Cross Country Hall of Fame Acceptance
Entomology, oceanography, and physical fitness were the summer courses I chose following 6th grade in 1975 when summer school for anyone was a thing. We did the 600 yard run once a week and I ran 1:52 every time. I was hooked. Running was so fun. I went out for cross country in 7th grade and had Joe Clemensen as a coach at Princeton High school. I know, who cares who your 7th grade coach was… Well, Clemensen is a legend at PHS. He started a meet called the Princeton Invitational, built it to the state’s largest, and eventually handed it off to Milaca’s Randy Furman, as the Milaca Mega Meet. Clemensen was later my math teacher for several classes. He taught me how to have a messy desk but be sure to get the important things done. It was in one of his classes I thought, “I wish I could go to math classes and sports forever”, so that’s what I did. In 8th grade we met at Dairy Queen Saturday mornings and ran to Long Siding, touched the sign, and ran back (about 8 miles). We also ran home from Milaca HS one practice, a 13 miler in 8th grade. LCWM-Nicollet still has Saturday practices to this day. Another VIP in Princeton that I must include was, in my opinion, one of the best small town sports editor’s in the country, Luther Dorr. He cared about and reported on all of the sports, and was knowledgeable on all of them, back when it was a big deal to make the paper. I appreciate all the years my family hosted our team after the Princeton Invitational or Mega Meet and all the great food my mom prepared for our team. Some lessons: Princeton dropped cross country my 10th grade year due to budget cuts. I learned how it felt to lose something important and how to write a scathing letter to the editor which they printed. I like to believe it helped as cross country returned the following year with an assist from my sister who joined to support the program. I appreciate my senior year coach at PHS when a young Dwight Carlson taught me to work hard and taught me that if you run 4:36, 2:03 and 9:42 in a meet on the St. John’s 10 lap to the mile indoor track as a HS runner you get disqualified. It’s important to know the rules. I’ve known that one ever since. Carlson gave me my hardest HS workout, 6 x 1 mile at 5:00. I was over the 5:00 average after six and asked to run a 7th one. A 4:54 on the 7th one was only good enough to lower the average to 5:01. I learned it’s okay to work really hard for something and not get it.
I went to Europe this summer for some Springsteen shows, my first visit there since the 1980s. A guided visit to Auschwitz was part of the trip, it was haunting. When our tour guide was asked what she hoped we would take away from this, she responded, “to appreciate YOUR life”. That’s what I have thought about since getting the call from Pete Janiszeski about the Minnesota Cross Country Coaches’ Hall of Fame. As I go through some of the good fortune this sport has brought me, I encourage you, even during my speech if you like, to think about the special moments and what the sport has brought you. Thanks to Wellcome Memorial football coach Dewey Escher (also our long time track coach) for helping get cross country started there. Escher became the assistant cross country coach through the nineties. Thanks to Mark Schuck and his wife Jane. Mark was my college coach. Mark went to the Lake Crystal School Board and offered to pay for everything to get cross country going. I was a volunteer assistant in year one and head coach since, about 37 years. The response from Lake Crystal superintendent Eric Bartleson was, “Why would anyone want to run?” But it passed. A few years later superintendent Bartleson’s youngest daughter, Ann Marie, would join cross country and be the only athlete LCWM ever had to qualify for six state cross country meets and six state track meets, earning All-State in both sports. Her dad would go on a health kick and run marathons, a true educator who could adapt and learn later in life.
I was fortunate to coach Sho Kroeger, who most of you have never heard of because after finishing one place ahead of her in her 9th grade 1600 state meet, would finish behind Carrie Tollefson thereafter with three second place finishes in the 1600. Sho qualified for Foot Locker
Cross Country Nationals where I travelled with Plainview’s Denny Ranta and St. Paul Academy’s Chris Johnson to watch the meet in San Diego’s Balboa Park. I will never forget the race and the smell of the eucalyptus trees. Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina was where I saw Kroeger’s last collegiate cross country race. The Big Ten All-Conference runner was the second runner for her fifth place Wisconsin Badgers at Nationals that day. Kroeger earned us a free week at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where she joined Tollefson in training with the nation’s elite distance runners and where I beat Tollefson’s coach Phil Gulstad at basketball.
I have a picture with my Mankato State teammates on top of one of the World Trade Center Buildings where we visited after finishing 8th at the Division 2 National Cross Country Meet in 1985.
Some coaches who have helped me along the way and who’s programs I have admired include USC’s Kent Viesselman (I travelled to his Lanesboro campsite one summer and biked the trail for some ice cream and to steal some of his ideas), BEA’s Tom Plocker, MCW’s Stannetta Svoboda, Lake City’s Howie Cook, St. Peter’s Jeff and Bill, Fairmont’s Bob Bonk, Heidi McCone (a former LCWM state entrant who is building a great program at River Valley), and SMSE’s Scott DeMaris (we ran in the same Region in HS and both ran and got math degrees at MSU).
I brought along one of our athlete’s mothers for a home visit. Angie Schuck, Mark’s oldest daughter, came with to the home of Nicollet’s Makenna Thurston who ran the 100, 200 and 400 on our track team to encourage her to do volleyball AND cross country. Thurston took us up on the offer. The four time state cross country entrant who placed as high as 6th in 2017 just finished 17th last fall earning All-America Honors running cross country for MSU-Mankato at the National Championships. Thanks to Nicollet’s Tom Murphy who I have coached with in track and field for over 20 years. His support has been a big reason the LCWM-Nicollet cross country pairing has worked well.
I got to see the school record girls 4 x 800 Emily Beckmann, Grace Moeller, Olivia Flack and MaKenna Thurston college picture this year, a before and after of them in their HS uniforms and now all four in their college uniforms. Thanks to all of the past runners and coaches from LCWM and LCWM-Nicollet; HOF is the award the collection of your teams earned. Thanks to elementary teacher Laurie Jacobs. She started an elementary running club that helped develop a love for running for many kids.
I received an email from Ryan Young a few years back. He was a student at Princeton HS and he let me know his goal was to break my distance running records there, 1600, 3200 and 5000 M CC. COVID put the kibosh on his senior season and best opportunity to accomplish the goal. We communicated through email and took a picture together at the Mega Meet. Later, MSHSL’s John Millea ended up doing a story on the unexpected friendship. He was exactly the type of kid you hope for as a coach.
I learned a lot from a young coach Kory Andersen who helped with track and field for a few years at LCWM. Kory once brought four kids to practice and I said; “we don’t want just anyone.” Without going into detail I will just say three of them did not graduate from LCWM and the fourth made it to state multiple times in throws, finishing as high as second in discus, setting a school record and earning a D2 College Scholarship. Kory took over at Liberty high school in Las Vegas three years ago where they couldn’t even score points at their regional meet.
This year he had 350 kids out and they won the large school girls and boys state championships in Nevada. Kory is a coaching genius.
A couple things from this summer: An unexpected text from a 2012 graduate read “Outside of your own family, what adult had the most influence in your life as a teenager?” Their comment was, “made me think of you.” A social media post from a boy on our team headed to St. Olaf this fall read “A huge thank you has to go to my coaches Burns and James who showed up at my door one summer and told me cross country practice started the next day and who trained me and believed in me for six years.” Coach Moeller’s daughter Grace, who won a cross country coaches scholarship and the State AAA Award a couple years ago, is a sophomore this year at St. Olaf so those meets will be two for one this year.
Thanks to our assistants Billy James and Kelly Moeller (Mark’s youngest daughter). They have done much of the heavy lifting in our program. Moeller just won a State Assistant Track and Field Coach of the Year Award last spring.
Thanks to Kyle Blomgren for nominating me. We go back a few years, from when we could both run a respectable St. James 4 mile Rail Run to when we can’t. Kyle was on top of the hill at St. James, a Minnesota Teacher of the Year finalist coaching an up and coming team that was clearly headed to state for years to come. However, as sometimes happens, admin decided to rattle his cage. Blomgren was having none of it and walked away from one of the state’s top Class A programs to teach at Mountain Lake Area where he would continue that program’s proud tradition. Look out for them this fall. Blomgren coaches the whole person, not just the runner. You can see it in the media; from his daughter helping a struggling runner and forcing a rule change to a cancer stricken athlete leading his team. I especially appreciate that the nomination came from Kyle.
To the high school scholarship winners here today, you have so much of your life ahead of you that is still a blank slate. Go make great memories.
Thanks to the Hall Of Fame selection committee for including me.
Thanks again to each of you here today and take some time to appreciate YOUR coaching journey.
Doug Burns
LCWM-Nicollet Head Cross Country Coach
