Chris Rupe to enter HOF

January 23, 2013 at 12:09a.m.

McDONALD

Over the last three decades, McDonald cross country coach Chris Rupe has gotten used to talking about his team or his program.

He’s not quite as used to talking about himself. So when it was about his getting inducted into the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches’ Hall of Fame, he said, “It’s not like me to be at a loss for words, but it’s different, for sure.

“In a way, I guess it’s less about Chris Rupe receiving an award than about the results our program has been able to achieve and all the runners and coaches who have been part of that through the years.”

During his 16-year tenure as McDonald’s head boys coach, his teams have won four state titles and finished second six times, including this season. The Blue Devils have advanced to Columbus every season since 1999.

He also led the boys track team to the 1999 state title and has been a successful coach for McDonald’s girls cross country and track teams. Between the four teams, he has coached seven individual state champions and won nearly 50 team conference championships.

Rupe is one of eight coaches or athletes — and the only one from the Mahoning Valley — who be inducted into this year’s class at the OATCC’s annual banquet Friday in Columbus. Rupe’s older brother, Ted, was inducted in 2003.

“I think we’re the only pair of brothers inducted into this hall of fame, so that’s really pretty cool,” said Rupe, who began his coaching career as an assistant for the women’s track team in 1987.

While he was reluctant to list all the people who have aided his success, Rupe did single out head boys track coach Lou Domitrovich, a former Blue Devil who started helping Rupe while still in college and who led McDonald to the 2011 state track title.

“Since I became a head coach I really had a vision for what I wanted the program to look like,” Rupe ssaid. “You never know if you’ll be blessed to win a state title, let alone many, but the vision I had had a lot do with trying to bring up runners in this town and make it even more of a running town than it already is and do a lot of things for the community and the runners here.

“Lou has been a huge player in that whole thing. He’s just come alongside me and been like, ‘We can do this,’ without ever sitting down and saying it. There’s just been an understanding that, ‘Doggone, we want to do this and we want to do it the best we possibly can.’”