Coach Mike Kuharic flanked one of his many great xc teams over the years
As I get older I see the urgency and seriousness of a precious thing called life. I remember as a young boy spending ample amounts of time with my grandparents, particularly my grandfather Prince Jones. He was very serious about detail in his daily life. Everything had to be in order or it was not right. As I got older I continued to remain close to him, but I noticed that he would attend a funeral at least once a week. I thought that he had a lot of old friends. But then it dawned on me that paying respects is a sort of saying good bye to someone that you respected. I would like to dedicate this final segment to two people that I respect from far and near.
I knew former Lyons Township boys coach Mike Kuharic in his prime as the head man for the Lions. I was just a young lad in the stands down at Eastern Illinois University when his 4x800 relay teams pulled a three-peat from 1995-97. What I remembered most aside from Coach Kuharic being a great coach and mentor to many of his assistants and athletes, is his wanting to share his knowledge. I remember one time during the 2012 track season while conversing about order difficulties that I was having with my Lane Tech boys 4x800 relay, Coach Kuharic politely chimed in. "We used to switch our order around until we got the right fit," he said. At the time I had five guys all capable of breaking 2:00 for the 800m. Our top man David Timlin was about set to come off of the injury list. I spent time trying to solidify our leadoff position and anchor man in his absence. Kuharic said having a strong leadoff man was crucial. I took his advice and made Marcelo Burbano the rock in that position. Timlin would assume the anchor when he return. Our problem was the second leg and third leg. Kevin Perez eventually took over the second spot and his job was to maintain position. The third spot went to Lucas Beltran. We loaded things up at the Prospect Invite and finished second to the hosts in 8:02.60. Although we missed on our goal to win, I knew we were going to have a say in the state championship. Perez ran in the open and clocked 2:01. His replacement in that relay was soph Jon Vara who ran the second leg in 2:04. We were fortunate to later win state with Burbano, Perez, Beltran, Timlin as our line up. I did not see coach Kuharic at state that weekend but I did the following season and he was all smiles.
Finally, there was a neighborhood strong head like Dwayne Washington that I would like to say Rest in Paradise to. Dwayne was that older dude that hung around on the block chilling with guys. He was short of a bully that you could not help but respect in the 'hood.' He never stole or extorted anything from you, he just kept it real and made sure you were humble. I remember the time I placed 9th in the Indiana state championship 3200m my junior year and coming back home the next day. While I thought I was ready for the big time, Dwayne wanted to make sure. "I heard you are fast, I saw you run on TV," he said. "But you got to race me though... we are going to do it now," he added with a straight face. Everyone in attendance was looking at me as if I did not have a way out of the situation. Dwayne said one lap around the neighborhood would be fair and long enough. That was about a quarter-mile and hardly long enough for a 2-miler such as myself. We lined up and sprinted the entire distance head to head and just as we got to the finish line he slipped and fell. He wanted a rematch but eventually retreated and gave me my props. He told me to "stay running young blood and stay off of these streets." It's been over 30 years later and I haven't stopped.