McChesney Brothers

SpinneyLives wrote:

-the statman

bump.

i'd like more info/stories about this incredible family. they seemed to have an incredible talent and work-ethic.

i believe steve won 3 or 4 state championships in wrestling as well, and the guy can still do an iron cross. simply amazing athletic talent. now steve coaches a very succesfull girls xc team somewhere in the northeast.

Great thread. I've met Mr. and Mrs. McChesney, two great people. Very sad they lost two boys, incredibly sad. I've heard nothing but good things about Billy, Tom, Steve, and Ken -- all class acts. Obviously the parents did a great job of raising them.

Not sure if this is true, but I heard when Bill ran 13:14 in Europe, midway through the race he was elbowed off the track and rolled into the infield, got up and got back into the race. Bill was a big time stud, a tremendous runner. I hope the haters here on this board don't bash any of the McChesneys, they are great folk.

Steve can still do an iron cross? A total stud , then and now. Go Bolt!

OK, this is from someone who really knows...

Kenny was a phenomenal runner, he led my team at AAU Nationals in '84 to a second place finish (along with Eric Peterson of UCLA). We had a heck of a team. Ken was 2 years ahead of me in HS, Steve was our coach at the time.

Tom was struck by a truck (he did not see it) and was killed the year after Kenny graduated HS. He and his family took it very tough, as they are a very close knit and wonderful family.

Billy was killed in a head on car accident along the coast of Oregon around 92/93 (can't remember the exact year). I remember getting the call, it was devastating. I only met Tom once or twice, but Billy used to run with us on occasion.

They are one of the best all time running families and I have the deepest of respect for them and their contributions to running.

man, there's a name from the past... I tried (unsuccessfully) to chase his marks in the 800 on the school's top ten board when I was at SEHS. Not even close... dirk used to work with us on occasion too, I felt very fortunate to run with that group.

funny story...

Stegve used to have us do Lydiard workouts on the weekends out in Loraine. Both Kenny and I were coming off injuries so we were initially told to "take it easy", yeah right Stevo... that was never in our vocabulary.

We come throught the first mile slightly fast, we're told to slow it down a hair. We then start to notice all these catepillars along the side of the road. We're talking hundreds of these little things all over the place, I'd never seen anything like that before.

So, Ken and I start squishing them (as teenage boys will tend to do) as we run. That slowly turns into a competition as the "herd" starts to dwindle down to see who could get to the fuzzy little guys first. We're jostling for position, elbows out, shoving each other out of the way as we run down this back road towards the second mile marker. Needless to say, we cross through mile 2 with something like a 5:20 mile, way under pace, shoving each other as Steve's reading off splits. He notices that the elbows are flying and shouts out "what the heck are you guys doing?!?"...

"Catepillars"... we reply in unison. We had a hell of a run that day, Steve got over it, but I never really saw the fuzzy guys again out there.

I just read this - doing some googling. My son's track coach is Steven McChesney. Steve made up a DVD of the recent season at a school called "Newton South High School".

At the end of the DVD, he tagged on some footage of him and his brothers running at their high school in Oregon.

For what it's worth, Steve is a fantastic coach - the girls team went to the Nationals, and did rather well, particularly when you consider the school size.

Both Newton South and Newton North had good seasons this year. Newton is a town of about 80,000. Newton North won the Mass. State title this year, and boasts a sub 4:10 miler named Chris Barnicle, who is now off to Arkansas.

Newton South had a specactular 4x800m girls' relay.

And Steve is one of the best coaches in the area

Hre's a picture on the front page of OregonXC, with the McChesney brothers.

This is the Steven McChesney of Oregon now living and coaching in Newton Ma. @ Newton South. I am writing this as a way to keep in touch with those of you that I have crossed paths with. There are times that I miss Eugene a great deal. But I do love everything about Ma., but the snow. When I come out to Eugene it is impossible to see all of you that have impacted me. So here is my part in catching up with some of you. For those of you interested as fans I hope to honor my family as so many of you have. I will not say anything that I would not say to any of you in person. Sharing like this is my way of handling what we have been through and I am comfortable with all that I share.

I was amazed to see this much stuff written about our family. It is funny, but until recently I did not realize the richness of our experiences. Being around so much greatness at South and Oregon (I believe 10 or more of our Oregon team made the Olympics) just seemed part of what we all did. To me my family was just the loving group that shared laughs at the dinner table and kidded each other constantly. Tom and Bill were very human. They both were deeply devoted to others. I have more stories about their compassion than I do about running.

Hi Eric,Dina and John! Thank you, everyone for the kind words about my family. It is nice to see mom and dad so kindly talked about as they have been the greatest parents and have given us all a great foundation. All of four of their sons went into careers that impacted young people. Tom and Bill died on their way to serve high school kids. Tom was a science teacher and coach and Bill gave free motivation seminars as part of his youth awards business. By the way I believe mom holds the most records in running of all of us. Some other time I might share the story about Dad and I competing against each other (a little trash talking was involved between father and son) in an age graded mile and mom beat us both.

Kenny was a gifted runner and he certainly made his mark. People talk about the injuries (growth related, Ken went from about 5\'2 - 5\'10 in high school), but it was the sudden death of Tom and then the timing of Bill\'s death in college that made being focused on running impossible. Still he did help Montana to a 9th place finish in the NCAA XC and won the steeple at Junior Nationals. He may have achieved the most of all of us given the circumstances. He just received the honor of being runner up small school teacher of the year for his work as a middle school teacher and coach. I am very proud of my brother Ken. He is the best father, brother and teacher that I anyone could have.

I will not get into how my brothers died. I shared a room with Tom through high school and I was my brother Bill\'s roomate at times in college. I never ran on a team without a brother along side. That was a great gift. Bill was to be the best man at our wedding. He died about six months before my wife and I got married. I have not been able to visit the sight where Billy died. I did when Tom died and it was too overwhelming. I may from time to time talk about how they lived. So please for the sake of all of us (Ken is the one who told me about this link) keep the rumor out of this thread.

My wife Marianne and I are indeed proud parents of two great little guys. We honored Bill and Tom by naming our first born William Thomas Santos (wife\'s maiden name) McChesney. He is 4th generation William. Both of my grandfathers were William, my dad and then my brother. He is so Billy. All energy and on the go all of the time. Our other twin is Steven Rudolfo (Father in law\'s name) Santos McChesney. He is a talker like his dad, but forunately for all of us he has his mom\'s personality. They were born on Dec. 2nd. We took them to the Tom and Bill McChesney Track (South Eugene named the facility after Tom and Bill) and Billy\'s memorial (a tree and plaque) at Hayward field and the Oregon Hall of Fame this summer. It felt wonderful to have places so fitting to take the boys to.

Note: if the boys decide to run part of the credit will go to Marianne. Marianne and I have coached together since 1990 and she has run a remarkable couple of marathons given the limited training that she was able to do around teaching and coaching. She gave up coaching to spend more time with Billy and Stevie.

Yes, I could do an iron cross at age 46, but I haven\'t tried it for a couple of years. I did a back lever recently (another cool move that my high school athletes can\'t do). But just this past summer I worked out with my high school coach Harry Johnson and he showed me up big time. My junior high coach Jerry Andrews would always do one more pull up or push up than the best of his kids. I remember doing 99 bar dips in a row and Jerry did his 100th slowly while smiling at me. I consider both of their teachings in all that I do.

If I am a successful coach it was their doing and the great kids that I am so lucky to spend time with. Our current team has a chemistry that is wonderful. This is a great group to start the boys of with.

I just turned 49 and I am gearing up to turn 50 and hit the master track circuit again. I broke my ankle a year ago and the twins coming have been set back my training, but I look forward to the fun of being on the track again. More importantly I want to be able to romp with the boys as they grow. Sometimes I think McChesney years are a bit different when I see how my parents have handled aging so I am fine with being an older parent. None of the awards in running and coaching come close to them smiling and reaching for us.

Well, I have to run to practice. We are putting on a meet at our school tomorrow and Marianne is going to bring the boys to see the kids, parents and coaches. Should be a lot of fun.

Bless all of you.

Take care,

Steven

Hi Steve,

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

Any chance I can get you to write a story for chasingtradition.com They have some great stuff on the site.

Dwight

1500Master wrote:

Dirk Lakeman wasn't much until he went to college, .

A 4:04 high school miler "wasn't much?"

Great post Steve. I've heard nothing but great things about you as a coach and person. I've also been lucky to have met your wonderful parents. I'm glad Tom and Billy have been appropriately honored at South Eugene, and FINALLY I believe Billy was inducted into the UO Hall of Fame. I raised a bit of a stink about that in why they were taking so darn long, but at least he's in!

The McChesney legacy should be better documented today and not regulated to old Eugene newspaper microfiche, in my opinion. I think the McChesney family story is quite inspiring.

Thanks for sharing!

* I heard at one time South Eugene had 65 runners in the high school who could run under 5:00 for a mile. That's impressive! Of course that's in addition to about the 10 guys they had running under 4:20.

another thing about steve......HE was the best dancer in the family.

mmmm - is there any other more accomplished family in US running hx? Wouldn't seem so. Unfortunately for me - I was 'retired' and not even peeking at a T&FN during this great 'run' of talent.

The link above didn't get me to a pic(s). Any place on the internet - I'll google.

ya know the best thing about "letsrun"?

all us dinosaurs get to find each other after 30 years.

thanks.....

Tom McChesney died in a Car Accident in the early 80's

I know of John Gustafson, seth brown, nielson and even Steve Surface.. I ran with them all.. we had great track and cross country teams in the early 70s.. won state all three years I was there.. Tom McChesney, Steve McChesney and Bill McChesney, Steve Surface, Devon Flynn... we had a pretty good team then.. oh and best of all Harry Johnson our coach... he was the best High School Track Coach ever.. I think he still works at Nike..

Steve... a big hello from Tom Hargreaves... I typed Bill McChesney in Google and have been having a wonderful time reading all the great stuff about Bill, Tom you and Ken..

did they ever have the Reunion For Harry Johnson? Steve Surface E.mailed me about a year and half ago.. then I never heard anything else about it.. I wanted to go but had no details..I am still living in Eugene.. I own a Financial Planning Company... going to the South Sheldon Football game this Friday with my dad.. I see your Dad in Town once in a while.. twins at age 48... way to go stud... nice to hear all is going well with you.. you were one of my high school friends I enjoyed hangin out with.. hope to hear back from you..

Tom