It was the kind of bet fathers and their sporting sons make all the time.
You do this and I’ll buy you that.
When Joel and Evan Jager struck their deal, however, the prize was more alluring than most. Run a five-minute mile, Joel said moments after Evan had run 6:12, and I’ll buy you a Mustang 5.0 GT.
“A five-point-oh for a five-point-oh,” Joel recalled Wednesday as he and Evan, now a Jacobs senior, sat near the school’s track.
It was a bet Joel knew he would lose because he placed no time limit on it and Evan already had hinted at the talent that would make him one of the elite young distance runners in the country and one of the big names in the Class AA track meet Friday and Saturday at Eastern Illinois.
Still, Joel figured it would be a while before he had to pay up. Evan was, after all, just 12 then, still in 7th grade.
“I thought maybe when he was 15,” Joel said, laughing.
As befits one who gets places in a hurry, Evan ran a 5-flat mile in an 8th-grade meet soon after he had turned 14.
“I was thinking about getting that car the whole track season,” he said. “When I finally got the time, I was exhausted but really happy.”
Then Joel had to get working. He wanted a car that matched the year of Evan’s birth and found a white 1989 Mustang with 110,000 miles on it on eBay, paid $3,850 for it and drove it back from Florida.
The only problem was, Evan couldn’t drive it himself until he was old enough for a learner’s permit.
“It was just sitting in the garage,” he said of the car he still drives.
Even after all that, it wasn’t certain Evan would run at Jacobs. He had played and loved soccer since he was 4 and had to decide whether to pursue it in high school or commit to running full time and join the cross-country team.
That’s when Joel once again stepped in. There was no bet this time, no tangible carrot at the end of a stick, just a suggestion to give cross-country a shot.
“You’re a good soccer player but you can excel at running,” Joel told his son.
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Joel Jager never ran himself. That option disappeared when he contracted polio as a small child in 1953, when he lived on his family’s dairy farm in Michigan.
The disease affected his left leg and forced him to undergo several operations. He walks with the aid of a brace, though with no trace of bitterness about what his own sports future might have been.
“My family’s approach always was, ‘Here’s what you have to deal with. Do the best with what you’ve got,’ ” he said.
“That’s all I’ve ever asked of Evan. ‘You don’t have to hit any marks. Just do the best with what you’ve got.’ “
Evan has certainly done that. His freshman year was almost a total washout because of a foot injury, but he placed sixth in the 2004 Class AA cross-country meet and third in the 3,200 meters in state track.
As a junior he moved up to third in cross-country. He won the 1,600 in track and ran the anchor leg on the championship 3,200 relay.
In postseason events he ran a 4:08.15 mile and 8:50.42 two-mile, both among the top prep times in the nation in 2006, and last fall he won the Class AA cross-country title.
Evan’s success stems mainly from natural ability and a passion for running, but he acknowledges his dad’s sub-four-minute attitude toward life has been an inspiration.
“It’s just the fact he was not able to do sports and I’m blessed with such a great gift,” said Evan, who signed with Wisconsin last fall. “I wanted to do everything I could to enjoy it and work my hardest to be the best I could be because I know if I had to deal with everything my dad had to, I think I’d be a little sour about it.”
This week he’s among the favorites in the 1,600 and 3,200, though he faces a legion of standout runners that includes Dan Chenoweth of Geneseo, Chris Derrick of Neuqua Valley, Kevin Havel of Hersey and Tom Robbins of Loyola.
It will be Jager’s first shot at the distance double. He could have tried it last year but passed up an almost certain 3,200 title for a 3,200 relay crown that was decidedly iffy beforehand.
“He’s definitely a team guy,” Jacobs coach Jason Borhart said.
It’s easy to tell that by watching Jager get far more excited describing the relay effort than he did recounting any of his individual victories, and especially how his teammates ran the races of their lives to put him into position to take the lead down the homestretch.
“It’s probably the greatest feeling I ever experienced in my life,” he said.
Even if two victories Saturday don’t match that, it would make up for some disappointing performances Jager has produced since winning the state cross country meet. First he failed to qualify for the Foot Locker National Championship after being the top junior in the cross-country event the year before. Then injuries cost him three weeks of training in indoor track.
“I haven’t been racing the way I wish I could have been,” he said. “I definitely want some good races this weekend.”
It’s dangerous to bet against him.
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