October 25, 2015: I join arms with my teammates, hopping gingerly up and down, belting out our traditional team cheer “Rumble Tigers Rumble.” The Lick-Wilmerding cross country team is minutes away from starting a pivotal 5,000m cross country race against our Bay Counties League (BCL) foe, University, and the meet director has ordered our team to break our huddle. I sense pre-race anxiety kicking into high gear.
“Hold your horses, Cole and I have one question for you all,” Brian Ebisuzaki ‘16 says with his signature cool, calm and positive tone. Fellow senior captain, (and former managing editor for The Paper Tiger), Cole Crawford ‘16, asks us, “Who do we do it for?”
When I run by myself, I “do it” for a variety of reasons: to clear my head, to burn off calories from lunch, or to explore trails in the Presidio.
Sporting the Lick-Wilmerding tank, Tiger runners agree who motivates us; we cheer in unison; “Cole, we do it for Jeff!”
February 6, 2017: Jeff Gardiner, head coach of the Lick-Wilmerding cross country and Track and Field team, was announced as a Regional and National Winner of the Positive Coaching Alliance Double-Goal Coach Award. According to the Positive Coaching Award’s website, the PCA Double-Goal Coach Award is given to U.S. youth and high school sports coaches who “embody the Double-Goal Coach Award, striving to win, while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports.”
Coach Jeff is the second Lick-Wilmerding sports coach to receive the prestigious award: Eliot Smith won the Double Goal Coach Award in 2012. Only 150 out of 2,000 nominees won the Regional Award, and only 50 out of 2,000 nominees won the National award. According to team parent and mother of Tiger runners Molly Dicke ‘14 and George Dicke ‘17, Leslie Dicke, Jeff had “tougher odds than getting into the most competitive Ivys!”
Why is the “do it for Jeff” mantra the traditional cheer for the Lick-Wilmerding cross country team? There are many reasons.
The letters of nomination sent to the PCA committee reflect Jeff’s greatness as a person and as a coach.
Jeff cares about every runner, and believes that every runner counts. His welcoming approach promotes a family feeling for the team. Under Jeff, the team has mushroomed to over 60+ students, which is well over 10% of Lick students. Most team members are attracted to cross country and track and field, despite not running in middle school. Kendall Laidlaw, team parent and mother of boys 3200m school record holder Sean Laidlaw ‘18, shares, Jeff, “makes time to comment on and celebrate each individual’s progress in his extensive meet reports and year-end team celebrations.” Jeff’s extensively detailed meet reports are sent out promptly after each competition; he cites accomplishments from each member of the cross country’s roster.
Jeff believes that by being an engaged team member, “each person can improve in their own way. At Lick, the hardest challenge I have is that all of us are accustomed to excelling.”
Jeff’s carefully designed workouts, meet strategy, running groups, summer events and training course selections are all crafted to enable runners to improve over the course of the season. Abby Herget is the mother of one of my personal mentors, runner, pitcher, sports editor of The Paper Tiger, Frankie Lewis ’15. She recalls that “Jeff developed these methodologies in collaboration with the students—his runners’ input was always encouraged. Jeff educated via nutrition talks, booklists (Running With the Buffaloes was devoured by our son), articles, guest speakers and sports physiology information.” 2017 boys team captains George Dicke ’17, Alex Fine ’17, Ryan Kearns ’17 and Jackson Vachal ’17 agree that “Jeff’s core belief is in the power of positive expectations and constructive feedback… He knows within minutes of the start of our pre-practice meetings when [we are] tired, distracted, or ready to be pushed.”
We all honor Jeff’s composed demeanor, mature and genuine coaching style. 2016 girls team captain and co-editor and chief of The Paper Tiger, Maddy Nakada ‘16 explains that,“if you were to see Jeff at a meet, you might mistake him for a spectator. That’s not to say that Jeff is uncaring or inattentive but rather that his calm, quiet demeanor is in stark contrast to the many coaches who run around the course yelling at their team and shouting orders.” Nakada adds that Jeff “instills an intrinsic motivation; he could motivate us without ever yelling or getting upset.” My sister, girls 2013 captain and 5,000m, 3200m, 1600m and 800m school record holder, Molly Dicke ’14 shares a story: “Jeff, because he always wanted to know if we were hitting consistent times, struggling, etc., told me and Chase Hommeyer ’14 we needed to do two more repeats. At first we were baffled. But in the way that he is constantly supportive without raising his voice, he just quietly smiled and kept telling us to do them, so we did. It was an excellent workout and we even cut time off of our next few repeats. It taught me that I was stronger than I thought.”
In 2013, our boys cross country team celebrated too overtly after defeating for the first time in 13 years University’s Red Devils in the BCL Championship. Abby Herget recalls that the day after, “Coach Jeff gave a calm and positive talk on how to win with humility, grace and an appreciation for competitors, spectators and meet staff.” Frankie recalls how “you could have heard a pin drop, we got the message of a lifetime without coach ever raising his voice.”
Girls cross country team captains Jill Reilly ’17 and Lindsey Bach ’17 agree that for the past four years, “Jeff has been more than just the person who thinks up our workouts and records our times; he has been a mentor and a father figure to all of us.” Andrew Rich, father of four year Tiger runners and captains James Rich ’15 and Maya Rich ’17 states that “ I have never seen my son or my daughter work as hard for anyone as they do for Jeff.” Abby Herget puts forth the idea that “Frankie is a more advanced athlete and a more compassionate, deep-thinking person for having interacted with Jeff.” Four year cross country runner, hurdler, and jumper Adam Barr Neuwirth ’17, professes “love for Coach Jeff. He has pushed me to be a better runner than I could have been had I had another coach.”
We are reminded of our admiration for Jeff when teammates remind us before pancake breakfasts, during recovery runs and at the starting line to “Do it for Jeff.” Reilly confirms that the cheer has “never been endorsed by Jeff himself, but is rather a manifestation of the team’s desire to make him proud.”
Excerpts from Gardiner’s 2016 NCS XC Meet Report:
Girls:
Viva and Jeannie were continuing to run well. Both set course PRs by over a minute. Not quite as big PRs as Mira and Jill set, but still both impressive. Viva finished ahead of Huang, so at this point we knew that we had UHS outscored at each of the first 3 positions. College Prep, however, had us matched almost point for point. The real concern though was St. Joe’s. Their third runner was ahead of Viva, so they were beating us at each of the top 3 spots. Not by a lot but by 7-8 points at each scoring position. That started to change at that point. Jeannie was ahead of each of those other teams’ 4th runners. She was the highest placed 4th runner in the race. A little farther back, Maggie finished well (but might have incurred a foot injury, possibly plantar fasciitis but possibly a stress reaction). She set her course PR by over 30 seconds. She was edged in the final sprint by UHS’s 5th runner, with the two of them being the two highest placing 5th runners in the race. Jeannie and Maggie both cut into St. Joe’s lead and secured our finishing ahead of College Prep and UHS.
Lindsey and Maya were next. Lindsey did not set her course PR, which just seems unfair given that it was her birthday the day before. A PR would have been a nice present. Maya did set hers by 5 seconds but she faded over the last mile or she would have PR’d by a much larger margin. Our girls kept cutting into St. Joe’s scoring gap: 61 point lead at split 1, 33 at split 2, 18 at split 3, and 600 meters later at the finish line: 14 points. With all those individual PRs, of course the team set a team PR, by a whopping 5:36!
Watch the Lick-Wilmerding girls’ team place second at 2016 Girls NCS Division 5 cross country race:
Boys:
We were located in the starting block to the far right of the line. 37 starting boxes to accommodate all the teams and individuals from schools that didn’t enter full teams. We were in box 37. At first that seemed a bit disconcerting but was actually a position we could and did turn to our advantage. Without being wedged by teams from both sides toward the center, we were able to get out and stay largely together without having runners from both sides converging on us. All of our boys got out well.
Because this is a new course, I cannot say if this was our fastest team performance ever on the Hayward course. We shattered our team PR set on this course at the Farmer’s Invitational in September by over 3 minutes. The team time is over a minute faster than our fastest ever on the traditional course. Is the new course 14-15 seconds per runner faster than the old course? We don’t know. I suspect not and I suspect that this was the finest Lick performance time-wise ever at NCS… and as you all know, the first Lick NCS boys cross country championship since 1989 and only the 3rd Lick boys NCS title in all sports. Just a remarkable comeback from the BCL Championship and very much in keeping with the talent and determination of our runners.
Watch Lick-Wilmerding boys team turn in a first place effort at 2016 NCS D5 cross country race:
