Mooney back on track

Sprinters on the Cardinal Mooney Track Team, Charlie Brown (sophmore), Scott Johnson (senior), Matt McWilson (senior), Braylon Heard (junior) pose for a portrait at Cardinal Mooney Track on Wednesday April 8, 2009.
By Joe Scalzo
Mooney’s 4x100 relay eyeing title repeat
If you’re a track fan, or a fan of Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, you may remember reading about the Cardinals’ state championship 4x100-meter relay last June.
They had a good story. The team overcame youth (the relay was made up of a freshman, two sophomores and a junior), injuries (junior anchor Matt McWilson battled hamstring injuries all spring and freshman Charles Brown was an alternate until junior Scott Johnson severely sprained his ankle weeks before) and long odds (the 4x100 is the most difficult relay to win since it requires near-perfection from its runners).
But it wasn’t quite a storybook ending, especially for Johnson. And for that you can blame the Isley Brothers.
Two weeks before the district meet, Johnson was at prom, dancing to the song “Shout.” He jumped (although not off a table; that’s just a rumor, he said) and landed on senior Michael Zordich’s foot.
“I sprained it horribly,” he said.
What would he change?
“I wouldn’t even go to prom,” he said.
Fortunately for the relay, Mooney has an abundance of good sprinters. Brown filled in well and the Cardinals (with sophomores Ray Vinopal and Braylon Heard running the first two legs) ran well to capture their second 4x100 title in three years.
“He stepped up to the plate and did an excellent job,” McWilson said of Brown. “To win state with him was definitely a big plus.”
Johnson, of course, had mixed feelings. Who wouldn’t?
“It was good watching them win and it was good to have a freshman that could step right in there in stride,” he said. “But I was still bitter that I was an idiot and that I twisted my ankle and it wasn’t me out there.”
One year later, Johnson is back, McWilson is healthy and the Cardinals are eyeing a repeat. Only this time, they want to spend more than two minutes on the track.
McWilson has already run a 10.8 100-meter dash this spring and is a threat to advance to Columbus as an individual. And Cardinals sprint coach Keith Joseph is hoping to also qualify a 4x200 relay (made up of four different runners) for Columbus.
“Our 4x100 team could run the 4x200 but they want the others to share the experience,” said Joseph, who has taken a relay to the state meet all four years he’s coached at Mooney.
Joseph, a physical education teacher at Brookfield, has coached football and track for more than 20 years. He’s earned the football coaches’ trust, which is why all of the team’s starting tailbacks (Vinopal, Heard and Karrington Griffin) and its starting defensive backs are running track. His success and his short practices (no more than an hour for sprinters) have been key.
“Academics, lifting, college visits, etc., are very important to these athletes and we work together on such,” he said. “Many of these students want to get faster for football. They now have the trust in me to get them quicker and faster.”
They all trust in each other, too, which Joseph thinks is key for relays.
“You’ve got to have a positive attitude, you’ve got to have good chemistry and you’ve got to have trust that your guy is gonna go on his mark,” he said.
Anything else?
“Speed helps,” he said.
One key to the team’s chemistry is their ability to take grief (or, in Brown’s case, good grief) from their teammates. Vinopal gets teased about his girlfriend, McWilson gets teased about being a soccer player and you can bet Johnson’s dancing abilities are fair game.
“It’s all in fun, though,” Johnson said. “There’s a great bond between us.”
Brown, who also goes by Charlie or Chuck, does get teased about his name, but mostly from players from other schools. (To answer the obvious question, no, his parents are not big “Peanuts” fans.)
Because the weather hasn’t cooperated and because spring break is next week (Vinopal is already in Florida), the team hasn’t yet hit its stride.
But they have big goals, from repeating in June (obviously), to breaking meet records over the next two months, to running a sub 42-second time, which would put them in range of the Div. II state record of 41.79. (The Cardinals won last year’s title with a 42.84, while the 2006 team ran a 42.42.)
“We’re not over-confident,” said Joseph. “We know it is very hard to get back to the ‘Dance’ but we love the challenge.”
For Johnson, one thing’s certain. That dance won’t be prom.
scalzo@vindy.com