Netters:
John Molvar's posts on Brianna Jackuceqicz deserve some comment.
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First of all, congratulations to Joan Beniot Samuelson for apeaking
out as she did at Falmouth.,No one had more credibility in our sport than
Joan and I jusr hope Brianna's parents take her words seriously.
I have been at the Falmouth race a couple of times in the past and
know full well it is no event for a 12-year-old. I am surprised they do not
have a minimum age for entrants, at least 14.
In NJ, we are both amanzed as Brianna's accomplishments and
concerned about her future. She is not the first "wunderkind" we have had
here, male and female, but her running schedule surpasses by far any nyone
in the past.
We are also familiar with what a tryannical parent can do to a young
runner,. About 20 years ago, we had a pre-teen just as good if not better
than Brianna but her father was so abusive (verbally) during her races that
she finally quit the sport---her younger sister, also talented, did not ever
run in HS.
I also have some experience at conducting a youth running program,
When George Miler, who had really begun the youth progra here in NJ, went
out to Arizona for some graduate work, I took over his CC program with a
local HS coach. It was very low key with appropriate running distances and
out of it came some very fine HS and college runners, topped by Janet Smith,
a National Kinney CC winner later a star at NC State. When George returned,
he moved his operation from Union to Hunterdon County and the rest, as they
say is history--oput of it came the two-time National JO champsionship teams
from the Hunterdon Harriers and the greatest four-man HS team in our
sdtate's history (it would jhave been five in 1984 had not Brad Hudson
defected to Eugene South for personal reasons having nother to do with the
program here).
It is important, in this day and age, to get youngsters into the
sport at an early age. The competition for talent from football, baseball,
soccer and, now lacrosse, is intense. Those sports can offer so much more:
community interest, uniforms, etc., that it is a wonder we get anyone at
all. This spring, I left an early HS relay meet in a town once famous for
its CC teams and, passiong the local high school, saw what looked like 100
fully-equipped lacrosse players running around, none of them more than 10
years old.
But the programs should be kept at the same kind of low key that
proved so successful under Miller's tutelage. Long road races should be few
and far between, if, indeed, they are part of the program at all, Toward the
end of the Hunterdon series, ywo young brothers came along to dominate the
younger divisions. But they also competed in such road races as the mammoth
Asbury Park 10K.But their high school careers werebrief and unproductive.
I have also been a track father and am now---at long ranbeg--a track
grandfather. My older son began running at an early age when he realized
that his chances foir athletic success were not bright in the more popular
team sports. He ran in somne of George Miller's earlier races and, very
occasionally, when he reached the 8th garde and was 14, a longer road race.
He is still running todfay, as well as coaching road runners. His brother
took up the sport in HS and had a little more success and also continues to
train though his racing days seem to be over So I know there is nothing
wrong with taking the sport up young, as long as things are kept under
control.
I hope that Brianna has all the success her talent deserves when she
gets to HS in 2005. Het 3K times this summer would right now put her among
the top five distance runners in our state---the only ones sure to beat her
at that didtance would be the Trotter twins, Lindsay Van Alstine (A
Footlocker finalist in 2001, and Ocean City frosh Brittany Sedberry But,
in our local JO meets this summer, at the shorter 1500M distance, she was
severely challenged by a girl who was a newcomer to the sport, indicating
that her real talent may lie in distances beyond the nromal HS raneg. But
this is not the time for her to be concentrating on them.
Playing other sports, as Joan suggested, would also give her a taste
of what it is not to be the "leader of the pack,: never a bad experience for
one so young.
Ed Grant.
