Bexley runners carry coach Acton to state meet
Autumn in central Ohio lingers like toilet paper in the maple trees in Eric Acton’s front yard. It’s the best time of year and, for the athletes Acton coaches, this very weekend will be one to remember amid a pandemic to forget.
Saturday, the state cross country championships will be run at a new venue in Obetz. The course has this one hellacious hill, and to surmount is to to defeat doom. Acton’s Bexley High teams, both boys and girls, have qualified. Oh, to be young and full of lactic acid.
A season like no other will come to an end. For Acton it’ll be season No. 33 at Bexley High. It may or may not be his last. We’ll see. He’s 60 now, and a grandfather, but still a second-grade teacher. We’ll see.
The program can be left in the capable (and often gesticulating) hands of top assistant Jeff Landis, who has been designing the workouts for 23 years. The young assistants, Tom Aloise and Matt Cavallaro, came of age in the program, and are part and parcel of it. It is well-built. It will move forward.
Full disclosure: Acton is a friend of mine; three of my kids ran for him in another decade. Full disclosure: Almost everyone who meets Acton is a friend of his; as many as 2,000 kids have run for him over three decades straddling two centuries. And he is beloved.
Those who join him are promised: Whatever your level of talent, you will get better. He doesn’t cut anyone. There is no phony hierarchy. Everyone gets better.
“I believe you meet children where they are, and then bring them along,” Acton said. “That’s my job.”
Team building might consist of layering Landis’ minivan with Saran Wrap, or greasing Landis’ door handles with Vaseline, or organizing the physical removal of Landis’ sub-sub compact – the minivan replacement –
to the other side of the parking lot. Aloise once had to concern himself with the possibility of 80 runners crashing his wedding. The threat was real. Cavallaro might know something about that.
Very few have gotten away with T.P.ing Acton’s maple trees, but it has been done. Acton rolls with it.
In May, in the shade of those big maples, two dozen protesters picketed on the edge of Acton’s lawn. At least one of the protestors was armed, and not with Charmin, but with an assault rifle. This, Acton found difficult to abide.
The protesters were there to carp about state-mandated coronavirus controls. Their anger was directed at Acton’s wife, Dr. Amy, who at the time was the director of the Ohio Department of Health.
She eventually stepped down from her state job. Death threats had something to do with her decision.
At the time, Ohio had 44,000 virus infections and 2,490 deaths and the curve was flattening. Six months later, Ohio is up to 235,170 infections and 5461 deaths and the phrase “flattening the curve” seems quaint.
There are still mornings when Acton finds his wife sobbing at the breakfast table.
“It’s the loss of life that gets to her,” he said. “She still wants to save everyone.”
Acton, then, was particularly mindful of restarting his program in the safest way possible. He divided his huge teams into a litany of training pods and rejiggered the usual regimen. He went old-school: The Lions eschewed the big invitationals and competed in dual and triangular meets. Mostly, they trained without overtraining. And they developed, almost by osmosis, an appreciation for pack running.
In cross country, the top five runners score, so teams are only as good as their No. 5. The good teams are talented, yes, but the best teams are true teams. The athletes run for one another. They bond.
“And that’s not my doing,” Acton said. “That’s the kids.”
Acton’s girls team might be the strongest in school history. Seniors Maria Steinke, Karleigh Place, Hannah Hayden, Ally Grieshop and Leah Tadese have been a part of four league championship teams. Junior Claire Macdonald has emerged as the No. 1. Sophomore Rylee Barno has helped push the pack together.
“As tough a group of girls as I’ve ever seen at Bexley,” Acton said.
Acton’s boys team has exceeded expectations. After five years without a league title, the core of it has taken top honors two years in a row. They are led by seniors Spencer Stevenson, Rob Donahey, Elliott Roe and Atticus Keels. Junior Miller Macdonald, sophomore John Laing and freshmen Solomon Mcdow are ahead of them or behind them but always right with them.
The spread between the boys’ No. 1 to No. 5 runners was 19 seconds at the league meet, 11 seconds at districts and 14 seconds at regionals.
“It’s like the stopwatch no longer matters,” Acton said. “All that matters is staying with blue.”
In this year of toilet paper shortages, Bexley’s blue glue is all and everything Acton could have hoped for. In that spirit, good luck to all who toe the line today at Fortress Obetz, site of the 92nd boys, and 43rd girls, OHSAA cross country state championships. And look out for that hill.
marace@dispatch.com