Chapter 19: The Days After

 

I woke up early the next morning. Do not ask me why I did. I guess it was my nature not to waste a moment of the day. I got on my sweats and walked over to the drug store to get the Sunday Newspapers. Yes, I wanted to read the articles about the championship. Who wouldn’t? Perhaps it was to validate that we had actually won the championship or that the last year was not a dream. It felt like a dream.

There in the sports sections of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times were articles about the meet. I could not wait until I got home. There was a slight breeze as I was walking that kind of ruffled up the newspapers. It was all that I could do to keep them together. I decided that maybe it was not so good of an idea. It waited until I got home. I sat down at the kitchen table and looked at the results in there and looked what was said about our team. Yes, validation.

It would also be the first day that I had not run with my teammates since June. I guess you could call it a decompression day after everything that had happened. I knew I would spend most of the day working on a paper that was due on Tuesday for my English class. I knew Henry, and Willie would be catching up on their work.

My plan was to get my run in, watch the Bears game, and work on my paper. I did not know why I wanted to watch the Bears.  They had lost seven games in a row and would be playing at Minnesota. I had not seen them play most of the year because of the runs that we would take on Sundays. It was a chance to catch up with a team that I loved even though they were having a miserable season. The Bears lost the game 17-14. Eight in a row. Geez.

I started my run on the Illinois Prairie Path. I was a soft gravel path that traveled from the city limits on the east side of Elmhurst all the way to Wheaton, which was ten miles away. It then split off into two separate trails. If there was any place that was a running sanctuary for me, it was the PP. The trails were soft and forgiving on my legs. The trail goes through towns but running on it felt you were away from civilization.

My plan was a long slow run to Lombard. If I felt good, perhaps Glen Ellyn. I had lofty ideas in my head. Too bad the rest of my body did not agree. The first few steps felt like I had lead in my legs. I was sore. Could be of that little race that I had run the day before?

My hamstring was not agreeing with me as well. Each step that I took, the pain shot out of that left leg. I had not iced my leg after the race like I usually did. I was getting the consequences of that now. I made it two miles down the path when I had to stop. I walked a little bit hoping that I would feel better. I did not. The leg did not.

I turned around and started a slow jog back. It probably was the worst run that I had in the last 3 months, but it came at a perfect time. I knew I had to back off on some of the runs that I was taking to give my leg a rest. We would be competing at nationals in New Mexico in a couple of weeks, so Newton would be giving us workouts to keep us ready for that.

It was legal to do that back then. Now, the IHSA has rules about that where a coach cannot be involved with their athletes training after the season. Back then, it was okay to do that.

I got home and started icing the hamstring. My mom came into my room and had asked what was wrong. I just told her it was a little sore from yesterday. That was all. It was funny. I was able to keep the injury hidden from everyone in my family until after state. Good planning on my part. I knew I would not be running the next morning, so it would give my legs a little break.

The Monday after state was a busy one. It required us to get up particularly early to get to the local radio station in Elmhurst to be interviewed for a morning talk show. This started the victory tour that we would be on.

We would be interviewed on WKDC. There was a small studio that was on the second floor of a building that had an appliance store underneath. We would be interviewed by Dick Chase who was the local sports guy in our town. He had two sons who had run for Mr. Newton, so he was a big backer of the cross-country program.

We showed up in our tuxedoes. We had to be at school after that for a full school assembly and Mr. Newton wanted us in the tuxedoes. It must have been funny to see 8 guys in tuxes walking down the middle of downtown Elmhurst early on a Sunday morning to get to this studio.

The first segment was an interview with Mr. Newton. The second was with Willie, Rags, Heds, and Wags. The third segment had Lisy, Freegs, Henry, and me.

Throughout the segments that we were doing this LIVE show, the goof offs that we had inside of us started to show just a little bit. It was a challenge to make everyone else laugh while they were being interviewed.

There was no luck through most of us. Henry would be talking before I would. When he was done, Mr. Chase asked him, “Who is that handsome guy sitting next to you?”

David is my best friend, but I knew he was going to try to make me laugh. When the question was asked, I started looking around the room looking for this handsome guy. I was trying to beat him to the punch.

David paused for a second. Then he blurted out, “That’s Neeewmmms!”

Not Mike, not Mike Newman, not Michael. Just Newms.

Everyone in the studio was laughing. I was turning the perfect pitch of red.

Mr. Chase then asked me, “Why is everyone laughing?”

My comeback was not original and was the only thing that I could think of.

“I don’t know.”

I was then preparing in my head what he was going to ask me next. Perhaps it was something about the meet, how I felt during the race, or how was it to be a state champ.

Nope.

“I know Mr. Newton has a strict schedule that he goes through when you are in Peoria. Why do you go through some of that for everyone out there,” Mr. Chase asked me.

I went through some of it. And then the show was over.

I did not get a chance to express myself of what it meant to be a state champ. Maybe I would get a chance next year when I was a senior. I did not get that chance.

All of these thoughts were rambling through my head as we headed back to York.  I had accepted my nickname of Newms. There was always the hope that some classmates would call me by my first name. During the rest of the time I was at York, that is what I was called. Newms.

It went that way in college as well. It was a novelty that someone called me Mike or Michael. It happened a couple of times. It was nice to hear my name. I had forgotten what my given name was.

We met in the locker room waiting to be introduced in front of the entire school.

In my head, I just wanted to get this over. It was this insecurity that I had going in front of big crowds. I was with my teammates which made everything just a little better. Dignitaries made their remarks. Blah blah. Hurry up. We just wanted to be on stage. We wanted to hold the trophy up in front of the entire school.

The trophy had been repaired. There was a new runner on top of it. Some of the seniors would not let Freegs touch it. It was just a joke but still…

We walked out. The band started playing, cheerleaders started jumping. We just took in the moment. It was our moment. I looked in the stands and saw some of the football team sitting together. I had no animosity against them, but all I thought about is all the attention that they got and they were only 1-8 that year. Sometimes karma does crazy things.

We were introduced. We presented the trophy to the school. Then, it was over. We had the option to wear the tuxes in school that entire day. I did not. I do not think anyone else did as well. I wanted that nice comfortable blanket of people not knowing who I was.

The state championship took that blanket away. People congratulated me the entire day. It was nice but embarrassing for me. It was just the way I am.

We met out in front of the school for practice. There was no check-ins that were required. There was a time that we were supposed to be ready to go by. There was no one that was late for any of those practices before the national meet. It was just a discipline that he had installed with us.

Most of us were early. Same discipline. He would teach the freshmen during the season about “Lombardi-time”. The legendary Green Bay Packer coach would tell his team that practice would start at a certain time. He would get mad if you were not there 15 minutes before that time. It showed that you cared about the team. It showed that you cared for what you were doing. By the time you were on the varsity, it was part of our jobs to make sure that the younger runners understood that.

We were just going to run some light 220’s on that day. It was something that would be to loosen our legs up. The following day, we would head to Arlington High School and run a three-mile time trial. Bad weather a few weeks before had prevented us from doing that. Heds left early. He had the flu. My hamstring was not the best. As we did the 220’s, my hamstring was getting worse. I was behind the pack.

As we jogged back to the start in front of the school (the track was flooded so no track that day), Newton pulled me aside and asked me what I was wrong. I told him about my hamstring. I did not tell him how long it was hurting. I was not going to play that sympathy card.

“If you can’t run, why should I take you to New Mexico?”

I got in the pack and stuck it out. I was doing my cool down and thought if I had told him during the season, what would have he done? That is why I kept quiet. That is why I ran state. No one was going to take that from me. Not even my stupid hamstring.

We ran the time trial the next day. None of us wanted to be there. We were emotionally down. It was just so hard to get up for that. It was something we were told we needed to do by our coach. We did not question him. We just did it.

Heds was sick and did not run. Henry and I decided to just go out and work together on this TT. Freegs and Willie were up front running 14:42. Wags ran 14:51. Rags was 15:06. Henry and I came through in 15:17. We just wanted to get that run done, get our sweats on because it was so cold, and then get in the cars and head home.

Probably the most important night of the post season was the awards night the following day. Our families were invited including any relatives that wanted to come.

The awards night at York is not like any that you will see. Through the years, I have been to these kind of nights for my children. It was just not the same as what we went through with Mr. Newton. We would start with a general presentation in the main auditorium in the school where all the sports coaches were presented and were held to one minute to talk about their season. For Mr. Newton to be held for one minute, that would be a miracle. He did however. He would save the best stuff for “his family”.

We would all migrate across the school to the “139 Gym”. If you were claustrophobic or did not like warm climates, this was not the place for you. But close to 500-600 of us crowded into this small gym and made that sacrifice. It would be the last time we would wear our state tuxes. They needed to be back to the store the next day. More importantly, it was the ceremony that was around the giving out of our letters or numerals that we had earned. Not won…but earned.

Newton would talk about the state race. He would spend 15 minutes doing that. It was just as long as we ran on that course. It gave everyone a personal side of how he was feeling during that race. I can’t describe it. There were little side jokes he would tell as this story was going on. We listened and treasured the story. We could be thinking, “Yea, I remember that part. Yea, I remember when he screamed that.”

I still have that speech on an audio tape. I listen to it when I would get down. The affection in the tone of his voice in telling of the story showed the love and the caring that he had for us. Our running on that state day and other meets showed the appreciation that we had for him.  He was and is a second father to us for all that he taught us. Mr. Newton always said that he had so many sons. It shows every September during the Alumni Meet.

After the story, he would introduce all the athletes on the team. He saved the seven runners that ran at state for last. Each athlete, from the last freshman to the top senior, he would talk about. He would have some story about every runner. This was no ordinary just handing out certificates etc. This was personal.

He introduced me first, then David Haller. We were the juniors first. Even though it was not the order that we ran in at state, he talked about the five seniors last.

There are not too many people that are not connected with the York Cross Country Program that get to see that side of him when he talks. Phil Williams, Rob Ragusin, Mike Wagner, Mike Frega, and Jim Hedman were the cornerstone of the program. He let them know that. There were not too many dry eyes in the room that night. The feelings flowed on how each of those guys had sacrificed so much to make this team so great. It was personal. It was heartfelt.

We bought Mr. Newton a pocket watch that we had engraved. We gave Mrs. Newton roses. We did not want the night to end, but that part had.

There were refreshments that they were serving near the auditorium. We rushed to get them and hurried to get back to the gym. Some of the managers had shot movies of our races that season, and we wanted to see them.

We did not see that much of us running. There were films with focus on trees, on the sky. You could hear us running. It was funny. We were rolling on the ground. Newton was the same way making comments about that.

We did not need to see those movies. The images of the races were within us.

The day after Thanksgiving, we flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico where the AAU National Meet was going to be held. The day before on Thanksgiving Day, some of us ran in a Turkey Trot on a golf course in Mt. Prospect. It was something that Mr. Newton had suggested.

I finished fourth in that race running 10:24 for 2 miles. For the first time in over a month, I felt great. I had rested my leg not as running as much to let it heal. It did the trick. Willie won the race 10 seconds ahead of me. There were some Prospect runners that were in this race. I defeated them all. We had already shut them up at state. Yes, I remembered what they had said in that restaurant. I am quick to forgive, but I never forget.

During the race, I passed by a couple of them and muttered, “Do you like our suits now?

The race at nationals was difficult. It was close to 70 degrees by the time we ran. We were not used to that temperature plus the altitude in the city which was over 4900 feet above sea level. Our plane would touch down on noon on Friday, so we would not have time to get adjusted to that.

The course was located on a new golf course. There was grass at the beginning of the course and then at the end. The rest of the time we were running on sand and dirt trails. It was something that we were not used to in Illinois. We would just have to adjust to it like we did with everything else.

Henry and I would run in the 14-15 age group. The races were determined by the age that you were at the beginning of the year. Both of us were 15 at the beginning of 1978. There were other juniors nationally that were there that were in the same boat as us. We wanted to run with the teammates that we had competed against all year. Instead, we would be running with the sophomores on our team. It would be the same runners that would step to the line was us the following year.

I wanted to do well in the race. The climate and course in my head forced me to abandon my plan of getting out fast and towards the front. Instead, I started out slow as I usually did and worked my way through the pack.

Morgan Dempsey was in the race. He was the “bearded wonder” that had run for Glenbard West the year before. Now he was in Arizona where he had a pretty good season earning all-state honors there. From the gun, he took off and he was out of sight by the mile.

Newton was by the mile and was yelling to me that I was in 30^th. Henry was right next to me. We started to work our way through the pack. By the two mile, I had noticed that I was by myself. Henry had dropped off of the pace that I was running. One of the fathers who was chaperoning our trip yelled that I was in 16^th. It was not the finish I wanted, but I had 1 mile to improve on that.

I pushed ahead on that last mile passing six runners in the process. I ran 16:55 on that hilly course and finished tenth. I was almost one minute behind Dempsey who had won the race. Henry was eight seconds behind me in eleventh. Al Taira finished 15^th, Tony Yang finished 18^th, and Rich Tauber finished 20^th to complete our top 5.

The team scores were announced after our race and we were surprised we had finished second. The team that had defeated us was an all-star team called Navo-Hopi Striders. They were from two reservation areas in Arizona. We had raced them two years before and they had kicked our butts. We were lucky to be that close to that team.

They were tough. They were intimidating. They would wear war paint when they raced which kind of tied into the intimidation factor. They backed that up with the way they competed. I was shocked that only two of their team was ahead of me. I made sure I shook their hands and told them what great runners that they were.

One of them asked me where I was from. I told them. “Oh, you are that Illinois team.”

Even with no internet way back when and limited communications, we were known.

The score was a little eerie. They had scored 72 points. We were second with 74. Two points separated us. A year later at state, we would encounter that same point differential. Don Volkey, the Illinois AA state champ, was in the race. He was under the weather and finished 49^th. It was the first and only time that I had defeated him. His senior year, he did not compete for his high school.

The senior runners were next and finished third. Willie led the way with a sixth-place finish. Freegs was 16^th, Rags 19^th, and Wags 20^th. Heds was still recovering from his virus was in back of the pack. Steve Boyd was the fifth runner of the day finishing 39^th.

The following day, we returned to Chicago. Our 1978 season was over.

We would run track together that spring. It was one last hurrah, but it was not the same type of chemistry that we had in the fall. We would run together in some races, but it was just not the same as the times that we competed with each other in September, October, and November.

There was one more thing that we would do together as a group. Two days before the senior graduation, we would travel down in cars to Springfield. It was arranged by our state representative and state senators. We would be presented in front of the house, the senate, and then meet Governor Jim Thompson in his office. It was quite a day getting to meet the governor. The one thing that I remember from that visit was that his carpet was a dark purple.

We got home late that night and separated for the last time. It was not a sad moment. It was a moment that we knew would have to happen eventually. Life moves on.

My senior year was different. It was not the same feeling as the year before. One of the things that I learned that one team is not the same as the next.  We did same the attitude and the same work ethic, but the feeling was not the same. Instead of being a follower, David Haller and I were the leaders of the team. We took what we learned the year before and applied them in that 1979 season.

That 1978 season started a trend. In those ten seasons from 1978 to 1987, York won seven state championships. Currently, the program has won 28 state championships. No other running program has won that many in Illinois. When we looked back at that magical year, it was the determination of seven runners that built a foundation and expectations towards the present York teams.

One of the things that Mr. Newton told us was that we would never have that kind of team feeling again. I was fortunate to be on two teams at North Central College that won two Division III national championships. I was blessed to get that feeling three times in my life.

I have been asked how you win a state championship as a group. You have to have a little talent, a little luck, and determination. You can have the best team in the state but not win a state or national championship.

It comes down to a drive and a commitment to be the best that you can be. It means a ton of sacrifice as well. I lived a Spartan type of life while I was in high school. I gave many things up because I believed that I had an opportunity that I could not let slip through my fingers. It meant not going out late with friends. It meant refraining from doing many things.

My children have seen the trophies and the medals that I have won. My youngest son asked me why I was not dating in high school. “You could have had any girl,” he has told me time and time again. “You were on a state championship team.”

I have always told him that was a sacrifice that I need to take to get to where I wanted to be. I always knew that there would be other times to have fun, but there was only time in my life to do what I did.

As I have written this, I asked myself those questions that my kids have asked me. “Was it worth it, Dad?”

I have memories. I have something that not many people have in their lives, competing on a championship team. The most important thing is that I have a bond with Joe Newton, Phil Williams, Rob Ragusin, Mike Frega, David Haller, Mike Wagner, and Jim Hedman that no one can take away from me. You cannot destroy unity like that. It is a bond that will remain.

Was it worth it?

Yes. Every drop of sweat, every tear, every note of laughter, every embrace, every grimace.

I have no regrets for the journey that I was on in 1978.