You would never know it to look at my but some 30 years ago I was about 100 lbs lighter and was a distance runner. I had the joy and pleasure of running for a school with a long history of success in Cross Country and Track & Field. A large part of that success was due to the Head Coach, Mr. Tom Heath. Words like: legendary, iconic, great, genius are commonly used to describe the man who in his 45 years of coaching put together a national records 42 year 343 consecutive dual meet streak (and still going) , 21 Meet of Champions Titles, 27 State Titles, a national title and more conference wins than you can count.
Sure this school and coach had it share of talented athletes but the lion’s share of kids who ran for him had never ran before and performed through nothing but hard work and effort inspired by a man decades older than themselves. Heath before the end of every year would pull his cross country athletes together for one on ones and issue them a training schedule (rules were they could not meet together till August) . In that meeting he would impart that if you did the work each and every day ….then and only then would you succeed. The meeting was humorous but you felt the weight of the streak and the tradition….no one wanted to be the one to lose the streak or show up to practice at Holmdel Park not in shape.
Block and Tackle, Do the Miles, Do your Doubles….Excellence my friends comes from Hard Work and Nothing Else…..Thanks Coach for letting me be a part of the team and for teaching me how to work.
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/3556352064799591803/legendary-cba-coach-tom-heath-retires-from-coaching/