We talk about elite clubs and we talk about grass roots clubs. So I wonder
what my club, Greater Boston Track Club, is. We used to be so elite that we
were better than some countries. When the club team won the national
cross-country in Raleigh, NC in 1979 with a score of 26 points Finnish
Running New Editor Matti Hannus called GBTC "the best running club in the
world." The club's 1-2-4-5-12 finish of Al Salazar, Bob Hodge, Dan Dillon,
Greg Meyer, and Randy Thomas beat the next team, Sub-4, that scored 179
points.
Then the shoe companies gobbled up all these guys‹guys who would attract
other good guys because they wanted to train together. So who was left and
why would they want to be part of a club?
Now 20 years later we are assembling all the athletes from all the events we
can and building the club. No one is good enough for the shoe companies who
regardless seemed to have lost their appetite. We send teams to the
national cross-country and will send a track team to Indianna. We are a club
defined by our season-to- date performance list:
http://www.gbtc.org/results00.html
All those performances count because all performers regardless of how far
down the list are fans of the top performers and provide the club support
that keeps things going. The club has fans and the fans are members.
We intend to win the New England Indoor Championship on Feb 18 at Boston
University. Maybe we will get someone to Atlanta, but as you can see from
the performances, the club is neither grass-roots nor elite. Our athletes
will push each other and push and be pushed by the other clubs (like the
BAA) who will also try to win the New England Championship. (not)
The best recruiters are pretty good event performers who pull in even better
ones. Our guys are forever recruiting the best guys they can from their old
schools. If all the clubs do that in order to compete with each other, then
any potential elite will have the hot bed in which to sprout and bloom
whether it is our club nor not.
It is the constant "trying to win" that will push excellence from the
middle...eventually GBTC will get some elite athletes who rise up through
the club to face those who do so from other clubs. The key is the numbers of
serious competitors and supporters.
However, this competition must be promoted and celebrated by the national
governing body so all the clubs know what the other clubs have and go out
and recruit their own people to match.
We need club recruiting from the ranks of the college grads to become as
feriocious at that of the colleges recruiting from the high schools so all
may be modest performers but eager to train will have teammates to train
among.
That's the plan.
Tom Derderian, Greater Boston Track Club soon to be New England
Champs...again!
