Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame

Napa High track, cross country star Blair to be immortalized

• MARTY JAMES mjames@napanews.com
• Oct 27, 2017 Updated 19 hrs ago

Impressive is the word that Michael Blair used when looking back on the times that he was running in high school, college and post-collegiate.

Another description of his days as a distance runner could be very impressive.

Blair ran at both the CIF State Cross Country and Track and Field Championships for Napa High School.

He ran on cross country and track teams at UC Berkeley.

He trained and raced for the Asics team for a year and a half in Eugene, Oregon. After that, he returned to California and joined the Nike Farm Team, based out of Stanford, and ran there for six months.

“I’m just grateful for the experience – I think that’s the biggest take-away,” said Blair. “I’m happy that there were all these people around me that helped me through that journey. With athletics, it focused that energy in a positive way.

“I think that it was a wonderful outlet for me to express myself and burn up a bunch of energy and have a good time and have that rewarding feeling of accomplishing something that you’ve worked so hard to accomplish.”

Blair, a 1995 graduate, will be honored for his successes when he is inducted into the Napa High Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday at a dinner and awards ceremony at Embassy Suites Napa Valley.

Jay Suesens, who is also from the Class of 1995, will be enshrined as well. Suesens played football.

The purpose of the NHS Athletic HOF Foundation is to honor the school and its athletics department by recognizing the achievements of former athletes, coaches and others who have made significant contributions to the school’s athletic programs.

The Hall of Fame’s selection committee votes on the nominees after reviewing the nominations and hearing presentations by nominators. A successful nominee needs 75 percent of the total points possible.

“To me, it’s always flattering to be honored for something that you did,” Blair said last week. “I look back on something that I’m really proud of and really fortunate to have been able to experience. And then to be honored by the Napa High Hall of Fame is incredibly flattering.

“It’s something that I can share with everybody in the community that was part of it. It’s been really a positive thing for me. I think it’s fantastic.”

Blair is the school record holder in the 1,600-meter run (4:10.91).

This is the 21st year of the Napa High Hall of Fame, which is made up of a combination of athletes, coaches and special-category inductees. To date, there are 140 members of the Hall of Fame, whose membership dates to 1912. It’s a nonprofit organization.

In 1997, the Hall of Fame was formed, with 36 inductees in the inaugural class.

The Hall of Fame has awarded more than $75,000 in scholarships to student-athletes over the years. The scholarships are funded by contributions.

“Just to be recognized anytime, you feel really privileged and honored,” said Blair, 40. “More than anything, I think that track to me was more than just going out and doing a sport. I think it was like a lifestyle. What it came down to was me learning my limits and my boundaries, physically and mentally.”

Individuals may be nominated in one of three categories for the Hall of Fame: athlete, coach and special.

To be eligible as an athlete, an individual must have graduated from Napa High at least 15 years ago (2002 or earlier), participated in at least one interscholastic sport as an undergraduate, and lived an adult life that did not discredit the school or the community.

Blair was seventh for Napa in the 1,600 at the state meet in 1994 and placed fourth in the 1,600 at the state meet in 1995. He took a first place at the Meet of Champions for Napa. He was team MVP in both cross country and track.

He ran at the state cross country meet in 1994.

Blair got his start in track with the Napa Track Club, founded by coach Frank Defilippis.

“Frank, obviously, was a huge mentor to me,” said Blair. “He had his way of doing things – it just really resonated with me. He believed in me, when a lot of people thought that I had a lot of work to do before they were ready to believe in me. He was the biggest influence probably of my entire career because of where he caught me in my life and how he pushed me through those really formative years.”

Blair also had Mike Tarvid (Napa High), Tony Sandoval (Cal), and Mike Manley (post-collegiate) as coaches.

“Every coach that I have had has always offered something,” he said. “You look at the whole picture of everything that happened and who’s in my life at that time, and I think that every one of those coaches deserves a ton of credit for getting me to where I was.”

Blair ran 3:45.96 in the 1,500 meters at the Cardinal Qualifier in 1997. He ran 1:49.85 in the 800 at the Brutus Hamilton Meet at Cal in 1997.

He is very proud of the 1995 and 1997 seasons.

“There were a bunch of significant races there, that were critical, that I performed well at,” he said. “It’s where the training turned into an accomplishment, turned into a time, turned into a win.

“The biggest thing for me was always being healthy. If I could stay healthy, I would run fast.”

He was 25 years old when he stepped away from competitive running.

“I’m still in pretty good shape,” he said. “I’ve been really blessed to be healthy. I’ve had no long-term injuries from all the running that I did. I would rather either swim or ride a bike or surf now. You still get that same rewarding feeling after a hard workout.”

Blair makes his home in San Francisco and works for the Alameda County Fire Department as a captain and paramedic. He works at Station 34 in Emeryville.

He was hired as a firefighter in 2005.

Blair and his wife, Shawna, have two daughters, Kiara (6) and Khloe (4).

To obtain more information about the Hall of Fame, call 226-5090, email csstein@pacbell.net, or go to napahighhof.org.