Doug Speck Award

http://www.moreaucatholic.org/s/768/index.aspx?sid=768&gid=1&pgid=1617

DOUG SPECK AWARD

It is with great honor and reverence that we are establishing an award in the memory of Doug Speck as part of the Moreau Catholic High School (Hayward) Mariner-Saucony Cross Country Invitational. The meet was begun in the spirit of promoting the sport of cross country and the runners and coaches and families and fans who make the sport so special. We began hosting a dinner the night before the meet as a means of having runners, coaches, families, and friends break bread together and to meet and learn from each other. Over the years thousands of people have participated in the dinners and the races. One very special person, Doug Speck, began making the trip up to Hayward to cover the meet for DyeStatCal. Doug was always out there promoting the sport and all who took part in it. He was always a teacher and a cheerleader of the sport. After his passing we all felt that the spirit of Doug must live on, and that should recognize those coaches and friends and officials of the sport that make a meet like ours possible. Starting this year we will recognize a coach and a “friend/official” of the sport for their passion and contributions to the sport. What better way to keep the spirit of Doug Speck alive on the trails and hills of Garin Park? The first recipients of the Doug Speck Awards are Walt Lange and Keith Conning. The magic that both of these remarkable individuals have brought and continue to bring to the sport is befitting such an award. We will present their awards in the starting meadow prior to the coaches races (8:45 a.m.) We hope that you can join us on the 16th to help demonstrate our appreciation for Walt, Keith, and Doug.


1st Annual Doug Speck Award Recipient, Walt Lange

Walt Lange started coaching in 1964 at St. Bernard High School in Playa Del Rey and moved to Jesuit High School in the 1970-71 school year. During his tenure, Jesuit cross country teams have won 23 Sac-Joaquin Section titles and nine Division 2 state championships in cross country. In track, Jesuit runners have won seven gold medals in the 1600 and 3200 meter events at the California State Championship meet.

Those gold medalists include Mark and Eric Mastalir, Paul Thomas, David Welsh, Matt Farley, and Michael Stember. Stember went on to make the 2000 Olympic team in the 1500 meters. Marauders Paul Thomas, Michael Stember, and Mike Altieri won medals in both the 1600 and 3200 meters.

Four Jesuit runners have run under 4:05 for 1600 meters. In the 3200, 4 have broken 9 minutes, 10 have been under 9:10, 21 under 9:20, and 30 under 9:30.

Several Marauders ran the marathon in the 1970s, with Tom O'Neil just missing the national record with a 2:24:32 in 1977.

In 1986, Jesuit set a national record in the distance medley at 9:56.3, a mark which is still the California high school record.

Walt retired from classroom teaching ten years ago and has enjoyed speaking at clinics throughout the country, working on the team web page, and creating course maps for meet directors.

In 2008, Walt was selected for the Model Coach Award by the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section and was recently named to its inaugural Hall of Fame.


1st Annual Doug Speck Award recipient, Keith Conning

I have been a fan, runner, coach, announcer, historian, statistician, manager, meet official, prep editor, author, blogger, correspondent, accredited journalist, reporter, course designer and photographer since 1953.

Keith on Being a Fan:
"I have attended five Olympic Games (1972 Munich, 1976 Montreal, 1984 Los Angeles, 1996 Atlanta, and 2004 Athens) and four World Championships (2001 Edmonton, 2003 Paris, 2005 Helsinki, 2009 Berlin).
I saw Lon Spurrier set the 880 yard world record in Berkeley in 1955. That was the first world record that I witnessed in person.
I started subscribing to Track and Field News in 1956. I also subscribed to Athletics Weekly (a weekly magazine for track and field athletics in Britain) and a Soviet track magazine.
The track highlight of my life was watching Jim Ryun set the world record in the mile in Berkeley in 1966."

Keith on Being a Runner:
"I started running track at Aptos Junior High in San Francisco in 1953. The longest race we could run was 75 yards. We dug holes in the dirt for our starting blocks just like in the movie, The Chariots of Fire.
I was selected to represent the San Francisco high schools in a track meet against the Cal Frosh at Edwards Stadium in the mile run in 1958.
I was the #2 man on the U.S. Air Force Academy freshman cross country team in 1960. We ran 5,000 meters on the Dwight Eisenhower Golf Course at 7,300 feet. John Fer, the captain of our varsity team, was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from February 4, 1967 to March 14, 1973. Fer was a former cell-mate of Senator John McCain.
I finished 29th in the San Francisco Cross City Race, which later became the Bay-to-Breakers."
I ran the Dipsea Race from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach several times, the Double Dipsea Race, and the Golden Gate Marathon from Tiburon to the Marina Green in San Francisco. My mother participated in the Dipsea Walk for Women in 1919.

In the mid-1970's I took my young family camping at the Berkeley Camp between Echo Summit (7,300 feet above sea level) on U.S. 50 and Echo Lake. One morning before breakfast I ran from the camp to Lake Aloha and back before breakfast. The roundtrip distance from Echo Lake to Lake Aloha is 12.5 miles. The elevation varies from 7,225 to 8,540 feet. This was an all-day hike for campers. They were amazed that I was able to run it all before breakfast. I was getting ready for the 7-man relay around Lake Tahoe. I put together a high school team made up of runners from Berkeley, De Anza, El Cerrito, and Pinole Valley. We participated in this relay in both 1974 and 1975. Alex Da Silva (El Cerrito), the 1987 NCS champion in the 1600 meters in 4:15.79 and later a world famous salsa dancer (http://www.alexdasilva.com/), was on our team.

I ran in the Mariner Invitational coaches race several times.

I continued running until I was 60 years old, when I had a back operation which ended my running career."

Keith on Being a Coach:
"I coached track and cross country at Castlemont High School in Oakland 1967-1968, King Junior High School in Berkeley 1968-1973, Berkeley High School 1973-1999, and the Vacaville Police Athletic League 2001.

I have known coach Phil Wilder for many years, dating back to his days in Richmond.
We took a group of Northern California high school distance runners to England and Paris in 1985 with Kelly Sullivan, the current head track coach at Oregon State. I also took a group to China in 1986.

I coached the Berkeley High cross country team that competed in the Mariner Invitational many times. My son Andrew Conning (Berkeley High School 1987) was a member of the 1986 Berkeley High Frosh/Soph team that won the Mariner Invitational. He is now an Ed.D. student at Harvard University."

Click to follow the rest of Keith's many ventures on his blog