By Michael Newman

mike@dyestat.com

Here are the awards for the Boys Coach of the Year in each classification for the 2015 Cross Country season in Illinois. Congratulations to all the winners and to the coaches that were considered.

3A Boys – Michael Danner – LaGrange Lyons Township

Let’s not take anything away from the accomplishments that John O’Malley of Sandburg and Paul Vandersteen of Neuqua Valley achieved this season. All the pressure was on Sandburg at the beginning of the year as the big favorite to win the 3A state championship. Even with the loss of Dylan Jacobs (who was one of the team’s top runners all season) at the state meet, Sandburg still came through with the state championship. Part of that had to do with the coaching of O’Malley. Neuqua Valley lost their top runner Connor Horn half way through the season. The Wildcats still were able to get on the podium at Detweiller Park with strong pack running all season. The confidence that the team had in that pack started with Vandersteen.

The one 3A coach that caught our eye was Lyons Township’s Michael Danner. His team started strong early in the season getting within 1 point of Sandburg at their own invitational at the beginning of September. By the time they got to the state series, the team was burdened with illnesses to top runners Vince Zona and Connor Madell. They qualified for state placing third behind Sandburg and Hinsdale Central. Even though this squad should have deserved some national recognition (and they did not get), Danner kept his team focused on the state meet. They ran their best race of the year at Detweiller Park finishing second. The Lions followed that up qualifying for the NXN Nationals in which they finished ninth.

With that, we congratulate Michael Danner of Lyons Township High School in LaGrange as the 2015 DyeStat Illinois 3A Boys Coach of the Year.

2A Boys – Jimmy Centella – Grayslake Central

Grayslake Central bounced back from a second place finish at the Lake County Invitational in their first meet of the year to win the First to the Finish Invitational the following week. All along Coach Jimmy Centella told his team that they knew where they wanted to be when they got to November. Despite the fact that they did not run in some of the bigger meets after Peoria and their courses that they ran on were not close to being flat, Centella knew that he had the talent to challenge state pre-season favorite for the 2A state championship.

The Rams turned in one of the best performances ever for a 2A team in placing 5 runners in the top 26 to win the 2A State championship. With all of the three class races merged together, Grayslake Central would have finished third overall. They were ranked 30^th nationally the following week.

Yorkville’s Chris Muth and Hinsdale South’s Jim Dickerson were other coaches considered for this award. The nod for it went to Centella.

Congratulations to Jimmy Centella of Grayslake Central High School as the 2015 DyeStat Illinois 2A Boys Coach of the Year.

1A Boys – Dike Stirrett – Tolono Unity

In every interview that Tolono Unity Coach Dike Stirrett did after his team won the 1A Boys State Meet last November, he told people that he did not do that much. He told people that his team was so focused all that he had to do was just make sure his team got to the starting line on time.

He was being modest.

The team was focused especially after finishing fourth a year ago at state after being ranked at the top most of that season. They were determined to not let that happened again. That determination started with Stirrett as he had his team ready for every meet that they raced. The result was the best performance ever for a 1A team at the state meet where they scored only 30 points with five scoring runners in the top fourteen.

Stirrett did get them to the starting line for every race but he had them prepared to race every week.

Congratulations to Dike Stirrett of Unity High School in Tolono as the 2015 DyeStat Illinois 1A Boys Coach of the Year.