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!