ICGS Track: Amazing What Good Weather and a Couple of Doughnuts Can Do

In 2005, the Immaculate Conception Grade School track and field program was at a crossroads. Track Head Coach John Shannon and Athletic Director Mary Liz Dudek were faced with declining participation. The program was losing children to travel sports daily and had about 35 participants in grades five through eight.

And then came some fortunate weather—and a doughnut.

“It was spring break, and the weather was going to be nice," Coach Shannon said. "I offered to have an optional Prairie Path jog for the team, and two athletes attended. It just so happened that there was a bakery at the end of our run, and to thank these two for coming out, I bought them each a donut.”

Little did Coach Shannon know that those two donuts were the impetus to a program that now annually has more than 150 participants in grades five through eight and is seeking its seventh straight Suburban Parochial League Track Championship. The league, with 20 teams representing 26 Catholic grade schools throughout western Cook and DuPage counties, has a strong reputation for delivering track athletes to the many high schools in each county.

So, aside from the donuts, how does the program continue to thrive at time children are being pulled in other athletic directions?

To Coach Shannon, the key is twofold: flexibility and friendship.

“We know that children have other interests, and we use our track training as a vehicle for them to excel at other sports,” Shannon said. “When they come into the program as fifth-graders, they are taught the mechanics of running, and we focus on those mechanics throughout the next four years that a child is in the program. Proper running mechanics allow athletes to run at maximum strength and efficiency. Learning technique at track, our athletes then run faster, stronger and longer in their other sports. Learning proper running technique is a skill that they can take with them for the rest of their life.”

The program also has been very successful by driving the team aspect of track and field, with focus on how maximum individual effort contributes to team success.

“Our track and field program celebrates every point that is scored in a meet,” Athletic Director Mary Liz Dudek said. “There are events for everyone to compete, whether they are fast, can run long distances, can jump or can throw. And when children are competing, they learn to strive for their very best, regardless of what place they take in a meet. This enables every track athlete to focus on their individual effort and personal best. By the time a child completes four years on our track program, they talk about track in terms of times and (personal records), not places. At the end of the season, every child takes with them a positive experience in track and field.”

Track practices, themselves, can be demanding, and the track and field staff is creative when putting the children through their workouts. The team normally practices three times a week, and they still make the long runs on the Prairie Path on Saturday morning.

Now the program buys doughnuts for 150 Saturday morning runners, and many parents are seen running with their children. Jimmy Kenneally, an eighth-grader who has been a member of the team for four years, talks about the program in social terms.

“Track is the only program where both boys and girls practice together, and while the workouts may be hard, the sport lends itself to downtime," he said. "The coaches are great about letting us be social with each other during those times. At any time during practice, you will see groups of children sitting and talking with each other. And on some days, after a hard workout, the coaches set up something fun for us to do. I’ve become a better runner because of the program. But at the same time I think I’ve become a better person.” 

Written by Kathleen Hillsman, director of development at ICGS