Long Green Line

For some reason, as I train for the Boston marathon in April, I have found myself reading more books on running, and watching more movies about running than ever before.  I enjoy it, but I'm really not obsessed.  I swear, I do have other interests.  Nevertheless, I also just finished my highest mileage week in several years, capped by a pretty good 20 miler over the weekend.  I feel good, but I also know that really doesn't guarantee much when it comes to race day.  If you don't put in the work, that usually does guarantee you won't run very well.  But if you are in good shape, you still have to deal with lots of factors beyond your control, including the weather.  In any case, the latest movie I watched gives me plenty of good food for thought from a strong motivator:  Joe Newton. 

When you live in Elmhurst, like I do, you can't help but be aware of the great success the York High School Cross Country team has enjoyed for decades under legendary coach Joe Newton.  And since I ran Cross Country in high school for a competing school in the state (many years ago), I've been aware of the York Dukes for since my school days.  But I never really understood what the program was all about until I finally got around to watching the wonderful documentary on the program called "The Long Green Line".  It came out last year with a premier at the York Theater in downtown Elmhurst.

I was finally able to watch it on DVD last week, and I'm glad I did.  It was a thoughtful birthday present from my kids (I think my wife probably helped them out, since the oldest is 4).

The sport of running these days includes many, many people who were not athletes in school, and picked it up later in life.  Cross Country really bears little resemblance to most of the road races we see these days.  It is really a team sport, as much as an individual effort.  But the story in this movie has many universal elements, and I'm writing about it because I believe all runners would come away with something valuable from it.

The movie follows the team from the beginning of the school year when Coach Joe Newton begins recruiting from the freshman class.  He is a tremendous recruiter.  The team has more than 200 members in a sport where only the top 7 runners can participate in the competition.  And only the first five of those actually count for the team score. 

The Long Green Line follows those top runners, including the two runners, twins Matt and Eric Dettman, who are the captains and best runners on the team.  Late in the season they get sick, and spend several weeks recovering from a virus.  They are such strong runners, they continue, and still make strong showings at the races.  This was their senior year, 2005, the cap to their high school careers.  They want to win for themselves, but also for their legendary coach.  For Joe Newton, it was a season long quest for his record 25th state championship. 

For a movie about the seemingly monotonous topic of long distance running, there is plenty of drama.  The team is deep with talent, and that is a good thing when two of the top five runners get kicked off the team halfway through the season.  Justin Jones and Brian Marchese were convicted of arson for setting a house under construction on fire.  It was a major scandal in town, but somehow the team managed to recover and move on.

Then there is the story of Connor Chadwick, who was born with cerebral palsy.  Coach Newton welcomed him to the team and treated him the same as everyone else.  His parents (and the viewer) are moved to tears as they watch how his self-esteem improves and how he is welcomed by teammates.  Connor walked with braces until he joined the team.  But his teammates gather at the finish line in the movie to watch him cross it.  It's an amazing and inspirational story.

The term 'long green line' comes from the race strategy for the team.  They try to get the runners to run the race in a pack, preferably at the front.  They want everyone on the team to run together to push each other along, and to discourage the other teams from believing they can compete.  It can be a pretty intimidating sight in a race to see a group of green uniforms worn by the legendary York team in front of you.

The following quote is from a review of the movie in the Daily Herald.  It's spot on.  Then 76 year old Coach Joe Newton has used the sport of Cross Country running to teach simple but important lessons to high school boys for the last 50 years.  "Always do your best", "be on time" and "it's nice to be great but far greater to be nice" are mantras, which have turned the Boys Cross Country team at the public York High School in Elmhurst into the most winning high school team in any sport in America.  Along with mastery of their sport, Newton turns boys into men, who carry his teaching and his love for each of them throughout their lives.

Every team at York, I'm sure feels the pressure to live up to the high standards set by previous teams.  I'm sure if you don't win the state championship there, you really feel a sense of disappointment.  This year's team, for instance, lost the state meet by one point.  That's a pretty incredible effort, but it still goes down as a team that didn't win it all, and has no trophy to contribute to an already crowded trophy case.

The 2005 team will go down in history at York as one of the teams to bring home the state trophy.  They overcame all the distractions to win the state meet easily.  That is good news for the film producers and crew, who dedicated the season to the movie, and had no guarantees about how it would turn out.  It turned out well for the team, and for the movie. 

So whether you ever ran cross-country or even run at all, I recommend the movie.  It is a look at real life, and real champions.

See you on the roads...

Comments

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Congratulations!!! This is a nice movie!!