Battling butterflies

Battling butterflies

Stoic on the outside, nervous on the inside, Poland junior Robert Balzano has emerged as one of the state’s best runners.

By Joe Scalzo

Vindicator spots staff

On March 28, 2008, in a triangular meet with Boardman and Hudson, Poland High boys track coach Ryan Williams decided to enter a sophomore named Robert Balzano in the 400-meter dash for the first time.

Balzano, who was in his first year running track, had shown some ability and some guts, but Williams actually found himself chuckling off to the side before the race, thinking, “He’s gonna die.”

“I thought, ‘There’s no way he can go out and run that hard for that long,’” Williams recalled. “I was wrong.”

Balzano won the race with a blistering time of 50.7 and was the only Bulldog to win an event at the meet.

“As he came up to the final 50 meters, I said, ‘I think we’ll leave him in that event,’” Williams said, laughing. “He did a pretty nice job.”

Over the last two years, Balzano has emerged as a bit of a reluctant prodigy. He lived the first 12 years of his life in Florida — his father works for the Drug Enforcement Agency — before a 21‚Ñ2-year stint in the Washington D.C. era.

After moving to Poland, he grudgingly went out for track — “It’s tough to make new friends and at first I didn’t want to go out for sports,” he said — and was as surprised as anyone to discover he was good at it.

“My coaches helped out a lot,” he said. “They found the talent I had.”

Balzano enters this weekend’s Division II state meet with the best regional qualifying time in the 400 (48.30), which he ran Saturday with no one pushing him. He placed fourth in the event at last year’s state meet with a time of 49.13 and was second at last year’s regional.

Outside of those two races, Williams can’t remember Balzano losing.

“I think he’s won just about everything else,” he said. “We don’t know what he can do.

“If somebody was pulling him a little bit, I feel confident he could dip down below that 48 [seconds].”

If so, he’s got a good shot of winning gold, which is the last thing you want to tell him.

Stoic on the outside — although polite, he seems to enjoy interviews as much as math quizzes — Balzano is, according to his coaches, a nervous wreck. When the results of Saturday’s regional 400 final were held up for a disqualification, Balzano spent the 40-minute wait battling butterflies. (A Painesville Harvey runner was the guilty party.)

“He a great competitor and he’s very stoic outside, but inside he gets pretty nervous and pretty worked up,” said Williams. “He does take it very personally and he wants to do well for everybody else involved, as well as himself.”

Added Balzano, “Who knows? Maybe it gives me the energy to actually go on and compete a little bit better.”

He’s also shown talent at shorter distances, winning the 100 and 200 at the All-American Conference Red Tier meet with good times. He also anchors Poland’s regional championship 4x400 team and a state-level 4x200 team, joining juniors Luke Wollet (a Division I football prospect), Brian Ciccone and Ryan Storkel.

“I’m especially proud that they’re all buddies,” said Williams. “I think that’s one of the reasons they’re successful.”

Talent helps, too. And on the track, no one has more than Balzano.

“He adds an awful lot of ability,” said Williams. “He’s got a great heart.”

And a not-so-great stomach.

scalzo@vindy.com