Blessed Trinity Aims High In Cross Country

PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer

Published: September 23, 2004

ATLANTA—‘Tis the season to be running.

Cross-country runners at the seven Catholic high schools around the archdiocese are outside running dozens of miles a week, striving to increase speed and endurance and find the rhythm to reach their peak.

They rise early for sunrise jogs, sprint the track and trails at school, run Kennesaw Mountain on weekends, and encourage out-of-breath freshmen. As the air freshens they experience the fruits of endurance from having trained through the summer heat. And they savor the solitude, solidarity, spirituality, and stress relief that come with the sport.

Blessed Trinity High School in Roswell has a program that embodies faith, hard work and determination and has had a particularly rapid rise to victory. Or, as their T-shirts state, “We Kick Asphalt.”

When the new high school opened in 2000, about 30 people turned out for the teams. Now there are 90 boys and girls involved. In 2003, the boys cross-country team won the state division AA championship. In addition, the school’s athletic director was awarded the AA state Athletic Director’s Cup for the best overall athletic program.

At the state championship meet, Casey Gramling placed fifth, Greg Johnson set a personal record and placed eighth, with Chase Oliver coming in a second behind him. The times of all seven members, including Josh Houser, Brian Bobb, Asher Hannah and Chris Diluzio, resulted in the

championship.

Cross-country coach Al Stasko, a slender, bald man, with a tattoo of a stick figure runner in the school colors on his arm, is one source of inspiration.

He explained one crisp afternoon during practice that he and the other coaches, Anne Broderick and Brad Henrickson, strive to instill in students a desire to run for life—and to run year-round to be really competitive.

“We’re just trying to make it as much fun as it can (be)…to take it as a love-of-life sport. I want them to keep with it as a good-conditioning factor all their life,” he said.

He attributes the team’s success to “a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work.”

He said that he gave the boys a goal of 60 miles a week to run over the summer, which was not mandatory, “but I have some very dedicated boys who want to get better.” They are now running “about 40 miles a week—more quality and less quantity, lots more speed training and less distance runs.”

Their major competition this year, now that they are in the AAA division due to a school enrollment increase, is Atlanta’s Westminster School. On Sept. 9 they practiced endurance training and ran 200-yard dashes with a minute rest in between, the coach explained.

“We try not to run so hard that they’re exhausted. It’s more of an endurance,” he said, calling out to one group of students, “keep jogging. Don’t walk all the way around the track!”

The coach was quick to speak of the inspiring example of Johnson, a senior and team captain, who embodies that spirit of hard work and perseverance. In his quest to help his nascent team win a championship, he stretched beyond himself in faith and found his own stride and winning pace.

Following his freshman year, Johnson had a benign brain tumor removed in July 2002. After resting for the remainder of the summer and missing the first week of practice, he was back on the track.

Coach Stasko said the transformation was “like night and day.” When he first came back he was about 20 pounds overweight and “very discouraged,” not even making the top 10, and there were concerns about over-exhaustion, the coach recalled. But Johnson took it upon himself to become better than he had been before the surgery.

“Basically he did that on his own,” Coach Stasko said. “I had a routine for all the group, but he probably doubled that just to get himself into shape. That’s why I named him captain. He’s also president of the senior class. He’s got a great influence on the kids.”

When he learned he had to have surgery, Johnson recalls, he experienced initial shock and fear. But as he ran this race for his life, he found peace trusting in God’s promise of eternal life and keeping his eye on the prize. “I just had to trust in God’s plan.”

Afterward, getting back to running “was tough… I was overweight.” But he went on to lose the weight and improve 30 seconds on his time from his freshman year.

“For some crazy reason I started wanting to do cross country (again) because I love it so much… I noticed I did well even after surgery. I pushed myself hard. I worked really hard and still think I sort of excelled that year,” said the lean runner. “I really started getting serious in it after we got eighth in the state my sophomore year. I realized we had a chance of winning state next year, and I picked it up so we could win state and so I’d be able to be a part of it. That was my goal.”

All races are 3.1 miles. A typical practice involves a light jog, stretching, working out on the track or a trail, and sometimes drills. But Johnson and some teammates go the extra mile. They do things like run before school and on weekends up Kennesaw Mountain. The senior said he was running 90 miles a week this summer and has now cut back to about 70 but increased the intensity. He jumps rope for 30 minutes three times a week and does 15 minutes of abdominal work and 100 push-ups daily. He and some teammates spent a month this summer training in the higher altitude of Colorado.

Johnson said it doesn’t come easily and he’s actually one of the slowest runners but makes up for it with endurance work. Speed training drills are “exhausting.” The team’s other top runners through the years like Gramling have inspired him, and they all push each other.

“The runners have come together over the past few years,” he said. “Having this group to look up to, working to emulate them and get up to their level has really pushed me well.”

He likes how this sport doesn’t require trying out.

“It’s competition against yourself every race. No one sits on the bench. I like that kind of spirit that everyone gets a shot.”

Gramling, soaked in sweat as he took a break from practice, called Johnson’s drop in time “amazing.”

“The fact that the team won (the state championship) is awesome,” he said. “Johnson had really stepped up in that race.”

The training in Colorado gave them all a “big boost,” Gramling said. “In Colorado it was you and nature out in the middle of nowhere. It was really cool … I improved a lot over the summer in endurance.”

Freshman Tim Halinski was encouraged by Johnson to join the team. This summer they ran the 5-K Dino Dash—plus six more miles after the race. So far he said his longest run has been 10 miles—“really a big thing.”

“I love the school, I love cross country. It’s been great so far,” he said, while cooling down, with a quiet sense of gladness. Johnson is “helping me to run more miles, pushing me hard.”

Coach Stasko believes Halinski has a lot of potential and enjoys sharing his love of the sport with him and others and helping them develop. He started running his sophomore year in high school in 1963, and quit after the first practice until his basketball coach ordered him to “get your butt back out there” if he wanted to play ball.

“I try to give back to the program what I had. I had a good coach in track that got me inspired in running. I learned to like running. I didn’t at first,” he said.

Coach Stasko, who is also the plant manager, has completed 20 marathons and runs before school. “It’s not just more energy, it helps you be a little more relaxed and less uptight and tense and more patient with people. When I don’t run two or three days in a row, I’m pretty on edge and I feel I just need to get out there for a run and relax.”

Coach Broderick, an English teacher, said she likes to stress the importance of staying healthy—and added that those just starting out should walk if need be at times.

“I really try to encourage them to stay hydrated, make sure they’re eating right. It’s really important. They need to fuel properly to run well … and prevent injury,” she said. “I really believe in a healthy lifestyle, and I believe running is a good part of that.”

She also commented on the spirit of camaraderie and good sportsmanship, noting how many junior varsity students who weren’t running came to cheer on upperclassman at a recent meet.

Coach Hendrickson, a chemistry teacher, recalled the team bonding they had this summer at a beach camp. They also try to make practice days more fun, like recently challenging the runners to see who could come back the dirtiest.

“If we can make it fun and have a great team, then we’ve done a good job. You can be great at running, but unless you have seven or a whole team behind you, you’re not going to survive as a team,” he said. “Running is unique because it’s so individual and a team sport. You’re closest to God when out in nature, and they feel that a lot too.”

At 8:30 a.m. Sept. 11 the team came together for the Marist School Double Dip Cross Country Invitational, where colorful flags marked the course.

The varsity and other clusters of runners bearing their school colors jogged lightly across the wet grass and in place with focused, internal gazes of nervous anticipation while others stretched their muscles, like equestrians warming up their horses for hunter jumper competition. The sun grew in strength as runners from 14 private and public high schools prepared to run.

The Titans huddled together for a team chant before heading to the start, where they lunged and placed their hand on their stopwatches as the speaker announced, “Runners take your mark.” Gramling and Johnson ran steady in the first cluster of boys, pulling ahead to win first and third.

Catching his breath, Johnson said his time was 16: 28.

He was eager to see how the junior varsity would do and to see if some of his friends “get personal records.”

His father, Allen, before dashing off to coach his daughter’s softball team, cheered on the team like many other team parents. He spoke of how far his son has come as a runner and of how his surgery has deepened the faith of his whole family. Before his son’s operation, Mr. Johnson went to church every day on his lunch break to pray, and the family blessed Greg with holy water from Lourdes every night and said a prayer. One day Greg called his father while he was at a restaurant with another son, Mark, and Mark’s softball team and asked him to pray. The whole team said a prayer.

“His faith has always been real strong… The surgery went awesome,” said his father. To regain his running form, “he’s just worked hard and has always had this incredible work ethic and drive.”

Mr. Johnson introduced his son to the sport and enjoys running with him—adding with regret that he can no longer keep up with him in the Peachtree Road Race. Greg finished 119 this year versus his father’s 1,545th place. He ran “brutal” routes with the boys for a few days in Colorado seven miles uphill, and “it almost killed me.”

He believes running is a way for his son to praise God and thank him for the gift of health.

“When he’s running, he gives glory to God because God has given him something that probably a lot of people take for granted,” he said. “When you’re told your kid has a brain tumor, you definitely don’t sweat the small stuff . . . No family is immune to adversity. It can occur in every family at one time or another, so be thankful and make the most of every day. Strive to makes things better by helping those facing adversity.”

Greg Johnson indeed knows in a profound way the gift of running and of life. He’s collecting money around his neighborhood for another big race, the Sixth Annual William’s Walk & Run on Oct. 30 in Alpharetta, sponsored by the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children.

And this fall he’s consumed with running ‘til it hurts and pushing his teammates to reach their full potential, to leave himself and the Blessed Trinity team in top shape.

“That’s what’s great about this school. We are just building a good program. Hopefully we can get our numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7 to improve, and we can add to our program even more and have them get ready for next year when some of the seniors are gone, and have them ready this year to win state,” the captain said. “We believe in our fitness.”