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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2016)
Wednesday, October 19, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 17 Running iommentary cross-country and track teams including Alberto Salazar, Bill McChesney, and Rudy Chapa, so there was no real use in me even going to the open practices that Coach Bill Dellinger allowed unattached runners like me to attend. I spoke to him one day about it and he said that runners like me would come to these workouts for a while and overextend themselves trying to keep up with the elite run- ners and end up discouraged and injured. His advice was to train on my own and find road races and other open meets in the area. So that’s what I did, but I still itched to learn more about training and had developed a desire to one day be a cross- country and track coach. I had met Neil Branson about two years earlier through another friend of mine named Mike Bauer who was a teacher and running coach at Regis High School in Stayton, where I grew up. Neil would occasionally visit Mike and join us for training runs and local races. These two characters, both 13 years older than me, had met during high school in Eugene and were follow- ing similar paths, as Neil was also teaching high school and coaching runners. The first By Charlie Kanzig Correspondent I got an email from my good friend Neil Branson, a longtime cross-country and track coach in Oregon, mainly at Seaside High School, announcing his retirement from cross-country. He and I had talked recently, so the email was not a surprise — yet seeing it in writing made it even more real and gave me pause to consider the deep impact this man has had in my life as a coach and as a person. When I was a high school runner, I largely trained myself because my coach, though a great guy, did not adhere to any particular regi- men designed to enhance per- formance. I had a passion to do well, so I read Runner’s World, talked to runners from other schools, and sim- ply ran a ton of miles. My efforts never quite got me to my dream of being a district champion and running at the state meet, and that left me hungry to learn more about quality training as I headed for college. When I arrived at the University of Oregon in the fall of 1978, the Ducks were in the middle of an era of having a number of Olympic-level runners on the American “running boom” was in full swing and many people became enchanted with running marathons. I had run my first one as a senior in high school and basically stayed in marathon shape year-round in college, com- pleting eight marathons dur- ing that time. During my first year in college, Neil was teaching and coaching at Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction and arranged to run with me on a visit to Eugene. He also wanted me to meet a couple of runners he had coached at Illinois Valley who were attending Lane Community College. During that visit, Neil took down my address and the first letter from him arrived a few weeks later. I don’t recall exactly the con- tents, but I clearly remember it included words of encour- agement, mention of some adventure he was undertak- ing, and an invitation to keep in touch. This is a practice he has continued to this day. In fact, I just received a let- ter from him last week even though I had just seen him the week before and would see him again the week after at cross-country meets. During my college years and beyond, Neil and I shared many running adventures, PHOTO PROVIDED Sisters High School 1994-95 cross-country team. including some crazy relay Master.” His care and concern runs across Oregon and to for individual students com- other far-flung destinations. I bined with his gift of bringing started coaching at age 19 and people together and fostering finally found, in Neil Branson a genuinely caring, integrity- and Mike Bauer, mentors laced team culture is a model worth emulating. I see it as of how educators and coaches no accident that my career should conduct their lives. So, it’s bittersweet to see has matched these two. All of us are school counselors and Neil Branson retire. He’s been living a parallel exis- long-time distance coaches. One miraculous highlight tence with me for well over of my friendship with Neil 30 years. He has certainly left came when I applied for the a legacy of genuine good will counseling job here in Sisters and sportsmanship, as well as in 1994. True to his helpful a contagious love for the sport self, Neil had long ago told of cross-country. Personally, Neil Branson me that I could always use him as a reference for jobs. I has taught me the transforma- had done this for the Sisters tive power of simple acts of job, but didn’t tell Neil. The kindness and the tremendous short version of this story is value of speaking life into that Neil had also applied for others. This is how he lives the job and in the end, we his life. How lucky are all were both hired. We spent a the high school kids he has year here together in Sisters, coached and counseled. How counseling and coaching, fortunate are those who have before Neil was drawn back to coached alongside him. How Seaside. To this day I treasure blessed are those of us who that school year with my “Jedi call him our friend. Servgng th e Sgsters, Camp Sherman and Black Butte Ranch Areas Ponderosa Properties R E A L T O R S 541-549-2002 A N D 1-800-650-6766 L LLC P R O P E R T Y M A N A G E M E N T www. P onderosa P roperties.com 221 S. Ash St., Sisters The Locals’ Chogce for Real Estate Sales Kevin R. 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