The secret to success, and failure, in Chicago Public League track hasn’t been much of a secret.
There’s a shortage of good coaches. Facilities stink. Kids who can run fast and jump far would rather ride a basketball bench — or watch from the stands — than give track a shot.
That last factor is especially true for the guys, which helps explain why the Public League produced its last state track boys team champion in 1974. Lane Tech shared that title, so maybe it’s fitting the school now is showing what can happen when kids give a hoot about the sport.
“It has become a popular sport within our school, and I can’t say that about a lot of city schools, unfortunately,” Lane Tech boys coach Kris Roof said.
Roof has good turnout, with about 80 participants, but the most encouraging news is that a few of his standouts are former basketball or football wannabes.
Two of them, senior sprinter Fuad Salami and senior hurdler Gerald Turner, are among the Chicago area’s top performers in their events and reasons Lane Tech not only will prosper Saturday in the Public League championships at Hanson Stadium but perhaps even produce the school’s first boys state meet point since 1995.
Salami arrived at Lane Tech primarily as a football player. Friends kept telling him the speed he showed as a wide receiver would play well in track too, and he finally tried it last spring, though he often skipped practice.
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“He was not that committed,” Roof said. “We were kind of going back and forth all year, just about being dedicated.”
The problem, Salami said Wednesday during the Public League qualifying meet at Hanson, was “distractions,” which included the need to keep his grades up. You can’t help feeling, though, that he was still a football guy running track, hoping that sprinting would make him faster in the fall.
Then Salami’s senior football season fell short of his expectations, and as college football became a fading possibility high school track became more important. He is now among his team’s most committed athletes as well as perhaps its crankiest one.
“Because I didn’t perform as well in football as I hoped, I take my anger out on the track,” said Salami, who is getting recruiting attention in track. “I was thinking I could play football somewhere, but it really didn’t work out for me.
“It didn’t really bring me down, though. I still have my books and track. I love track now.”
Track is returning the affection. In recent meets Salami has run the 100-meter dash in a fast 10.7 seconds and the 200 in 22.4 as well as contributing to impressive sprint relay performances.
Turner played basketball his first two years at Lane Tech but didn’t see much of a future in the sport. He gave it up and gave track a try as a sophomore, even though he had once been too slow to make a grammar-school team.
By last March he was fast enough to place fourth in the 55 hurdles in the prestigious Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic, and he recently ran a personal best 14.5 seconds in the 110 hurdles in an outdoor debut that was delayed by a groin injury.
Turner gets lots of injuries, including sore hips, ankles and leg muscles, all from the pounding he takes working out in the hallways, a sad training staple in a school system desperately short of decent indoor and outdoor track facilities.
Lane Stadium has a track, but it’s a cinder mess, not an all-weather surface suburban schools take for granted. It’s often unavailable anyway because other sports use the stadium for games, forcing Turner and his teammates to practice on grass.
“We really need tracks,” he said. “If we can put money into getting the Olympics, why can’t we put money into the schools because we are the future.”
Help appears to be on the way for the schools that use Lane Stadium, though not for Turner and his classmates. Calvin Davis, director of sports administration for the Chicago Public Schools, confirmed Thursday that DePaul may provide funds for a new track at Lane Stadium as part of a larger overhaul of the facility that includes a synthetic turf football field. DePaul would share the track with CPS.
“We’re still working out details,” Davis said. “Hopefully it can work out because we’re very short on facilities.”
In the meantime Roof’s athletes will make do. He hopes at least a half-dozen seniors will run in college, including Turner, who will compete for Virginia State.
A more immediate goal is scoring again at state, a year after Lane Tech qualified in eight events at the meet but didn’t make the finals in one.
“Our goal always has been state points,” Roof said. “Our cheer after every practice and meet is ‘state points,’
“Our seniors are stepping up. Our juniors are stepping up. Our sophomores are stepping up. They are taking pride in their leadership.”
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