By Christopher Hunt
There are times when it’s not enough to simply win. The reality of sports says that when there is no one to challenge you, then you challenge yourself.
So for all intents and purposes, the PSAL championships Saturday are McKee/Staten Island Tech’s title to lose. But MSIT plans to leave Van Cortlandt Park a better team than they’ve ever been.
“I’m not trying to say that we’re looking to break every record there is but we have goals,” co-head coach Scott Crabbe said.
Crabbe went through 10 years of results and challenged his squad to top the best team average and lowest points scored through that time period. It’s a legitimate goal for a team that is far and away the best team in New York City and among the best in the state. That doesn’t mean they take the PSAL meet for granted.
“Winning the PSAL is no small thing,” Crabbe said. “There are a lot of schools in New York City.”
The PSAL traditionally doesn’t have much success in cross country. The theories for the cause range. New York City public school students are allowed to attend any public school in the city that accepts them, which means that teams can be comprised of athletes for five different boroughs. Trying to get the team together for a Sunday morning run or a captain’s practice in the summer can be difficult. Most schools don’t have enough property to build a course of the school campus, like some suburban high schools can.
Even traveling to a local park usually involves students traveling to practice after school on public transportation and that’s if there is a park with trails in close vicinity. Some say it’s simply coaching, and many PSAL coaches are better-versed in training sprinters and a reluctance from athletes to try longer distances.
It’s not that MSIT hasn’t met some of the same obstacles but still the boys are currently ranked 13th in Class AA in the state. MSIT finished second, by one-point, in the championship race at the Brown Invitational in Rhode Island Oct. 18 and a week later dominated the Staten Island borough championships with 20 points in the most competitive borough in the city.
“We’re not the team to underestimate anybody,” senior Joe Brancale said. “Last year we came in with the mentality that we were the favorite team and what happened? We got beat.”
Granted there is no Stuyvesant to stand in the way like last year. Plus MSIT is an improved team. Part of it has to do with commitment, Crabbe said. Juniors Scott Rizzo and Joe Carlin endured their first summer of base training before the season and the results were immediate. Thirteen members of the team also made it to The Running School, a summer running camp in the Catskill Mountains.
“It’s dedication from our athletes,” Crabbe said. “If we could bottle it we would.”
It wasn’t always this way though. Crabbe said when he arrived six years ago most of the questions in practice circled around how to find the easier way to get through practice and get home. Now seniors are calling their own summer and weekend training sessions. Brancale says it’s mostly luck.
“We had a freshman team that was all committed and all ecstatic about track,” he said. “We had a couple good races and it snowballed. Guys got excited and wanted to work harder.”
Now the team is stocked with savvy veterans and leaders looked to break the top 15 at the state federations championships at Bowdoin Park next Saturday. The PSAL meet can serve as a healthy tune up.
“One thing that I know from being on the team this long is that these guys have a good race and they just roll with it,” he said. “So we want to go out and run well this weekend and keep it going from there.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.