Déjà Vu?

It was an incredibly deep year for district one, including a National Qualifying repeat champ leading the way. A slew of guys ran sub 16 with the winner breaking 15 minutes. It was right for the spots to go to states. The 8th place squad for districts did not get to go to states, but they returned a slew of studs who were in the top 100 or so of the district. None of their guys returning were sub 16, but there was a strong belief within the team that big things were about to happen during the 2007 XC season.

Oh I'm sorry did you guys think I was talking about somebody else? Believe it or not I was talking above about the 2006 Upper Dublin Cardinals. They finished 8th districts, returning 5 of their top 6 including 3 sophomores. The next year that squad was 2nd at Districts and 5th at States. I witnessed things firsthand as I was technically a part of the 2006 and 2007 squads (although never was even remotely close to varsity in either season). The transition from 2006 to 2007 was a delicate one. You had the proverbial passing of the torch to the young guys from what remained of the old guard. The old guys had to accept their new 2nd fiddle type role. The young guys knew this was a chance to establish a dynasty. But getting to 2nd at districts and 5th at states took more than just simply bringing people back. It took a big jump from Mike Palmisano. He went from a 16:20s guy to a 15:40 guy and suddenly found himself top 10 in the district and top 25 in the state. That needed to happen or this squad had a ceiling. Plus another two other guys made decent leaps to sub 16. A pair of twins rounded things out in the mid to low 16s. Everybody in the top 5 ran faster than they did the previous year. It sounds simple, but that's incredibly difficult. Guys get hurt, people lose focus, you just have an off day.

But there were also issues with this team. No matter how you tried to fight it, you looked down the roster and said: 5 of our top 7 and 4 of our top 5 are coming back next year. We are going to have 3 sub 16 next year (and we did) just wait until next year, we will be even better!

But things didn't get better in 2008. We ended up 5th at states and 3rd at districts, moving back a spot. The pressure was heavy. We struggled throughout the season and cracked at Paul Short and Carlisle and States. We had forgotten what had made us great. We used to just be a bunch of nobody young guns with something to prove. Every race meant everything to us. We were trying to do things we had not ever done before. Once we ate, we forgot what it was like to be hungry.

We needed that kick in the butt to get going and ultimately on the track the guys ran 7:40, 10:08, won states and won penn relays. We also had the talent to do big things in Cross, but we needed the heart. We needed the fire.

This Downingtown West squad reminds me of Upper Dublin. They return a back of guys with solid XC marks that ran into one of the best years in D1 history and came up a few points short of states. But DT West is even younger than the UD squad from 2006. Their top 2 returners will be Sophs in 2014. They have some guys perched with the potential to break out and become stars next hear. They might have a few sub 16 guys on the roster. And I know they are hungry to prove themselves against the doubters.

Can they be 2nd at Districts? 5th at states? It will take time to know for sure, but right now DT West is just enjoying the moment. Because you never know when the moment will be gone.







For the sake of comparison I typed up the UD squad and the DT West squad so you can judge for yourself how similar they are.

8. Downingtown West
47 Drew Alanaky, Fr 16:19
51 Ryan Barton, Fr 16:24
65 Will Pelcin, Jr 16:33
79 Charlie Barton, Jr 16:42
84 Henry Sappey, So 16:44
106 Jason White, Jr 16:50
180 Ryan Mucha, Sr 17:10
326

8. Upper Dublin
28 Joe Dorris, Sr 15:54
50 Pat McLaughlin, Jr 16:14
64 Mike Palmisano, So 16:26
69 Paul Reilly, So 16:28
72 Matt Lorenzo, So 16:29
77 Jon Mariotz, Jr 16:31
101 Jacques Li, Sr 16:41
283