So It Begins XC 2022

The first official meets of the Florida High School cross country rolled by this Saturday and surprise, look out for Mackenzie DeLisle.  The diminutive Bishop Verot sophomore is two inches taller and took a major scalp at the preseason meet hosted by Dunbar last week.  DeLisle scored the "upset" by beating ECS senior star Ava Povich.  DeLisle followed that win with another Saturday morning at the Lemon Bay Invitational helping her depleted team to a second place finish to the always powerful squad from Naples High.

Verot is depleted with the loss of senior Julia Reitz.  The Vikings showed surprising depth in finishing ahead of county rival Fort Myers which I had slotted as the top girls squad in Lee County.  Granted the Green Wave was running without senior Olivia Olney but Fort Myers needs more from its squad, three through seven. 

Povich bounced back at the Lehigh Lightning Invitational on Saturday in a cake walk.  The Lehigh meet produced two surprises.  Oasis ninth grader Jazlyn Forbes debuted with a stunning third place finish.  The other shocker came from CSN senior Sergei Guzman who showed what a summer of training can do by winning the first varsity race he's ever run, upsetting SFCA senior Hayden Tank.  For reasons unknown Palmetto Ridge standout Bernardo Barnhart did not run at Lehigh with his team.  Let's hope this senior stud from Collier County is healthy.

Another top Lee County runner was missing in action at Lehigh and Dunbar.  Declan Ziomek didn't run on Saturday and despite his absence, Cape Coral's boys show they will be a force in Lee County winning at Lehigh after finishing second to Fort Myers at Dunbar.  With Ziomek the Seahawks could make a run for the county title against Fort Myers.

As for the Fort Myers boys, they won Dunbar behind junior Joseph Koraya's first place finish and won at Lemon Bay where Koraya finished third.  The boys from Bishop Verot finished second at Lemon Bay without the services of senior Cooper Banks.

Next weekend is the DDD Invitational at Estero Park.  Verot is taking the week off but all of the top Lee County squads will line up for the Fort Myers Invitational the following Saturday night at the Kelly Road Soccer Complex.

Jack

I was trying to remember when I first met Jack Turcotte.  It was probably in 1973 at a Lawrence, Kansas bar called the Ball Park.  If my memory is correct Jack worked there as a bartender and I eventually did too.  What drew us both to the Ball Park was a game created by a group of University of Kansas professors that allowed you to play major league baseball teams against one another based on a random number generator.  But I digress.

Jack died last week.  I found out about his passing this morning from an old friend, Phil Wedge, who was close to Jack as well when we were in high school then in college together at K.U.  Jack was one of those special people that touches your life and leaves an indelible impact.  I want to write about friends like Jack because I want to remember them.  I want others to know what made them special.

John "Jack" Turcotte grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of the superintendent of schools.  Jack was a pretty good high school baseball player and plenty smart.  He ended up at Kansas on a Navy ROTC scholarship even though he had been accepted at prestigious Vanderbilt University.

Jack and I became good friends around my freshman year at Kansas.  He was in his fifth year.  This was 1974. He wouldn't graduate until 1988.  It wasn't because Jack wasn't smart.  My goodness, I saw him once in our freshman biology class, just once.  You could skip all the tests and go for it all on the final.  Jack missed every class after the first day and skipped every test.  He took my awful notes and my textbook and got a B plus on the final.  

Jack was a distracted man.  Everything interested him.  I'm guessing he probably changed majors at least a half dozen times before finally graduating.  He must have had graduated with more than 200 credit hours and he even spent two more years at K.U. to earn his MBA.

Jack biggest love when I first met him were the Boston Red Sox.  He was born in Vermont which may explain his attachment to a baseball team in New England.  Shortly after getting to know Jack he met an even bigger love, Patricia McCoy, a sassy student at K.U. from Dodge City.  They got married pretty quickly after that.  

Those two loved to have a good time.  They loved their lives together.  Trisha made Jack a couple of T-Shirts that I will never forget.  One said, "Do it again, Fred Lynn."  She gave it to Jack shortly after Lynn's incredible rookie season of 1975 with the Sox.  The other was on the naughty side.  Trisha had snapped a picture of Jack doing his business on the toilet.  It was incredibly funny and Jack wore it proudly.

One of my favorite life memories was sitting in this little shack that Jack had rented drinking strawberry daiquiri's and spending hours creating baseball trivia.  We would pour through the Baseball Encyclopedia looking for obscure baseball facts.  I can only imagine how good Jack must have been at Trivial Pursuit.

Jack had this incredible beard.  He could shave twice a day.  He decided to have his facial hair removed with what I think was a laser.  I remember his red puffy face after the first treatment.  Jack got his whole face done and I think his beard was back in a year or so.  You just have to shake your head at that.

I think about three or four years into their marriage Jack and Trisha gave put their lives on  aa different path and devoted themselves to the Lawrence First Church of the Nazarene.  It was great decision for them.  Not long after they ended up moving into a house across the street from my mother.  They were great to my mom.  They were great to me when I needed their help in tough times.  

After Jack got his MBA they moved to Dayton, Ohio in the early 1990's.  I was so happy for Jack when he landed a job with NCR, National Cash Register.  We reached out to each other over email probably 20 years ago.  That was the last time I touched base with the man I also knew as Turk.

Much to the surprise of myself and Phil texted me a couple of days ago to tell me of Jack's passing.  The Turcotte's had moved back to Kansas without letting any of us know.  They had moved to Topeka, just 20 miles from Lawrence, where Jack dealt with heart failure.  His heart gave out.  I don't know if I ever knew anyone with a bigger heart than Jack Turcotte.  I wish I could be in Lawrence Friday for his funeral.  His old Lawrence friends will be and that I will have to settle for being there in spirit.

Cross Country 2022

Lee County high school cross country rolls out on August 20th with the Dunbar Jamboree.  I will write here what I have written before.  The Florida high school cross country season is too long.  And I think every meet run before Labor Day should be just 3000 meters.  Lee County boasts one of the State's best distance runners and potentially one of the State's best teams.

Ladies first.  When it comes to individuals, it's Ava Povich and a handful of girls who would like to take her scalp.  Povich, a senior from ECS, is a Bona fide Division One recruit and a sure fire bet to finish in the top five Class 1A at State.  She was the best that Lee County had to offer last fall and there's no reason to think that she won't repeat as the best of the best in this neck of the woods.

Since you score the first five on a cross country team we will mention four other girls.  Mackenzie DeLisle was a freshman star for Bishop Verot.  If she can get healthy for her sophomore campaign she could make a legitimate run for the top ten in Class 2A.  Health will also play a role in one of her teammates who should shine for Verot, senior Julia Reitz.  Reitz was hobbled by the end of last spring's track season.  The question is whether both girls have been able to put in the summer miles.

Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci comes into her senior campaign with an eye on a top ten finish in Class 1A.  She finished 11th last fall and showed continued improvement during her spring track season.  The other girl that is my dark horse for the fall is Fort Myers junior Elizabeth McHugh.  She battled injuries for the better part of a year and showed a lot of promise at the end of last spring's track season.  She could be better than returning LCAC champion Olivia Olney who is a returning senior.

That brings us to the teams and only two are worth mentioning.  Fort Myers has everyone back from a team that went to the Class 3A State meet.  With a healthy McHugh, Olney, sophomore Masha Dorofeev and a slew of other girls capable of running 21 minutes or better, the Green Wave could be a top five team in its class this fall.

The other top team is Bishop Verot.  It all comes down to the health of the Vikings top two.  With the departure of Jorge Fleitas, Verot has a capable replacement in Tyler Stowell who has made his bones as a youth coach.  Stowell has last year's entire squad that went to State returning including senior Kylie Thomas who could be a sleeper as an individual.   

The boy's scene will offer something of a shakeup after two years of domination by Estero's Kolton Pickard who has graduated In other words, picking the best for this fall among the boys is a hot mess..  Based on last spring's track season Fort Myers junior Joseph Koraya should ascend to the top of Lee County's pecking order.  SFCA senior Hayden Tank could be the best of the best given his better 3200 credentials and his 19th place finish in Class 1A.  Koraya was 22nd as a sophomore in Class 3A and ran 30 seconds faster on the same course; than Tank.

The real mess is deciding which runners three runners belong in the top five.  Declan Ziomek has left Ida Baker to run at Cape Coral High.  I suspect the graduation of Matthew Speruta led Jake Jacoby and Ziomek to make the switch where they will have William Canales to train with.  I like Ziomek and Fort Myers sophomore Craig Allard, Jr.  The hardest pick is number five and I'm going with Canales.  

When it comes to sorting out the top teams, it's an easy pick.  The boys from Fort Myers lost their best runner in Colsen Palmer to graduation but almost everyone else is back.  The team is loaded and could be eyeing another podium spot in Class 3A at State.  Last year's squad finished second. Timothy Schultz and Quin Roberts give the Green Wave some seasoned vets.  Coach Yancey Palmer has done a great job coaching both the boy's and girl's teams.

The other top team is Bishop Verot.  Tyler Stowell has a couple of studs to coach.  Leaving Grayson Tubbs and Cooper Banks off my top five was really hard to do.  Both had outstanding track seasons. Banks skipped cross country last fall but now realizes that a season of fall running will help his outstanding ability at 800 meters.  Tubbs had a standout spring in both the 800 and 1600.  The Vikings have enough depth that a return to State Class 2A seems a sure thing.   

What I am watching for is whether Povich can join the elite ranks of Lee County girls to break 18 minutes over 5000 meters.  The last girl to do it was Fort Myers High's Stephy Ormsby.  She's running for the Florida Gators now.  Povich and the Fort Myers boys are the ones to watch.