A HIGH SCHOOL TEAM WITH OVER 200 MEMBERS.

A HIGH SCHOOL TEAM WITH OVER 200 MEMBERS. The story about the Fayetteville-Manlius team reminded me that years ago, I read in Sports Illustrated about Joe Newton, the cross country coach for many years at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois. I graduated from York just before Newton became the cross country coach. This may be the article I read, although Google shows that Sports Illustrated ran several articles about Newton through the years. I remember the story about how Newton recruited his runners. At the beginning of each school year he would go to each freshman gym class, pick out the “scrawniest” kid in the class, and he’d say, ‘You come with me, and four years from now I’ll make you an all-state runner.” Other kids would think that if he can make him an all-state runner, what can he do with me? Newton’s goal was to get 50 freshman. He had a policy of greeting each runner at the beginning of practice, saying something to each runner during practice about how he was doing, and shaking each boy’s hand at the end of practice. Here is a link to a movie about York’s 2005 season, when York was seeking its 25th Illinois state championship in 50 years. The team had 221 runners that year, of which the seven best would compete for the team in the state championship.