Joe Newton at York High School?

Yep. They are looking better than ever too!

Joe has stated he wants to stay until he wins 25 state titles. He has 22 right now, making poor old Charlie Kern have to wait a few more years until he becomes head coach. York is absolutely loaded this year- they won state last year and have back 5 of the 7 on that team. Of those 5, all have run under 9.40 for 3200, and 4 have run under 9.24 (I think- I can't find my last year's track data), with Sean McNamara running 9.00. Of the top 7, I think all have run under 2 min for 800, and a good number are under 4.30 for the mile. Coach'll be close to 80 when he gets that 25th- and the man looks like he is around 65.

Isn't Joe like 90 yrs old?

And if he is, would that make him unqualified?

So with all teh success he has had, why don tmore high school coaches try and immulate his training? i heard they do 80= during the summer, ALL of them. is that true?

Joe is 76. Or maybe 77. :-)

Anyway, no, not everyone runs 80+ miles in the summer- he has a team of 135 runners each year, and in the summer around 40 or 50 join the summer running club. OF those that do, maybe 15-20 will hit 100 mpw week later in the summer and end the summer with 1000 miles- the rest have distances staggered to their ability, skill level, interest and age (younger kids may never hit more than 35-40mpw). My kids ran for him. They still hold the summer mileage record- 1311 miles for one, 1298 for the other (one day off to visit a college). The biggest week they hit was 125. But they were really dedicated. Don Sage never hit those many miles.

The best feeling ever was being on the team in 2000, I believe, that beat York by 1 point!!! This was after they were declared winner and handed out trophies and everything. They went back, after Nick Setta filed a compliant because he knew he finished higher than he had been placed, to check the video and behold....Lockport was the winner by a point or two. It was one of the best things I have ever seen.

This was then followed by them having 6 all stater's and scoring 24 points two years later...That also was an insane year.

he should change the title of his book to, "coaching 60+runners to injuries successfully."

Get your facts straight, asshole. Setta did not file a complaint, because no complaints were ever filed- and only the team AD can file a complaint. There was confusion over the placing of runners entering the chute, and Setta was moved up in scoring as a result after review- and that took some time. Trophies were not given out and then taken back. I was there- and the truth is that had my son not collapsed due to hypoglycemia it would not have even been close. However, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Feel good you won, that's fine, but don't sit there and tell stories about it.

no excuses....york got beat

I have a few questions for about York, Greenliner:

1) Do you attribute all the success and the usual "5 guys under 9:40" (or whatever unbelievable times that they run year in and year out) to the summer mileage and dedication, or rather to the fact that out of ALLLL those kids who come out for the team year in and year out, there must by (statistics say so) someone of SOME talent out there. Which do you think?

2) How much do the kids that DO run 100+ over the summer run in-season?

3) Does York run indoors? (I don't think so, I read Newton's book a lonnngg time ago)

4) Of the kids you've seen come through York, is it pretty much a sure thing that if they are willing to put in 1000 miles during the summer, they will be good enough for top 10 on the team? I know there are no "sure things" in running (or life) but what is your observation? Just wondering.

5) When does "summer" start and end for these kids?

6) How good is the girl's team?

Thank you kind sir.

oh boy here we go...another bash thread. greenliner...please do not feed the trolls.

anyway, one first must remember that it is not THAT hard to run 100 miles a week, if you go slow and run plenty of doubles. second, when you have that kind of tradition, you draw the BEST athletes the school has into your program, so i think joe's talent pool must be better than 99.9% of high school coaches, who lose many potential stars to effing soccer. also, york is fairly large school...something about 500-600 kids per class is what i've heard. add it up and toss in a coach with the charisma to motivate people to run through a brick wall if he wanted them to...and you get york. it's awesome what he's accomplished. but when you think about it, it's not THAT implausable.

btw, it is also my understanding that york high has IT'S OWN indoor track...built a few years ago...is this true?

You are a tool.

Newton probably can motivate his runners to "run through a brick wall", but, to use JK's words,

Newton probably, "knows where the doors to get through that brick wall are" too.

Yea, they now have a 200m indoor track. It was built late last year.

The girls team is decent, but not nearly as good as the guys.

Coach Newton is a great guy....he once said most High School kids never finish 4 years of college competition anyway, so may as well get the most out of them in 4 high school years. Why did ALan Webb go pro??..ALSO you will NEVER be able to find any kid from YORK through the years, still running or not, who has a bad thing to say about them...Winning in High School, for better or for worse, is how most York alumni remeber their careers, and they remember them fondly.

"They still hold the summer mileage record- 1311 miles for one, 1298 for the other (one day off to visit a college). The biggest week they hit was 125. But they were really dedicated. Don Sage never hit those many miles."

wow that's great record to brag about, trying to win a championship in the in June, July, and August. What'd they do in college? 200mpw? whats the significance of adding Sage's name in there? Are you saying he's not as dedicated?

I'm not greenliner, but I recently from high school in the chicago suburbs and ran with York a few times, and was friends with a few guys on the team, so I could answer your questions pretty well.

1.) Yes, they work very hard, but some of those kids are very talented. The Dettman twins were very good middle school runners and were going to go to willowbrook high school but moved into the York district right before high school, so obviously York might once in a while get move ins like that. However there are guys that simply work hard and get very good as well. Mark Fruin, who ran 9:16 and 4:16 this year, was like a 16:00 3 miler last year or something like that, I know he wasn't on varsity or anything as a junior, and he ended up taking 4th in the 3200 at state the next year.

2.) I'm pretty sure anyone who runs 100+ miles a week runs the upcoming season.

3.) Yes York runs indoors, although they do not run the unofficial indoor state meet at Uof Illinois. The indoor track when I was in high school was called the dungeon it was so crappy, but I heard they just got a new one.

4.) I think it depends on the year and team. With a team like this past years, I'm pretty sure there were kids that ran 1,000 miles and weren't on top 10

5.) Sorry, I have no idea when their summer miles start/stop

6.) I don't know how good they have traditionally been, but the girls team has been very good when I was in high school (graduated in 03). They won state in 2000 and placed high every other year, usually have a few all staters in cross and/or track. Maria Cicero won state in 2000 and was a footlocker finalist.

My father ran for York in the mid 1960s when they were just starting to win state titles. He got a track scholarship to Miami but ended up quitting after a year or so. I asked him once if it was because he was burned out. He said something to the effect of "No, I just had high standards. After being around Newton and the guys at York, the college program just didn't feel very exciting."

He went on to say that he wouldn't trade his experiences on the team at York for anything. He's a reasonable man, and there's no hint of cultishness; just an appreciation for being shown at a young age the joy of working extremely hard and succeeding at something.

As someone else noted, I've never heard anything but praise for Newton from my father or any of his friends from that time.

gavin