Things to Do in Tally When You're Dead

 Yes, it's been nine months since I've written a blog.  I don't know if it was semi-retirement, a sudden feeling of angst over the another abrupt ending to the Kansas basketball season or just a lack of enthusiasm about the outdoor track season in Southwest Florida.

You see when I last put fingers to keyboard I was complaining about a nine hour high school track meet.  The only meets I attended last spring that didn't run a couple of  lifetimes were league, district, regions, and my second trip to the Florida High School Track and Field Championships.  It was a rather unsatisfying trip to Jacksonville because granddaughter Masha finished one spot off the podium.  Although it was heartening to see Bishop Verot's MacKenzie DeLisle win her first state title.

While out on a ponderously slow run tonight I decided to dust off the blog and write about a rather interesting trip to Tallahassee, a city I've driven past on I-10 on numerous occasions.  I've avoided making the trip because it's a god awful drive from Fort Myers.  It's a six hour torture test with unpredictable traffic tie ups south of Tampa and again as you drive north of Tampa.

An evening arrival to Florida's State Capitol landed the Czarina and I in a terrible Wyndham Garden hotel.  The place hasn't been updated since the Reagan administration and there's nothing like finding blood spots on your pillow cases.  

On a beautiful Friday we took a visit to the state capitol.  It's rather austere building that looms over the old state capitol that looks like a wreck.  Atop the 22nd floor we were afforded a beautiful view of Tallahassee and the campus of Florida State University.  Other than that the only other excitement came when the Czarina decided to stage a re-enactment of January 6th but fortunately, or unfortunately, neither the House or Senate were in session.

We then took the drive out to Apalachee Regional Park, site of the 2024 Florida High School Cross Country Championships and future host of the World Cross Country Championships.  This course is one of the nicest layouts I've ever seen.  While it pails in comparison to the beauty and the challenges offered by the University of Kansas Rim Rock course Apalachee has plenty of parking and offers spectators decent options for viewing the racing.

I was in Tallahassee to cover the meet for the Fort Myers News-Press and to catch my granddaughter Masha's final cross country meet running for Fort Myers High School.

Nothing in Masha's early season meets suggested what was to come.  She showed progress year over year from meet to meet but she didn't score her first victory and first ever league title winning by more than a minute.  After interviewing her for the paper I suggested that she shouldn't discount her chances at winning State.  No one in her division was running out of her minds and by the time she toed the line for Districts, she was ranked 4th in Florida's Class 3A Division.  

Masha repeated her defense of her District title and a week later won her first ever Region championship.  Again she won by 40 seconds.  Even though her winning time wasn't stunning I again reminded her that winning State wasn't out of the question.

So here we are in Tallahassee, rolling out of bed at 5:44 a.m. to catch the 7:20 start of the girl's Class 3A race at the FSHAA Cross Country meet.  The weather was outstanding.  It was 49 degrees with almost no wind.  A thick fog hung over the starting area which was atop a hill about a 500 yards from where I was standing.

The gun sounded and slowly the horde of 200 plus girls emerged from the gloom and started heading toward my position.  I strained to see if I could pick her out of the front pack as it zoomed by me.  Masha is generally loathe to position herself up front early in a race, preferring to carefully pick her way through the field.  But panic ensued as I couldn't spot her.  Next to me I could hear one of the Fort Myers moms shouting go Masha and suddenly I spotted two of her teammates passing by in new uniforms.  The all black singlets were difficult to spot and I later saw their they were wearing shorts that had their names monogramed onto them.

Masha hit the first timing mat at 750 meters in 12th place.  If you would have asked me I would have said that's a good spot to be in to finish in the top five, but not if you want to win.

By the mile she had made up the five second gap on first making her way up to second.  I had refused to run around the course choosing to watch the big screen with its video feed.  I had trouble picking up on exactly what was going on. It turns out what was going on was Masha making a move going up a hill before heading by the finish line on the first of two loops and by the time she passed my spot about 200 yards away from the two mile mark she was five seconds up on second place and looking fresh and unconcerned.  

Masha doesn't have a great kick so I worried that if she slowed too much she would have trouble staying in the top three.  But Masha made a decisive move on the toughest hill that the course had to offer, affectionately known as The Wall.  She had lengthen her lead and she confided later that she was worried about why no one was going with her.

As she crested the last hill and made the final turn 200 meters from the finish she was well clear of the field.  I could see the smile spreading across her face as she ran easily toward the finish showing no signs of stress or concern.  There was no demonstration or histrionics as she hit the finish line, it was simply the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face.  The time, 18:05.5, her fastest cross country ever.

There were hugs and tears from mom Natasha while dad Vlad looked rather stoic and Masha came over for a post race hug.  She then spotted her teammates that had just finished and there were more tears and hugs.  It seemed as though the girls from Fort Myers High cared more about her winning than Masha cared.  

Then I wrangled her for a post-race interview for the paper.  I have teased her mercilessly about her awful answers to my questions in past post-race sessions but this time with that massive grin still attached to her face she gave the best interview of her life.

The rest of the meet was anything but uneventful.  After all two of Masha's rivals were running in the 2A section of the meet.  MacKenzie DeLisle was one of the pre-meet favorites and Jazlyn Forbes couldn't be counted out.  When it was over you could see that MacKenzie just didn't have it.  She ran to a respectable fifth place finish while Forbes had finally tagged her rival grabbing the number four spot.  Masha has never beaten MacKenzie while she's managed to take down Forbes a couple of times.  Her winning time was more than 15 seconds faster than either rival.

The icing to this championship cake came when the senior laden squad from Bishop Verot claimed the boys Class 2A title.  It was the school's first ever cross country title.  The Vikings managed to put three boys in the top ten and even more remarkable, third and fifth place finishers, Andrew Marino, Jr. and Zach Zeilke had been battling various illnesses over the last two weeks.

And that brings us back to another first.  Fort Myers High has long been a Florida cross country power.  The school has produced a bevy of outstanding distance runners, most recently Krissy Gear who was a many time All American at Arkansas and won the 2023 national title in the steeplechase.  But Masha accomplished something that hadn't happened in more than a decade.  Masha became the first female harrier from Fort Myers High to claim an individual title. none that came before her could claim.  Masha became the first female harrier from Fort Myers High since the great Emily Edwards took the top spot in 2013.

Houston, We Have A Problem

Somewhere high school track and field went off the reservation.  Follow me here to the reality that an invitational track meet with a large field and heats can run five to six hours.  That's understandable.  

Now this old man yelling get off my front porch ran in large high school invitationals that would take three to four hours.  That's before our nation pulled its collective head out of its posterior and started inviting girls.  But even then I can remember going to a league meet in the late 70's that took three hours.

Last weekend I attended a large invitational meet that took nine hours.  Let me repeat that, nine hours.  That's insane and it's stupid.  And it's all about the money.  I don't blame the schools trying to monetize a big meet.  But greed is going to kill it with this kind of a mind sucking event.

We don't need 17 heats of the boys and girls 200.  A large invitational meet should be for VARSITY runners.  Not just every high school kid who wants to run.  It's not fan friendly and yes, fans do attend even if they don't have a kid out there in spikes.

Yes, we need junior varsity meets.  We had three a year when I was in high school.  That's it.  Running a varsity meet was a privilege.   But those JV athletes don't need to be at big meets.  Hold a few tri's or quad's and maybe one big JV invitational.

If you want to invite 20 to 25 schools to run your meet, either limit the entries or as World Athletics has figured out, limit the events.  No one school should have eight athletes in a single event which I saw last weekend. That's ridiculous.

Meets need to be kept to a manageable five hours for the sake of the kids and the sake of the parents and just as importantly, the sake of the officials.

Florida has a long enough season and more than enough meets to make this work.  It just takes a lot of communication and cooperation between the coaches and the state federation that rules the sport.  

Some athletes who make it all the way through the state series end of running  more than 12 meets not counting the new indoor season that's been added.  Ten meets is plenty for a season.  I challenge the coaches and administrators to figure this out.  But I'm a realist, the money from all those schools is too attractive to show some discipline and hold five hour meets.

Championship Weekend

It's late in the year for Florida high school cross country but the State Championships will finally arrive this Friday and Saturday.  All State honors await as many as a half dozen or more Lee County harriers.

Ladies first.  It's been a remarkable season for the girls of Lee County.  Three have broken 18 minutes for 5000 meters which is quite an achievement.  Lehigh's Gianna Del Pizzo and Bishop Verot's Mackenzie De Lisle are sure bets for top ten finishes.  Both have outside chances of actually winning individual titles in Class 4A and 2A respectively.  The third sub 18 runner, Ansley Kelly of Riverdale, suffered a season ending injury.

Two other girls that should claim All State honors are Jaslyn Forbes from Oasis in Class 2A and Masha Dorofeev from Fort Myers in 3A.  Forbes has staked her claim as the up and coming distance star among the area ranks.  The sophomore has made the kind of improvement any coach would like to see from their freshman year.  Dorofeev could go from a 47th place finish as a sophomore to a top ten placing as a junior.

Team wise Bishop Verot, led by De Lisle, has staked its claim as the top girls program in Lee County for the second year in a row.  A top ten finish appears to be a sure thing in Class 2A while Fort Myers is hoping to crack the top ten as well in Class 3A.  Cape Coral's girls which claimed the county championship would need a bunch of PR's to slide into the top ten in Class 3A.

On the boy's side JoJo Koraya, a senior from Fort Myers, will look to add another honor to his Region championship. Koraya took fourth last year at State but the three runners in front of him were also juniors.  Plus he'll have to take down one of the greatest distance runners in Florida high school history, Patrick Koon from Leon, if he hopes to take gold.

Fort Myers junior Craig Allard, Jr. should join Koraya on the medal stand.  Unfortunately, the Green Wave lack the depth that saw them take second at State the last two years.  A top five finish would be nothing to sneeze at for Yancey Palmer's squad.

The best team in the county is again, from Bishop Verot.  Coach Tyler Stowell has gotten his boys to buy into his program and the results have been amazing.  The Vikings lost two standout seniors from a squad that finished fifth last year.  Verot could duplicate that finish in Class 2A.  Andrew Marino leads the Vikings and he should run himself into a spot on the podium.  Teammate Zach Zielke will hope to join him.

Other teams qualifying out of Lee County are both the boys and girls from SFCA, the boys from Cape Coral and the girls from North Fort Myers.

The Quarter

Lee County high school cross country has rolled through a quarter of the season and the surprise thus far are there are no major surprises.   

Girls are ruling the scene this fall.  A quartet of girls stand out far above the roster of runners.  MacKenzie De Lisle of Bishop Verot and Riverdale's Ansley Kelly are at the tip top of Southwest Florida cross country and are among the best girls in the entire state.

De Lisle has joined a handful of girls who have broken 18 minutes for a cross country 5K in county history.  It wouldn't be surprising to see Kelly joins De Lisle in that select group before seasons end.

Gianna Del Pizzo of Lehigh and Jazlyn Forbes of Oasis are both having strong starts to their seasons as well.  This weekend's meet at North Port will be the first time when these four runners will face off, assuming they all run in the elite division.

As for the best girls team in the county, Bishop Verot remains the gold standard for the second year in a row.  Coach Tyler Stowell has put together a team that could be a real powerhouse in another year.

Fort Myers remains the team to beat on the boys side.  Troy Britton has stepped in as a solid third man for a team that boasts two of the top runners in the area, Jojo Koraya and Junior Allard.  But for the Green Wave to climb the podium again at State senior Keaton Roberts needs to step it up.

We were remiss in not mention SFCA's boys in our last blog.  The Kings are a tough squad despite the loss of Hayden Tank.  Jack Gifford leads a squad that could make another run to State.

The same can be said about the boy's team at Bishop Verot. Juniors Andrew Marino and Zach Zielke lead a Viking squad that should find itself in Tallassee for State.

XC 2023

The 2023 high school cross country season is at hand.  Looking at the Lee County line up of high school athletes a handful of runners appear ready to dominate while only a couple teams appear ready to dominate.  This could be a season of surprises.

On the boys side the boys from Fort Myers should continue to lay claim as the top squad in the county.  After back to back second place finishes at State in Class 3A and a solid group of returning runners there seems little doubt about the Green Wave.  

Jojo Koraya leads Fort Myers.  The senior will have help from classmate Craig Allard, Jr. who spent much of his summer training at altitude in Colorado.  Another strong competitor for the Green Wave squad will be senior Keaton Roberts.

A couple of other juniors, Olmar Bartolon from Dunbar and Andrew Marino from Bishop Verot should be at the top of a lot of meet finishes along with Cape Coral senior Jake Jacoby.  The question is who has put in the miles over the summer and who will surprise us with a stellar season.  Somebody always rises to the occasion unexpectedly.

On the girls side there's junior Mackenzie De Lisle from Bishop Verot and a lot of hopefuls.  De Lisle inherits the crown from ECS star Ava Povich who has graduated and headed to Florida State. De Lisle has a legitimate shot at taking the Class 2A cross country crown.  De Lisle should get some help at Verot from incoming freshman Gianna Gyurich.  

Gianna Del Pizzo returns for her senior year at Lehigh after scoring All State honors last season.  Del Pizzo showed that she was more than just a middle distance runner last spring dropping her 3200 meter best.  She'll be looking for a top ten finish in Class 4A as will Riverdale senior Ansley Kelly.  Kelly came out of nowhere last spring to stake a claim as one of the best 1600/3200 runners in the county.  She was a sub 11 performer over 3200 meters along with De Lisle.

The top returning sophomore is Class 2A All State cross country runner Jazlyn Forbes.  The Oasis standout tacked on an outstanding track season last spring to go along with her cross country success.

Two juniors to watch out for are Masha Dorofeev from Fort Myers and Avery Sommers from Estero.  Dorofeev has shown steady progress over the past two seasons and piled up some significant miles over the summer.  Sommers will hope to lead a resurgent Wildcat squad this fall.

As far as teams the boys and girls from Fort Myers are the gold standard.  While the boys and girls from Bishop Verot look to be the only squad capable of giving the Green Wave a run for its money,

The Block Off The Old Chip

It's been a rough week. My hometown lost a living legend. Hank Booth was radio in Lawrence. He was the voice of Lawrence High football. To be in the press box for a Lawrence High game was a life changing experience. The passion, the joy, the bombast, he could literally shake the entire press box with his play by play on KLWN radio. 

Hank was my first boss in the business. As I was working my way through journalism school at the University of Kansas, I constantly applied for work at KLWN radio. Finally, after three years of trying going into my senior year I was hired. I had no business being behind the microphone of a commercial radio station. But Hank and station manager Bob Newton took a chance. 

 What followed was a comedy of errors. The first memorable gaffe should have gotten me fired but it went undiscovered. I had been tasked with taking a sound system out to the Douglas County Free Fair for the weekend. I was also tasked with picking it up after the event. I forgot to do that. Suddenly on Monday I realized my error and rushed out to the rodeo arena to find the equipment still there. I schlepped it back to the station, management being none the wiser. 

 The second boner came during my awful morning shift that required me to run the AM and FM stations simultaneously. This particular Sunday the headset was broken. Normally I could hear AM in one ear and FM in the other. Unfortunately the AM side wasn't working. We aired church broadcasts during the late morning part of my unbearable six hour shift which required a lot of patching of cables to bring those broadcasts to air. This Sunday I unknowingly had left my microphone open after having given the station ID on the AM side and patched in the Plymouth Congregational Church service. I couldn't hear it. I repatched and still couldn't hear it. I began to steam and cuss and on the other side of the glass the newsman, Craig Martens, started pounding on the glass pointing to the red light. My microphone had been on and the expeletives had been broadcast live right over the church service. I realized my error and figured I was just a few hours away from getting fired. Craig saw the humor in my mistake but I certainly didn't. 

Days and weeks went by and I heard nothing about my terrible mistake. Finally about two months after the fact, Hank called me into his office and asked if I had sworn on the air during the church broadcast. I said yes. I figured he was going to fire me right there. He looked me over and simply said, don't do it again. And that was that.

I went back to work for KLWN almost 15 years later while I went to graduate school. I had a lot of television news experience under my belt. My first Sunday back on the board we had a tornado and I walked the listeners through the storm in a way that I could have never done in my first tour of duty at KLWN. Later that day Bob Newton called me and simply said, you got good. After that I was invited back to man the studio board during storm coverage. Hank liked nothing better than chasing tornadoes through Douglas County. It was a staple of storm coverage for the Lawrence community. Hank Booth was better to me than I ever deserved. 

 And as for the title of this piece, the block off the old chip. It refers to what a friend mine, former Lawrence High teacher Tony Gauthier once said about Hank. If you knew Hank, he was a large man, his dad Arden, also a broadcast legend, was rather slight. Enough said. RIP Hank.

Finally A Champion

Southwest Florida distance runners can hold up their heads for their performances at last week's Florida State High School Track and Field Championships. The four classes competed on four separate days spread Wednesday through Saturday. 

In the end Bishop Verot the boys and girls proved their teams can claim the spot as the top distance power in Lee County when looking at all of the results. And finally for one Southwest Florida distance star, a state championship could be claimed. 

Starting with Class 4A ladies Gianna Del Pizzo, the Lehigh junior, pulled off a fine double placing 4th in the 1600 with a personal best of 5:05.8. She doubled back in 11:29.52 in the 3200 placing 11th. Ahead of her in that race was the breakout sensation from Riverdale, junior Ansley Kelly. She placed 5th running 11:11.52. 

I usally don't touch on Collier County runners but the performances of Palmetto Ridge senior Bernardo Barnhart and Gulf Coast junior William Montoya in the 3200 stand out. Barnhart clocked one of the fastest 3200 times from the area in years hitting 9:12.24 for 3rd while Montoya was close behind running 9:17.82 to finish 5th. 

The biggest Class 3A result came from the boys of Fort Myers in the 4x800. Timmy Schultz and Joseph Koraya helped lead the Green Wave to a 4th place finish in the 4x800 in a school record 7:57.68. Schultz and Koraya doubled back in the 1600. Koraya, only a junior, took seventh running 4:24.73. Schultz, a senior, was 14th in 4:29.24. The only other podium finish came from Declan Ziomek. The Cape Coral senior finished 8th in the 3200 hitting the finish in 9:31.50. Dunbar junior Joshua Dorestin came close finishing 9th in the 800 running 1:57.75. 

The only girl to race in an open event was Fort Myers sophomore Masha Dorofeev who passed up the 1600 to focus on the 3200. Her decision almost paid off with a podium finish with Dorofeev placing 9th in a personal best of 11:15.06. Class 2A was the Bishop Verot show. Both the boys and girls squad grabbed 4th place in the 4x800. 

The Verot girls of Sofia Roman, Julia Reitz, Kylie Thomas and Mackenzie DeLisle did it in style clocking a school record of 9:31.44. Reitz followed that up with a fine 8th place finish in the 1600 with a personal best 5:07.65 while super sophomore DeLisle took 4th in the 3200 running 10:55.26. The Vikings Grayson Tubbs doubled back in the open 800 taking 3rd in 1:56.52. Class 1A saw the girls of SFCA snag an 8th place finish with a 10:00.32. 

We also want to give a nod to SFCA senior Hayden Tank who wrapped up his fine career with a 9:38.06 and a 9th place finish. Hard to believe that Tank would run that fast and not podium. The capper goes to Ava Povich who once again showed what it takes to be ready for a state championship. Povich ran a sterling 5:01.84 to take 4th in the 1600. Then making a bold move with two laps to go the Florida State bound star held on to win her first state title running 10:47.99. Povich now joins the ranks as one of the best distance to ever come out of Lee County.