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Petaluma earns place on pedestal
By BOB PADECKY, PRESS DEMOCRAT COLUMNIST
Jim Lynch hoisted the trophy his cross country boys had just won at the state meet
last Saturday and, with his team around him at Fresno's Woodward Park, placed it atop
his head. With a smile usually reserved for the birth of a baby, Lynch couldn't let
the moment pass without a nod toward fashion.
"This could be my new hat? Whaddya think?"
Wow, I thought, is this any way for a grown man to act after finishing second? I mean,
suddenly I heard years of alpha males screaming winning manifestos inside my head.
Vince Lombardi, if you can accept losing, you can't win. Mark Fidrych, if you're happy
as a loser, you'll always be a loser. O.J. Simpson, show me a gracious loser and I'll
show you a permanent loser. Leo Durocher, show me a good loser and I'll show you an
idiot. Pat Riley, giving yourself permission to lose guarantees a loss.
And I don't even remember who said the second-place finisher is the first loser.
The ultimatum of winning in this country appears to be printed on everyone's birth
certificate. I don't know when we rewrote the Declaration of Independence -- life,
liberty and the pursuit of winning -- but now it's judged somehow as a major character
flaw in sports if you don't win something sometime in your athletic life.
Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have gorged themselves so completely and sensationally
on winning. How can the opposite of that be appetizing at all? Yet, there was Lynch
and his crew, just to the side of the awards tent, celebrating like rock stars. A
trophy on Lynch's head, a lampshade on Sterling Lockert's, a kazoo in Brandon Felipe's
mouth, maybe Hugh Dowdy doing a riverdance, it all could have happened, if someone had
supplied the props. While the accoutrements were unavailable, the attitude was not.
"It's all about the kids," Lynch told me before Fresno. I never really got it, never
really got it, until I saw the trophy hat and saw how the kids responded. Winning,
despite what Durocher or Lombardi would say, comes in a lot of shades. It is not so
absolute, so black-or-white, that it erases anything near it.
Like this: "This is the first time a boys' cross country team from the Redwood Empire
finished on the podium at state track," Lynch said.
That doesn't feel like losing.
Or this: "All seven of my kids had personal bests," Lynch said.
That doesn't feel like losing either.
Or this: Twenty-one teams finished behind Petaluma.
Or this: "Three years ago, cross country was non-existent at Petaluma," Lynch said.
Now the Trojan boys' team has finished the past three years, in order, 13th, fifth and
now second in the state. That doesn't feel like losing, either.
Winning may be an absolute at the pro level. When you are popping $50 for a ticket, $20
for a parking space, $30-$50 for the drinks and a dog for the family, the 49ers have
eliminated a lot of the gray area. If you drop 500 bucks to take your family to an NFL
game, you want a return on your money, and it better be more than the Niners tried hard.
This is high school cross country.
"This is not a glory sport," said Greg Fogg, Maria Carrillo's coach.
Or a money sport.
Eric Hoppes, the assistant principal at Petaluma, said the base salary for a head coach
who does not teach at the school is $1,283. So Lynch, a fireman, is really doing this
for the kids because sure as heck he ain't doing this for retirement. And the kids, well,
these aren't soccer kids or football or basketball kids who dream of big-time college
scholarships.
Yes, full-ride track scholarships do exist, but a kid's name has to carry nearly the
same hushed reverence of a Steve Prefontaine. So, cross country kids aren't running for
Olympic glory. They are running for something else, and here is where it would get a
little tricky for someone like Pat Riley.
"We have a watch," Fogg said.
They run for time, all of them, Petaluma, Carrillo, wherever. Very few people can tell
the results. It isn't like hitting a home run or throwing a touchdown pass. In running,
it's the same stride shaving seconds over 3.1 miles.
"If you have been a participant," said Ruben Dirado, a Carrillo assistant, "you know."
If you haven't, you don't. But you clap anyway because teenagers are training 40-50
miles a week to shave seconds off their best times. Shave seconds? Now that's a victory.
Shave more than a minute from the 2006 state meet, like Healdsburg's Sarah Sumpter did,
that's a parade.
"Fifteen hundred kids competed," Dirado said. "How many won? Ten? That means the rest
were losers?" Dirado almost spat at the thought. He almost spat at the ultimatum.
That's why Jim Lynch mugged for his team. Make no apologies, guys. Have no shame. You
won. Enjoy the moment. Lynch may not have known at the time but he was channeling John
Wooden.
"Never judge yourself," the legendary UCLA basketball coach once said, "on what you
have accomplished. Rather, judge yourself of what you should accomplish with your
ability."
The competitor is never the guy next to you. It's the guy inside you. That's why last
Saturday was special for the Petaluma boys. In the best, healthiest way, they beat
themselves.
You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or at bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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