Should HS kids take down their Pre posters and put up STEMBER ones instead?

You really think so?

I think plenty of runners who are venerated on these boards are complete ass-holes in person.

[quote]WillyWiggins wrote:

I think he would have a much bigger fanbase if he were actually nice.

quote]

Where do I get a poster of Jesus?

Disciple wrote:

Only when Christians take down their Jesus posters.

Because u asked...

http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=1807613527&c=c&search=8979&ovmkt=F8L8UN6M0HUCOM3KAK5SF9T3Q8&GCID=s15100x003%2DOthers&KEYWORD=jesus+poster

Anyone but Pre! Stember like many others would be more poplular if they got housed, got in the driver's seat and killed themselves so then Nike could make a myth/legend out of them. The article shows how overated Pre is and how dumb HS kids are. Nothing like marketing and media.

WillyWiggins wrote:

I think he would have a much bigger fanbase if he were actually nice.

quote]

I'm certainly no Stember fan, but to say he never really did anything is silly. Many of those mentioned in the post as people who have "done something" don't compare to the fact that Stember did make an Olympic team.

Taunting Webb before he kicks your ass seems pretty silly to me.

Really if you think about it, taunting anyone on the Olympic stage for no real reason is ridiculous. Especially taunting the overwhelming favorite in the race.

Regardless, leave the taunting to the NFL and NBA. It does not belong in track.

That's funny that you mention this subject because I used to have that runnersworld cover of Stember on my wall in High School. Of course he wasn't the only poster, but I did respect what he achieved. Later on I started to think he lacked class with his antics at the Trials.

The author also seems to confuse being confident and even a little cocky with being a complete A-hole. Stemeber has come off as an A-hole many times. Who likes that??

WillyWiggins wrote:

I like the message of the article, but why Stember?

Why not Hall or Meb or Fam or anyone else actually doing something?

One more thing to note:

I think Stember would be much more popular if he hadn't been such a jerk.

I can only think of times when he was mean to people.

I think he would have a much bigger fanbase if he were actually nice.

Maybe he is really nice in person, so who knows...

As Chris said in the article Stember started a revival of many years of boring runners. I was one of them. You get guys running 4:10 for 1600 and 9:10 for 3200 in nearly every state and often several per state. It became very routine. But Stember was definately the one who sparked a challenge to the acceptance that those performances should be considered good. Not just by how fast he ran, but by how he could destroy a 4:10 miler.

If you were the 4:10 guy you might not like him, but for a younger kid it was something to be inspired by. Jennings, Riley, Webb and the rest all came after his spark, and their sites were set much higher than the runners 5 years before them.

I remember going for a run before the Golden West meet as a senior with Meb and several veteran foot locker finalists. Most of us were seniors and were just looking for an easy jog. Stember goes of sprinting across a park at full speed chasing a jack rabbit, yelling all the while. At that moment I thought, what a punk. But inside something told me, that kid (a sophomore at the time) has something we don't have, and it might make him very good.

The next day he ran a helluva mile, second only to Meb who was a senior.

Criticize Stember for his antics if you want, but I understand Bennett's message. Stember did inspire.

i can't say that i watch any high school track now, but now that i look back on it, there's just two guys who were exciting to watch when i was in high school.

1. calvin harrison (and alvin, too. they both went to my high school.) calvin pointed to the crowd during the anchor leg of the 4 x 400 at the CA state meet ('93), then ran down the guys in front of him to bring home the title (race and team). the crowd on the backstretch went f**king nuts, as did i, cheering my school to victory. never have a seen a crowd react that way at a track meet.

2. michael stember. i watched him at indoor nationals in syracuse where he made the biggest move i have ever seen a high schooler make. he waited too long, but just missed catching seneca lassiter. i think they ran like 4:08. it was SICK! i wish i had been there for his 2:08/1:56 state meet win.

what did they both have? 1) amazing talent, 2)incredible raw speed, 3) a cockiness of sorts, and 4) an ability to work the crowd.

p.s. calvin was clean back then. he and his brother are the most talented athletes i have ever known. they lacked the work ethic to be as great as they should have been (i'd go so far as to say 400m WR if they trained like MJ).

"Kiss Me Stember"

and why are we still talking about Stember?

GO STEMBER!!!

I'm a Fan

Anyone have an e-mail address for that cat that wrote the article, I would love to give him a piece of my mind

hold the phone wrote:

I'd been reading RW for probably five or six years at that point, and that's the first time I remember ANY high schooler being featured in the mag.

Then you missed the issue with the feature on Louie Quintana in 1991.

Stember did some ridiculous stuff in this sport, and deserves a little more credit for his impact, maybe not as much as Bennett is implying, but he was definately one of those big impact athletes in the sport.

1:24 for his last 600 of his state meet record run (4:04) as a JUNIOR in high school....ridiculous...check it out for yourself at jesuittrack.org, its phenomenal, very few HSers can even run any portion of an 800 meter race that fast ...he also ran 4:07 as a sophomore, and 9:02 as a junior in his second race of the day, and ran 1:49 as senior coming back from an injury that hampered his sub-4 attempts

Can someone compile a list of high schoolers that broke 1:50, AND 4:05? It has to be a very short list.

Stember is also the school record holder at Stanford in the 800 and 1500 and was twice named team captain there, leading one of the great distance dynasties of all time...obviously Lananna gets a lot of credit for what he put together at Stanford, but it all came together when Stember went there...he was followed by Riley, Jennings, Sage, and Hall among others....I know Lananna isn't finished recruiting at Oregon this year, but Acosta (and the others brought in last year) hasn't attracted nearly that kind of following recruiting wise, and it is hard to find a runner since then at any program who has had an effect like that on a program.

As far as the whole Webb taunting thing...I think too much is made of this...All I saw was him looking at Webb as they came in; he didn't say anything, point, he just kind of looked to the side. I'm not saying it was nothing, but not enough to rake him over the coals. He also said that the sacramento track was "his track" and people got so bent out of shape about that...how is that different than any home team or athlete in any sport saying that it is important to protect your home field or home court ("protect our house"), etc.

Anyway, he was an Olympian and an impact maker in this sport and should have people's respect...Pre was equally as brash and cocky and he is treated like a God. Now Stember hasn't accomplished what Pre has, but Pre hasn't accomplished as much as people like Meb and Frank Shorter and he still gets more hype than anyone, and I think this was Bennett's point; if we are exhalting Pre for being radical and brash and someone who gave the sport a shot in the arm; why not give Stember his props, and if not Stember because he is too cocky and a A-hole, then lets get off Pre too and start making Teg, Meb, Hall, Webb, etc. the faces of the sport, rather than Pre.

Very good post! Stember WAS the great high school distance runner in the mid-90's and went on to accomplish many great things in his career.