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by John Dye
BALTIMORE MD 9/20/01 -- At the Meet
of Champions in Hilliard OH last Saturday, we asked Rockford
MI Coach Brad Prins what it was like with superstar Dathan Ritzenhein
off to college this year.
"Quiet," said Prins.
The same question to a North Kent Running Club fan brought another
one word answer, "Empty." (NKRC is the big booster club
that has been a factor in Rockford's sensational success in recent
years.)
This sounded negative to the Rockford runners, so two of them wrote
to DyeStat to defend the honor of the current team. Neither knew
the other was writing. Here is what they said:
Matt Wish
Dear Mr. Dye,
Hello, my name is Matt Wish, and I am a Rockford Varsity runner.
First
of all I would like to thank you for driving all the way to the
Hilliard
meet from your home in Baltimore. It was really cool to see you,
and
I've enjoyed the recent additions to your website. There are some
great
pictures.
The reason I am writing this e-mail is because our team feels bad
about
how we were portrayed in the caption under our picture. Life without
Dathan is just fine. Sure we miss him, but we are a new seven, and
we
are having a great time. Mark Nessner, (our coach) said that we
are
doing awesome, for the talent we have, and I agree. Our team is
anything
but quiet and empty. We are just as full, and we are having just
as
much, if not more fun than ever before. Sure we are not the running
powerhouse like last year, but we are winning and working just as
hard.
We love every minute of it. Mr. Prins, and the NKRC member didn't
really
know what they were talking about.
I hope this letter gives you a little bit better of an understanding
of
where we are as a team. Thank you for listening, and please continue
to
keep the High School Running world updated using your awesome web
site
tool.
Thank you, and have a great day.
Sincerely, Matthew Wish
Eric Graf
Mr. Dye
This weekend Ii had the pleasure to compete at the
biggest race so far in my
life at the meet of champions in hilliard. It was great because
of all the
support we had come down to watch and support us. I know for one
sure
thing, NO ONE and i mean no one would ever say it feels empty in
rockford xc
like you had a NKRC member quote that. I can confidently say this
because
until saturday we were surprising the heck out of people. We dont
have one
senior on our team and I ( a sophomore) am leading a very tight
pack of
runners. I might not be a Dathan but I can tell you that we have
an excellent
chance to take top 5 at our state meet this year. I can say this
because we
will have top 2 in the 15s and the rest will be low 16s. I should
actually
be thanking you for saying that, you have made our team mad and
even more
hungry for our state meet. By the way we have orange "R"
on our jerseys.
Dont be so quick to criticize we have 0 experience on this team.
After we published the letters from Matt and Eric, another Rockford
runner, Ross Anderson, gave us his thoughts.
Ross Anderson
Dear Mr. Dye,
First of all, thank you for the awesome work you
have done. I love the
website, and its great the amount of attention you give to an underrated
sport, cross country. I for some reason love results, and there
is no
better place to find them than here. And even though the messageboards
can
get out of hand (I have to take some of the blame for it. Sometimes
I post
a little too much.) I do appreciat having a place to get the opinions
of
others and the new running scoops. I also appreciate that you go
to all
the big meets just to see us run and post names on your results
that
otherwise might not be seen for what they accomplish during a race.
It's
great seeing Rockford's names and times, among many other deserving
teams
and athletes, posted on a site and given the recognition they deserve.
As my friends have told u before, we are doing well
without Dathan.
Sure it was great having him. Yeah I miss him and I wish he was
still
around. He is cool, and it was exciting watching him run (I can
go on
and on about the kid, but I'm sure you all know enough about him.).
But one
thing he didn't take wiith him to CU was this team. I may miss him,
but we
have new friends to run with. Graf and Wish, the kids that wrote
you, I
love em to death. We have so much closeness on the team. Even little
Kevin
Racey (the kid known to look like Harry Potter) has found his spot
on the
team. Not only do we run together all summer, but the kids on the
team are
usually the ones we end up doing stuff with during the day. We may
not all
be the same speed as eachother, but we know how to have fun together.
My
best memories of my senior summer, my last real summer, was spent
with cross
country runners, the kids I like the most. We ran hard, worked hard,
and
most of all, we had fun. Cross country is like no other sport. I
hear all
the time how football players don't wanna play or hate practice,
but all of
the Rockford runners can truly say they love running. . We love
our coach.
Mark Nessner is a great guy, and I love him to death.
I am a slow runner, but I have stuck around because
of the greatness of being
with this team and because it made me love
running. I
may not remember all my practices, but I will remember how all the
memories
that happened during practices and after. the people on this team
are like
no other. Sure we may not be as fast as last year's team, but we
still have
the same amount of fun. I don't know if I'll ever forget the fun
we had.
The laughs were great. Nick Darby and the rest of the sophomores
are fun
kids. The girls are also a great part of Rockford. They work insanely
hard and they know how to have fun.
If u notice on our jerseys, it does'nt have a big "D"
on the front, It
has a "R" on it, standing for something even more than
Dathan. I know
dathan was great. I would love to be that fast. But I would never
trade
this team for anything, not even for dathan, or even being as fast
as
dathan.
Thank you again, John Dye. I have never met you
but I will always
appreciate what you have done. I hope to see you at Portage, a meet
in
which even slow JV runners like me get to run.
Sincerely,
Ross Anderson
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