Palatine Pack, Year One

Above: Coach Alex Soto, David Moore, Caiden Allie, Christopher Quick, Alex Krieg, Kento Mizuuchi, and Coach Quick smile in the mud after the 13-14 boys crew placed 5th in the USATF Junior National cross country meet.

Cross country always makes me a little weepy. So there I stood yesterday, in a field of mud in Paris, Kentucky. I had just sent our 13-14 year old boys out to warmup, and I watched them as they splashed away through the muck and mire. In the previous hour, it had hit me hard that I was coaching my son in cross country for the first - and probably last - time. Just before the warm-up, I gave the same brief speech I had delivered hundreds of times to the men at Palatine. I waited for their attention. I asked them to look me in the eye. I told them that fortune favors the bold. That belief in oneself and in one’s teammates is all you need. That we had driven to Kentucky to go for the win. That all they needed was to stay relaxed, stay together, and try their best. I told them I was proud, and I told my son that I loved him. And now there I was, just minutes before the race, crying quietly as I watched this extraordinary group of young friends get to it. I never thought I would be in such a position ever again.

Just 13 months ago, I resigned my position as head boys cross country coach at Palatine High School. We had accomplished everything a coach could ever ask for - state championships, All-State finishes, college scholarships, friendships, memories, lives forever changed . As our 2021 season played out, I knew that I was finished. I had completely burnt out, and the only reason to continue was to coach my son. Christopher will start at Palatine in September 2022, and I knew that quitting meant I would never coach him. I didn’t take that fact lightly. I ran for my dad, Jeff Quick, at Moline High School, and nothing could have been more special. My dad’s coaching changed my life and the lives of my best friends. He taught us how to work and love together, how to support each other in races and in life. He coached with soul, and we believed in him utterly. Denying that experience to my son felt like a betrayal, like I had given the best of myself to other people’s kids for 20 years and then walked away when I finally had the chance to deliver for my son.

As my wife and I decided last November to move on from coaching, our constant thought was that we only had five years. My daughter, Madeline, started at Palatine this fall, and we both felt the clock ticking on our family as we know it. During Covid we had grown incredibly close. We also knew that the second the world opened again our kids would gradually start to leave us. We reminded each other over and over that “these are the good times.” We knew that whatever came next had to keep that ticking clock in mind. Just like everyone else, our kids are everything to us. We wanted to do our jobs at Palatine High School, but keep our focus squarely on them. For me, that meant no more missing moments to serve someone else’s kids. I chose to be a dad rather than a coach.

Stepping away from coaching was hard. I don’t take cross country lightly. I am a true believer in its magic and power. Over this past year, running changed my son’s life. I owe most of that change to Alex Soto. I met Alex when he was a freshman on my 2002 team at Palatine. He was a solid contributor on the grass, but he was most skilled as an 800 meter runner. Coaching Alex wasn’t always easy. His grades during freshman-sophomore year left something to be desired. He had surgery on his foot that cost him an entire season. Through it all, though, Alex persevered. He carried us to an All-State 5th place finish in the 4 x 800 meter relay in 2005. The next year, he ran 1:56.7 to qualify individually to the state finals in the 800 meter run. Even better, four years later he graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a teaching degree after running throughout college. Alex was the first person in his family to graduate from college, and his two brothers, Francisco and Danny, followed suit.

So when I stepped back from coaching, the only thing I knew was that I trusted Alex Soto to coach my son. He is family to Meredith and I, and he carries our values in him. If I wanted to just be Christopher’s dad, then Alex needed to be his coach. Our bigger bet was deciding that we could extend that influence to more young men and women than those at Winston Campus. To that end, we dreamed up Palatine Pack TFCC.

Initially, the idea was hard to wrap our heads around. Neither of us particularly like the youth sports world. We despise the big money, travel club world. The expense and time involved for kids and families seemed at odds with our values. We also recognized that so many of the kids we want to help in this community are shut out by travel club models. Many parents simply do not have the money and time. We also knew that running an elite club could push us back into the same high stakes, high pressure coaching world that we had just escaped. So any move we made in the youth sports world would have to critique what we already disliked.

So our idea quickly gathered into three immutable beliefs. Kids should have fun. Kids should learn fundamentals. Kids should build community. Three simple ideas: fun, fundamentals, and community. All decisions had to reflect one or more of those principles. The rest was easy. Right?

Actually, creating a new business and business model from thin air was anything but easy, but with the help of our kids and parents this year turned out better than we could imagine. Alex became the face of youth running in Palatine while I played a background role as his friend, mentor, and advisor. Look back on what WE all accomplished. We ran the first club session ever out of Falcon Park in February. We conducted an entire junior high track season - complete with home meets - after District 15 cancelled their season. We created a 501c3 version of the club that became an affiliate to the Palatine Park District. We took control of all existing Palatine Park District summer running programs and conducted camps for more than 250 kids. We held a community track meet that allowed all 250 of those kids to participate for free. We got District 15 to participate in IESA, and our 8th grade boys team at Winston Campus placed 13th in the IESA State meet. We coached 65 athletes in our first ever post-season cross country session and took 17 athletes to the USATF Junior Nationals. All of these results are a testament to the power of our community, our kids, our parents, and our coaches.

So I would like to finish with gratitude. I thought I had seen and done everything as a coach. It turns out that I had only scratched the surface. The Palatine Pack kids, parents, and coaches showed me that I had operated through a narrow lens for far too long. Cross country and track and field are far more than the elite, high stakes world I had called my own for 20 years. Both sports are simple, beautiful, and worthy of exploration for the most inexperienced of participants. There is joy to be found in small interactions, in minute gains, and in simple memories. I owe all of you so much for helping me find that joy again.

I am a teacher and I love working with kids. So I owe our kids the most. I will always cherish the picture the 20 of us took on the last day of our February session. That group was the first chapter in a new version of my life, and I thank those kids for their willingness to brave the cold, Covid protocols, and the difficulty of a new idea to try our club. Special thanks go out to kids like Addie Dietrich, Gabby Weber, Alex Krieg, Gwen Zimmerman, David Moore, and the others who ran in every one of our sessions during the first year. Watching you all grow up and into high school is going to be amazing!

I was also fortunate to meet so many parents from our community. I thank all the parents who trusted us with their kids. Runner safety is a fundamental that we teach, and we appreciate your trust as we teach young runners how to navigate cold, heat, rain, Covid, busy roads, confusing routes, and so much more. To our knowledge, we didn’t lose anyone, and they all got home safe and happy each night.

I owe a special thanks to Randy Moore. He is an incredible coach at Rockford Christian, and his energy, passion, and expertise helped us every step of the way. He was there at practices and meets whenever we needed an experienced hand. We speak the same language, and Alex and I both owe him for his guidance and wisdom.

I want to thank our many coaches. Emma Galan stepped in during our spring session and learned a lot about track and field in a short time. She is a vibrant young teacher and coach at Winston Campus who coached our sprinters and jumpers. Allan Ramirez volunteered to coach throws last spring and summer and recently accepted his first teaching job. Allan graduated with his college degree at age 36 and was a role model of perseverance for all of our kids. Alec Bollman continues to help young kids wherever he lands and was instrumental in coaching our summer sessions. Dave Cox and Dave Sobel garnered their highest numbers ever for Palatine Run Club while Joe Parks, Ruth Spethmann, Mike Nigliaccio, and Kevin Conway brought back Early Bird after a one year hiatus. Last but not least, Emily Baldwin was incredible in coaching both Winston Campus cross country and our post-season club. She is fun, caring, and demanding at the same time, and we couldn’t have done any of this last session without her.

My most sincere gratitude, though, is owed to Alex Soto. We agreed to build this together, but I told him that I wouldn’t leverage my notoriety in the running community to build the club. Instead, I wanted him to be the chief owner, coach, and public face of the Palatine Pack. Watching him grow into one of the most powerful and influential youth coaches in the state has been a pleasure. He spends innumerable hours getting every detail right and ensuring that EVERY SINGLE KID has a positive experience. Alex is just as adept at coaching a beginner as he is at coaching an All-State athlete. He loves and cares about kids. I cannot thank him enough for his hard work, his commitment to our kids, and his friendship.

I also find it hard to explain what Alex has meant to my son, Christopher. Like everyone else, my kids spent last school year watching a computer screen in my house. When Christopher finally went to school two days a week, everyone he knew from Jane Addams was in the opposite attendance group. He went to Winston Campus and hardly knew a soul. His grades were fine, but he didn’t have that robust group of friends he could turn to for life’s memories. That all changed last February. Christopher grew closer with his childhood friends, who all ran in our club sessions. He met David Moore, Jack Jennings, Jack Kelly, and so many more kids that weren’t from his school. Slowly at first, and then all at once this past fall, he started to gain confidence. His times as a runner started to drop. He had fun and went out nearly every day to meet his friends at Lindberg Park. He began to walk tall and believe in himself. In October, he scored as Winston’s fifth man to help send them to the IESA state final. One week later, he scored again as they placed 13th in the 3A IESA state meet. The scared child had been replaced by the emerging man.

And that is the person I saw in action yesterday at the USATF Junior Nationals. He is not the fastest runner in our club - that’s Alex Krieg, who placed 16th to earn All-American honors. He is not the fastest sprinter either - that’s probably Gwen Zimmerman. He is not the best pace pusher for the group - that’s Jack Jennings for sure. He is, though, the heart and soul of the matter. I knew last December that I would never be his coach. But as his dad, I knew that I could frame an experience that would mean the world to him and other kids. I could quietly build him a frame and let people that I love, trust, and admire help him build the rest. And build he did.

The young man who raced yesterday ran with his full heart. He believes utterly in his friends. We knew that our top runners could be near the front of the race. Alex Krieg, Jack Jennings, Caiden Allie, and David Moore felt that same belief and did their jobs. What we needed was one more to score - either Jack Kelly, Kento Mizuuchi, or Christopher would have to be our fifth. Just past the 1000 meter mark, Christopher’s spike came off in the mud. He slogged on without it, working side by side with Jack Kelly through much of the race to get us home. He charged up hills, fell down, got up, kicked for home, and was right there at his friend’s side as they charged together up the final hill in the mud. Jack finished one step ahead and the two of them closed the door on our scoring. As Christopher stood there shivering in the cold, with his numbed toes sunk into the mud, I hugged him and told him I loved him. I knew then I would never coach him again. But as his dad, I get to be his forever coach. And that is way more important than how he ever does in any damn race.

In the end, the 13-14 boys finished 5th in the USATF Junior National championship, and the best part is that all we ever tried to do was have fun, teach fundamentals, and build community. Experience over goals. Process over outcomes. Friendship over competition. Fun over pressure. Family above all. It is amazing what all people - but young people in particular - can accomplish when their hearts are full. So I never need to tell my son or your child they need to win or else. There are no tournaments that need to be won, no times necessary to validate the effort, no goal that can outshine having fun. Building a community is all that matters, and WE did that this year. Alex and I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts for giving us that gift. We wish everyone a Happy Holidays and assure you that there is so much more to come in the next year. Thanks again!