer on the 2010 Running Red Foxes: Chris and Greg Salamone, Mike Nehr and Pat Driscoll. Awesome. The other three guys were Kirk Dornton, with whom I talk and see frequently, and whose wedding I will gladly attend next summer; Jason Grady, now a successful local coach and with whom I see and talk frequently at meets; and Jamal Padgett, who not surprisingly fell off the face of the earth … but with whom I still have random and bizarre contact, and whose wedding I was invited to but was unable to attend, a few summers ago.

I’ll never forget Reese’s (that’s Greg Salamone, by the way) comments after we won. He said something to the effect of: “Pete, you should just quit now, how can it get any better than this?” Well, 10 years later, I am reporting to you that it does get better, and not just because the team is running strong. It gets better because you guys stay in touch and keep coming back, and you were joined by other alums on Saturday, and family, and friends.

Now in the Championship Division, the men did not win today. But they ran pretty darn well, and finished off an excellent season, a season in which one alum asked me over the phone if it was our “best team ever.” That’s a debate for another day, if at all.

This much is not subject to debate: If I am fortunate enough to be alive and coaching our program in 2020, at the IC4A meet, it is my fervent hope and desire that graduating seniors Duggan, Keegan, Web, Zak, Vess, Hink and all the other 2010 XC men come back to see their gray-bearded coach doing his thing with a crop of athletes that are currently in grade school – which is where they were back in 2000. And maybe the 2000 champions, older and perhaps grayer themselves, will still be in the house as well.

More than any trophies, records and the like, that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?