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Trojans' missing piece - the wolverine By Bob Padecky Published: Thursday, November 27, 2008 FRESNO - It wasn’t that they were casual. It wasn’t that. The Petaluma cross country boys pushed themselves hard. The state meet was just six days away and yet something was missing, something to extract that untapped one percent. Something like the eye of the tiger. Or the fire in their belly. Yes, that was it. What was missing was a metaphor. That’s how Jim Lynch came up with the wolverine. “The wolverine is noted for its strength, cunning, fearlessness and ferocity,” the coach told his cross country boys at practice last Monday, reading from notes. He had handed out a picture of a wolverine so the boys could see what he was talking about. “It preys on all manner of game,” Lynch continued reading. “It does not hesitate at all. No animal will take on the wolverine except the human being.” The Trojans listened wide-eyed and impressed. In a second they knew what Lynch was doing. “It was exactly what we needed,” said Sterling Lockert, the Trojans’ No. 1 runner. “It was the final missing piece.” The missing piece? It was a leader who inspired, who would laid it all down for everyone to see. Here’s the one percent that’s missing. The Petaluma boys all saw each other as equals, buds, no matter what their times. Everyone had grown up together, Lynch said, knew each other so well. It would have been weird for one to all of a sudden become the Alpha Male. “Wasn’t like last year,” Lynch said, “when we had a Cole Yungert.” Yungert was willing to stand above, deliver the message. This time it was the coach who stood above. But how? Exactly? In the next six days his kids weren’t going to get any more fit. Or smarter. Lynch saw Petaluma, Barstow and Campolindo as equals, so good and so close in ability that the D-III state champion would come from one of these schools. Physically they were mirror images of each other. So how could Petaluma separate itself from the pack? Attitude. Being tough. Being fearless. Willing to push to every fevered drop of sweat and desire until expended. That’s why the wolverine made sense to Lynch. “If the wolverine was the size of a bear,” Lynch told his kids, “he’d be the strongest animal on earth. A cougar will back away from a carcass if a wolverine approaches. It is predator, not prey.” That last sentence was key. Just two days before Petaluma had been upset in the NCS cross country meet, finishing second to Campolindo. After finishing second in the state in 2007 Petaluma’s goal was to win state in 2008. To finish second in the NCS was not part of the grand plan. So his kids could go into a tailspin after not winning NCS. They could feel diminished, certainly inferior. Sunday Lynch sought out his mentor, long-time Petaluma coach Doug Johnson. Johnson told him the most amazing thing. “Doug said Campolindo had just done most of my coaching for the week,” Lynch said. “We no longer have the target on our back. They do. Doug said we are the hunter now, not the hunted.” Campolindo is the prey. Petaluma is the predator. Or, as Lynch might like to think of it, a wounded wolverine is even a more dangerous predator than a wolverine. “If we go out there and everyone puts out all their effort and we don’t win,” Lockert said, “I would have no problem with that. But if one of the guys doesn’t give it everything, I would be very upset. I just think that if we all push ourselves to the maximum, I don’t see how we can possibly lose.” In the great clichés that inhabit and sometimes take over sports, “giving it your all” may be the most tired and worn-out of them all. It is such a nebulous phrase, almost vapid because it appears so ill-defined. It’s like “giving 110 percent.” “Giving it your all” leaves so much room open to interpretation. But not if the mug of a wolverine is placed next to the phrase. Yep, a wolverine gives it his all. Doesn’t leave anything in the forest, you might say. The predator knows no fear. He doesn’t know second place. For more on North Bay high school sports go to Bob Padecky’s blog at padecky.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bob.padecky@press
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