Tuesday, April 14, 2015
SPEED, VERSATILITY JUST TWO REASONS
FALCONS KEEP RIVALS ON THE RUN
By Joe Scalzo | scalzo@vindy.com
Austintown Fitch senioR Joe Harrington can tell you all about deadly spiders (“The Australian funnel-web can kill an adult in 15 minutes”), deadly crocodiles (particularly the Australian saltwater crocodile, which is the most dangerous to humans) and deadly snakes (“I know everything about snakes”).
For instance, he’ll tell you the black mamba is the fastest snake, because that’s how Harrington got his nickname.
“Track mamba,” he said, grinning.
On a track (or a football field, for that matter), there are few deadlier than Harrington, an eight-time state qualifier in outdoor track who finished second in both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes at March’s state indoor state meet. Harrington and Pitt football recruit Darrin Hall form the backbone of the Falcons’ sprint relays, which have earned outdoor All-Ohio honors five times in the last two years.
“Both guys are three-time All-Americans at last year’s outdoor nationals and they’ve qualified for indoor nationals twice,” said Fitch boys coach Seth Steiner, whose team placed second overall at the state indoor meet. “They’re just a huge reason for our success.”
But not the only reason. While Fitch has a well-deserved reputation for producing sprinters, the Falcons are good pretty much everywhere, with senior pole vaulter Dylan Latone and junior weight thrower Logan Kusky both earning bronze medals at the indoor state meet and junior Carlos Herriott (high jump) placing fifth. Fitch also advanced three relays, including the 4x800.
“Indoor isn’t our main focus by any means, but with the success we’ve had getting kids to the indoor state meet and having a substantial amount of national qualifiers, it helps our outdoor season,” Steiner said. “You take those kids to New York City [for indoor nationals] and the other kids in school and the better athletes say, ‘Wow, if you run indoor track, you take trips and have good experiences.’
“You start to build a program, you get bigger numbers and you become more and more balanced.”
Fitch’s balance allows it to fit the right athlete with the right event. Take Latone, for instance. He was a seventh-grade sprinter when one of the coaches asked him to try something different.
“He said, ‘Hey, you look like the type. Go try pole vault,’” Latone said. “After I did it for about a month, I was like, ‘I really like this.’”
Like distance runners, pole vaulters tend to be a different breed — “You’ve got to be a little crazy to do it, and I think I’m a little bit crazy,” he said — but the sport comes with a certain cachet.
“When people find out I pole vault, they’re like, ‘Oh, wow,’” said Latone, a YSU recruit. “Then all the questions come in. ‘Is it fun?’ ‘Do you like it?’ It’s a blast.
“I get scared every so often. That’s the nature of the beast. But if you’re scared, you have to get over it. That’s what the big mat’s here for. You get to land on this.”
Besides, Latone (and his parents) are used to seeing him living with danger. He and his twin brother, Jared, were born three months premature, weighing just two pounds.
“My grandma still tells me to this day, ‘I can’t believe you were that small, and now look at you,’” he said. “I’m fortunate.”
While Latone is a one-sport athlete — he played basketball and football before focusing on the vault — Fitch’s best athletes often play several sports, particularly football. Harrington (who will run track in college) and Hall (who is using track season to help rehab from a meniscus tear he suffered in the fall) were both standouts on Fitch’s playoff team.
The 2013 Vindicator defensive player of the year, Sam Ortz, also qualified for last year’s state track meet in three events. The Vindicator defensive player of the year in 2012, Billy Price, was the state runner-up in the shot put in 2013 before playing football at Ohio State. Gary Gibson, a member of last year’s relays, played football for Fitch before walking on to OSU’s track team this season.
“College coaches like to see that,” Steiner said of playing two sports. “We preach that a ton.”
But it’s not just about adding speed. While Hall thinks his track training helps in football — “When I’m breaking a run in the open field, that stride is basically track,” he said — he also runs because it gives him a chance to build friendships, as well as Fitch’s tradition.
“This year as seniors, we’re trying to get everyone on board,” he said. “We hang out after practice and get guys ready to keep the tradition going after we move on.
“This is one of our best years. We’ve got great guys in every type of event and we’re really getting after it. I think we can win county, win AAC [conference] and probably win state.”