Sandburg 4×8 2019
By John O’Malley

By the numbers, this year’s edition of the Sandburg 4 x 800 would seem to be a letdown, a footnote to our storied past. The last time the Sandburg 4 x 800 finished worse than 2nd in state was 2013. That year we took third. The last time the Sandburg 4 x 800 placed worse than 4th in state was 2011. So…we took 9th in state this season to grab the final all-state mark. We ran 7:54.74. which is a full eleven seconds worse than the average of our previous seven seasons combined. It was the slowest the Sandburg 4 x 800 has run for eight seasons by eight seconds! So, why does this year’s relay matter?

♦  They never stopped fighting.

♦  It was the representation of a culture of love. It’s something to believe in.

 

The story of the Torpys putting a freshman named Dylan Jacobs on top of the medal stand has been documented (see link below). He was the prelim and sectional runner and the Torpys replaced him for the state finals race. Dylan went onto the infield after the race and took their place on the first place podium while the Torpys exited to get ready for their next races. And last year, Dylan advocated for being put on the 4 x 800 instead of the 3200 or going for the 1600 state record. He believed in his relay mates. That was the center of the talk the night before they went on to win a state championship one year ago.

Dylan Jacobs as a freshman on the awards stand. If you are not aware of this story, go to Divergent Thinking: Inside John O’Malley. Also, see Though My Lens 2018. 

 

Nico Calderon, who was our second leg on that state championship relay a year ago, was our best runner this spring. On May 2nd, I brought Nico into my classroom to talk about his options. We were at 8:15 at that point. We were 1:59-2:03-2:04-2:04. One of those guys—the 2:03 guy, Connor Devlin—was out for a lingering calf issue and hadn’t run for the previous 10 days. The relay seemed dead. I told Nico I thought he could be an all-stater in either the 1600 or 800. I asked him what he wanted to do. Nico replied, “4 x 8.” Well, how the hell are we even going to qualify? Nico told me that when I talked about Dylan choosing to believe in him rather than go for the state record he had never felt so much motivation and power in his life. He ran his best race of his life last year after that. He said that he just knew guys would come through this year.

I suppose this confidence is the result of past team success; the belief is the result of love.

Nico wanted desperately to be a part of the 4 x 800 like Dylan Jacobs the year before. The difference between grit and love. The 4 x 800 is no longer just a race for us. The funny thing is, when I started coaching, I wanted nothing to do with the relay. I wanted 3200 runners who would be great cross country runners. There are so many things wrong with this thought process, but that’s part of my coaching evolution and another conversation. The 4 x 800 happened organically. Everyone wants the baton now.

I started coaching in 2003. I got a hold of my first baton. It’s a gold colored baton. I’ve kept it since 2003. I only pull it out when it’s a special moment. Like all good hero’s journeys, this is our specialized weapon. It’s our light saber, Harry Potter’s wand, Excalibur. People die for symbols. Our runners know who has carried this baton.

So after my conversation with Nico, I coincidentally get texts from Dylan Jacobs and the Torpys over the next 24 hours. “How’s the relay looking?”  I tell them it looks kind of dead but we’ll see. We all go back and forth about what’s happening with their conference and NCAA Regional meets.

Around this time, the local newspaper puts out the headline: SANDBURG’S 3200 RELAY STREAK COULD BE IN TROUBLE.

Soon after, we get Devlin back up and running minimally. Here is another place where my coaching has evolved. 15 years ago, I would have prioritized getting back some aerobic foundation. Devlin ran two runs over 30 minutes over the final six weeks of the season. We had to be creative and our physio, Marc O’Neal, did an amazing job getting him to return and assist in the plan to get him back to being competitive. Devlin, to his enormous credit, was showing total poise and confidence despite the terrible timing of his missed training. At the SWSC meet, Devlin ran the open 800 in 2:03.43. So, after SWSC, we were still sitting at PRs of: 1:59.5, 2:03.3, 2:03.4, 2:04.9. This doesn’t add up to 8:03.03 to qualify let alone the 7:54+ I know it will take to squeeze out a medal. I ask Nico again if he wants the relay. I ask Devlin the same thing, after all, he is a senior. Both, separately, say, “No doubt about it.” And they say it with conviction and confidence. They didn’t even look at me for my reaction, and just walked away. I’ve heard athletes say stuff like this and then wait for my reaction to either affirm or deny the possibility of what they just declared. I love that they didn’t care what I had to say or think.

Our other two legs–Eddie Slack and Sam Rodriguez—were newcomers to the 4 x 800. Eddie has had so many frustrating respiratory issues that I wasn’t sure what he was capable of and how much these health issues had sapped his confidence and motivation. Endless doctor and specialist visits take a toll. Sammy ran steady all season, but it was “2:04-2:06 steady” and he just simply wasn’t finishing the final 200. His final 200 kept hitting :33-34. I know from having watched endless hours of state 4x8s that that kind of 200 meter segment takes you completely out of the race. It just can’t happen. But I’m getting ahead of myself. How are we even going to qualify?

We enter the sectional meet and Naperville Central (eventual state champs) and Hinsdale Central (8:03) have already met or equaled state qualifying. Downers Grove North sits at 8:08.  We have an 8:15. The seeding sheets don’t inspire confidence. But there is something magical about believing. Logically, I thought that we had no chance. But not everything is logical. When I went to our team huddle, I somehow felt that we were going to do it. I asked the boys rhetorically how much they loved each other and the name on their uniforms? And I said, “We fight like hell for the things we love.”

The gun goes off at the Sectional Championships and we are in fourth at the first exchange as Devlin delivers a striking 2:00.5 split one week after the 2:03.43. We hand off to Sam Rodriguez. Then the heavens open up and it starts pouring rain…I mean a total down pour in 50 degree temps. I have a momentary thought on the back stretch as I watch the relay we’ve built over twelve years getting beaten badly in fourth, a 2:04 runner taking over and the hard rain falling that this might turn into a total disaster. Everyone is getting totally soaked, many fans head for cover. How depressing will this be?

But our guys just kept fighting. We had 20-30 guys on the infield screaming at Sammy. Sammy struggles in the final 200 again but drops it off with a 2:02.4 split, a two second PR. Slack gets it and goes into chase mode as we were still back in fourth and seemingly out of it. Eddie finishes strong and puts us in third with a 2:00.6, a three second PR. It was a heroic performance from Slack. Nico Calderon gets the baton. I told him before the race that there would be lots of young kids watching him. He was the guy now who can give them something to believe in. Nico came in as a freshman watching senior Torpys, then Jacobs takes over the next two years. Imagine the amazing things he’s seen from older teammates over four years? It was Nico’s turn. Rain coming down, our mass humanity on the infield screaming. More along the fence line. A guy with purpose is powerful.

Nico gets the baton and runs down both of the anchor legs and takes the lead with 100 to go. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I actually put my hands on top of my head for a moment in disbelief. He fights like hell and gets beaten by less than a second and we qualify for state. 8:01.73. How the hell did they drop 14 seconds? Before the race, I could tell they were ready to bury themselves. Then I looked at my watch and see that Nico ran 1:56.7. Devlin goes from 2:03 to 2:00. Rodriguez 2:04 to 2:02. Slack 2:03 to 2:00. Calderon 1:59 to 1:56. We barely made it. They gave all they had.

So we drive down to Charleston on the Thursday as the twenty-second seed. Also, that evening we have four Sandburg alumni racing the 1500 in the NCAA Regionals. Denis O’Callaghan (Illinois) anchored our 2014 7:40.78 second place relay. It nearly broke his spirit to lose that one. Sean and Chris Torpy (Miami-Ohio) ran legs on three consecutive state relays that won silver, gold, and gold (and the state record). Dylan Jacobs (Notre Dame) anchored our previous two relays and was the second leg on the state record with the Torpys. We go to dinner and stream all three East Region races and the boys are captivated. Later during the middle of our team meeting, we stop talking and watch O’Callaghan in the West Region. At the end of the team meeting I talked to the boys about how I was very close to not coaching track this season in order to take care of my mom and grandparents (let alone my 3 and 2 year-olds). I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. But I believed in this group and wanted to be a part of it and made it work. If we have that belief again, they’ll find a way to make it work.

There is very little I dislike surrounding the state track meet more than the check in tent. Entered in the third heat, it looked like it was going to be a smoking fast heat. We arrive and then sit for 20 minutes. I watch the first heat hammer through some solid times (fourth place 7:53.15). Wow, I think, “We are going to have to pull off a miracle here.” I frankly didn’t know how much better of an effort could come after that sectional race and 8:01 is a long way from 7:53.15. Finally, we get rolling in the third heat. The opening leg was a dud all around and Devlin gets us going in a 2:00.0. Rodriguez pulls 2:01.6, Slack 2:00.6 and we’re hanging in there near the front as the heat appears to be running slow. Calderon gets the stick and again works his way all the way to the front. This time, he waits a bit longer to make his final move and comes off the final turn and makes one final pass of a very good Plainfield South team by 0.66. We take second in the heat. In rapid fire succession, I think:

“Second place, that’s awesome. That has to get us into finals.” Then I look at my stop watch: 7:59.62.

Nico Calderon 

 

“Oh no, that might be thirteenth place. This was a huge effort, but this will be so painful to be thirteenth. What am I going to say to the boys?” Then I grab my phone and look at my photos I took of the scoreboard and quickly count up the teams in front of 7:59.62. 11 teams. We were twelfth. That final pass and .66 got us in. Shaking, I get texts from the great Tony Holler, Alex Lyons, the Lyons H.S. girls coach who has shared this season with me, exchanging ideas back and forth about our relays–his Lyons girls placed 3rd in state the week before. Vandersteen sends a text I cannot share. Our relays have been magnetized to one another for a decade and we cheer for each other. Life is better shared. The Torpys text that we’re in, and more light up my phone. The Torpys were watching live in the hotel room between NCAA Regional rounds. Without even being able to walk over to the tent, my mom calls, looking for some help. I have to solve this problem remotely. It was a microcosm of my year. Truthfully, my brother has to solve the problem with my mom for me. It is a moment I realize where I learned this whole relentless love thing that informs my coaching. The best teams operate like a family; the best families operate like a team. Losing a parent as a teenager, and the team my five siblings created since then, taught me everything that I bring to coaching.

State Finals: Torpys send me a picture of them watching the livestream. I smile. I tell the boys the Torpys are watching and the first thing they are going to notice is our uniforms. I pulled out our 4 x 800 uniforms, only to be worn in the state finals. Those uniforms had done no worse than second place in the 4 x 800 at state and had won two Nike Regional races. After the race, the Torpys would text me saying the uniforms were the first thing they noticed and immediately jacked them up. The race kicks off, and from examining the prelim heats, I knew the opening leg would be fast. Devlin, in his final two minutes, pushes toward the front and runs a PR of 1:57.01. Two weeks prior he was sitting at 2:03.43. Sam Rodriguez gets it in around fifth place. With 200 to go I yell at him to finish what he started. His :33/:34 closing issues turn into a :31.0. Sam runs 1:59.99. Another PR. We are rolling but we are getting dropped. Two huge PRs and we are dropped…have we found our limit? Eddie Slack fights through the labor of being off the pack and fighting a fast pace. Eddie got the baton in ninth and I scan around and see Neuqua Valley behind us. “Uh oh. Their third leg is usually their second fastest leg.” Eddie gets passed by the surging Neuqua squad and we now are fighting for our lives in eleventh  place and gapped. He hands off with a 2:00.97 with one team right behind us. Nico gets the baton and starts running aggressively, but despite this, he is passed at one point and we are back in twelfth with less than a lap to go. I scan up to ninth place and think that it will be nearly impossible to find our way to that position. As Nico presses down the backstretch a fleeting thought passes, “What am I going to say to these boys to frame this as a positive finish?” Every coach knows this moment. I knew they’d be disappointed without a medal but their efforts were huge. With 150 to go, Nico is in all out mode. I still don’t think we can make up the gap. 75 meters to go and Nico is hastily cutting the gap, but there’s not a lot of track left. “Man, we are going to just miss a medal.” With 20 meters left Nico is leaning into it and making up ground. Would it be enough? He leans all the way forward and dives through the finish line. It looked like he might have pulled it off. Naturally, the scoreboard starts posting and there is a long pause for the ninth spot. We finally flash up there to fill that final space. 7:54.74. Six hundredths of a second to get the ninth place medal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can account for a team who kept fighting just to make it to state? For a team that comes in the twenty-second seed and keeps fighting to take the final qualifying spot in the prelim by .66. A team that keeps fighting to find a way through it to get the final all state spot by .06? Is it the athletes who choose their team over themselves? The athletes screaming on an infield in the pouring rain? The parents in the stands with tears in their eyes? The runners who came before them who carried the baton and wore those uniforms and tune in every year to see where the relay will go? This is not a story of great tapering.

There’s so much in sports that’s ugly and not worth cheering for. This relay gives me something to believe in.

I think about Sectionals and State Prelims and Finals. Throughout this eight year run, that’s 72 exchanges. That’s 96 individual legs.

7:44.68 is now our 8 year average season best.

That’s 32 different legs in the state finals alone averaging 1:56.17.

1:56.17 would have placed third  in state in the 800 meter run this year. But that’s not what any of those kids wanted.

I once asked my sister how she was physically managing to care for her infant who was up every hour of the night for a year straight. She said, “When you love something, there is never a such thing as ‘too tired.'”

When I visited my grandpa in the hospital with pneumonia after practice one day this season, my grandmother, like always, had a chair pulled up next to him. He was having a three day hospital stint. I tried to convince my grandma to go home and get some rest. She slept over night in the chair. “No. If he’s in here, I’m in here.”

The best families operate as teams; the best teams operate as families. And when you love something, you fight like hell for it.

 

 

 

 

John O’Malley will speak at TFC-9 (June 21-22), the topic “Championship Oxygen”… Culture, psychology and values are not a depository or an isolated warehouse. These important components to success need to be more like the oxygen of our practices. The specifics of culture and mentality will be shared along with examples examples of making these elements a part of the “oxygen.” Much of what is common practice is ineffective. In this presentation, I talk about how to “ditch the grit”, how to, as a coach, avoid being the reason your team wins*, and most importantly, what it means to provide teenagers with the rare experience of being taken seriously. *credit to Tony Holler for this phrase.

Tickets, Speakers, Topics, Schedule for TFC-9