Joe Newton at York High School?

I ran against york back before Ron Craker really busted out. It has taken a long time, but I have developed respect for Newton and the program. I used to think they were a cult, mainly for their buzz haircuts in the mid-70's, and the refusal of their XC guys to fraternize with the enemy. All it did was make beating york slightly more satisfying. Suburban Chi-town has produced many, many solid runners over the years, and except for Sage's sr. year, I don't think a lot of people have always thought of york as being invincible. It is just a very strong program.

It always amazed me that for the cover of "long Green Line" a teammate of mine was leading that race, not a York guy. What's up with that? FYI, greenliner, something about your son's school that your probably don't know--that pic was taken at Conant (a triangular, first meet of year) in early September 1974. York didn't win state that year. PS: Conant was not my school.

But this deification of Newton, come on. He is a great coach. All those old coaches from his era, R-B, Lyons, Oak Park, the Maine schools, Deerfield, Bloom, they are all in the Illinois Coaching Hall of Fame because they were great coaches. We just never hear about them because our dads aren't on the internet yacking it up all the time. My coach didn't win 22 titles, but he did a good job of molding young boys into successful, responsible adults. When it comes to coaching, that should always be the bottom line.

I know you will say, no, it's the hardware, but I will respectfully disagree.

From our XC '74 team, only a couple of our guys did not turn into life-long runners. Many of us are still competing, despite being out of high school for 30 years!

Someone already pointed out that it was 1997 when Lockport won the state meet by one point, but I have a few things to say as a Lockport grad.

Setta's original finish place was 26th place on his place card. It took some mentioning by the coaches to make sure the video was reviewed to get his correct place (which was later determined to be 21st). The chute workers pulled him back 5 places for some reason, but it was clear he crossed the line before several of the runners.

As for the original Lockport guy who wrote the annoying post, don't brag about something you were not a part of. Because you go to LTHS now or a few years ago does not mean that you know about the matters that happened before your time.

I have had the pleasure of dining with Coach Newton on several occasions. He is one of the most motivational people I have ever had the company of. He makes you feel like you are the best and only one in the room (even when you ran at an opposing school). It is easy to see why the kids and parents like him.

I have also coached and talked with several York coaches/alumni including Jim Hedman and Charlie Kearn. Their summer mileage is a little deceptive. The miles are not particularly fast and they are often broken up into strange segments.

For example: Run 45 minutes, 15 minutes rest, run 45 minutes, 15 minutes rest, run 30 minutes. All in one practice.

It is a strange way to get 15 miles for the day, but it must keep the kids healthy.

Be objective ...

If summer is 6/15 - 8/17 that is nine weeks, as in 63 days. If your son ran 1311 miles ... that is 145 miles a week. That is higher than you said his peak was.

Either "summer" is longer than nine weeks or your math is off.

The truth is that noone really keeps track of there miles it is all estimate. Mr. Newton just asks everyone to turn in a sheet that says how many miles at the end of the summer and everyone looks over the workouts and tabulates them. For the most part though everyone in the top 9 are over a 1000 and trust me they are not easy miles at all. Everyone works hard because they know the consequences of coming home with a second place trophy. If you dont bring home 1st it is a disappointment.

A great coach and person, best motivator I have met - ever. The workouts we were doing were insane, especially considering that being tired/injured/ill was never a real issue. Looking back I cannot see how we did it physically, while at the same time he keeping the spirit so high during workouts.

Marius

www.mariusbakken.com

The season was a bit longer- I was just giving estimates on start and end dates, and as I look at the training sheets my kids used I see that they ran up to Labor day (counted the miles up to that time), so add a couple of weeks. But I do have the sheets and they did run the miles- 6 days a week they did 2 runs a day: a long one in the morning with the team training and then a second in the late afternoon on their own, and those were usually slower miles. Peaked out at around 128 miles/wk.

I did know the LGR pic was from Conant, had forgotten they did not win that year.

And I am not forgetting other xc coaches in IL- there are some great ones and have been great ones. I happen to like Coach Sosa at OPRF, and Coach Macnider (both of them!). But I did not start the thread, just commented on it. I might be a tool (LOL) but I won't back down from stating what I've seen Newton do- and even Marius agrees. It was crazy, but great crazy.

If we're going to start mentioning other coaches why not mention my favorite, John Kurtz. He's been arround for 35 years, helped start Jim Spivey's career and is a damn good coach. Like Mr. Newton, he helps grow the love for running in all of his athletes. I personally wouldnt take anybody else as my coach in high school. Look at the runners he has produced over the past 15 years, Art Siemers, Don Franzen, Chirs Siemers (despite his injury problems) among others who arent as fast.

I started this thread out of curiosity to find out if Mr. Newton is still coaching. I had no intention of suggesting that other coaches are not strong of character and knowledgeable. Indeed there are several coaches who I think deserve recongnition. There are some small school coaches we haven't mentioned on this thread and some coaches of girls programs too who have every right to be lauded for their efforts, their integrity, and what they have taught athletes. Feel free to mention some of those coaches and if you happen to know some stats and some facts about people they coached, go ahead and mention that too. Thank you very much! Regards, Tinman

I like Coach K a lot, he has tons of style. Not too many coaches wear a ring on every finger and thumb! And he has been around a long time, at a tough school and has seen some great success and great runners. All the Siemers ran for him. He has to be second behind Newton in Il for years in service now. And looks mah-ve-lous.

My favorite coach is Bob Timmons of Wichita East.

I wanted to go to East but my Dad picked another town and school south of there with not much of a program. It turned out to be a great school though and the kids were great.

Fortunately I got to train occasionally at Wichita East, once a week during cross country, during vacations, summers, etc. Bob Timmons was always most generous and gracious to me, as were the kids on his team.

Timmons had a fantastic program before Ryun arrived. Archie San Ramoni Jr. had previously run the national record of 4:08, and East was more often than not victorious at State in both XC and track.

Being out of state my junior year, and a year ahead of Ryun, the first time I saw him run was the Wichita North Invitational, the first meet of the year, where he chased defending state champion Charlie Harper to the line.

The next year I was back in Kansas again, in the same race at state where he ran 4:06.4 in 99 degrees, the only one in the race that got a best time that day.

But the brains behind Ryun and Wichita East was Bob Timmons.

If you want to know about Ryun's success don't ask Ryun.

Ask Timmons, and I'm sure he would be happy to share.

Talking about some of the old great coaches in the Chicago suburbs you can go on and on. Gotta mention Jim Nagel who used to coach at Wheeling. Had a ton of great girls' teams and individuals including four-time state champ Dana Mirroballi (sp?). Also, WHS has produced two current NCAA Division I head coaches, Marc Burns at Loyola-Chicago and Wendel McRaven at Kent State.

Nagel retired and moved out west before the Torres brothers arrived. Things may have gone a little differently if Nagel had still been there. I don't think their club coach would have played such a big role. Nagel was one of the nicest guys in the world, but he had that Midwestern Tom Osborne-like stare that could intimidate the boldest 16-year-old! Plus he knew his stuff!

Other great coaching names from the old days of the MSL include Joe Johnson at Palatine, Jack Ary at Conant and, of course, the Macniders at Schaumburg are still at it.

It seems like everybody was putting in the summer miles back then!!! It appears HS running is heading back in that direction. Joe Newton just kept doing things the right way and the LGL never faltered.

Good contribution! Tinman

Talking about MSL Schools Peter Reiff From Hoffman Estates the only coach in the MSL to bring a track trophy home...and a great York runner.

Pete was one of Mr. Newton's early stars. Tinman

Pete Reiff was a class act- he passed away unexpectedly last year at a very young age, and Hoffman Estates HS lost a great teacher and coach. I remember sitting with him at a dual and just chatting away about his time as a York runner and how his career path developed, since my klds were expressing interest in coaching careers. He always had time for them. He is missed.

GREENLINER are you alumni? i'm currently attending HEHS

I run for York now. Mr. Newton is 75 years old and he says he is going to keep coatching until he dies. We will be going for our 24th state championship and our 20th national championship.

Hey Greenliner,

Thanks for the mentioning in the thread, Noah and Collin were great inspirations for me and friends I always looked up to.

As far as York is concerned, Newton publishes a book with everything the York team does starting from the summer through the State Meet. Any coach can follow the workouts exactly, that is what York does. But there is a mystic at York that puts them higher then the rest, it only comes through experiencing it first hand.

And Bradford, stick to pole vaulting or I'll dislocate your other shoulder. J/K

-Akita

OK, so Joe Newton has been walking on water since 1956.

Hypothetical question:

How many of his protoges have participated in the 12 Olympiads that have been held during those 48 years?

How many world records have they broken?

How many American records?