Nike Team Nationals: Relish the Rankings

by Marc Bloom

When I started ranking the nation's cross-country teams in 1989, I never dreamed they would actually compete together in a championship event. How far-fetched could you get?

I did the ranking for the same reason I do any feature in The Harrier : to try and enlighten the high school cross-country community and raise the profile of the sport we cherish.

Before long, coaches of top-ranked teams called to see how they could compete against other noted squads. This was before the Internet and you had to pick up a phone to get things done.

One year in the early '90s, the #2 boys team, Thousand Oaks of California, traveled to Texas to meet #1 Kingwood. How quaint those days seem now.

Soon, meet directors called to see how they could get several ranked teams into the same meet. New meets were created. There was one in eastern Oregon for some years. Top Utah teams would compete, but the meet fell by the wayside when the meet director retired. Then, a coach in Birmingham created the Vulcan Classic. Saratoga Springs of New York went up against teams from California. I attended myself. It was a great event, but that too ended when the meet director relocated.

Then Great American came into being. Founder Rick Hill called one day to see if it was possible to get a cross-section of ranked teams to race in North Carolina. I did what I could to help. In a few years, the event passed on to the National Scholastic Sports Foundation, already putting on the national indoor and outdoor track events and now working on NTN.

And with the advent of the Internet and communication leaping into a new galaxy, plus the enterprising sponsorship efforts of Nike, talk about a national team event was in the wind.

Only a few years ago, the idea still seem far-fetched. But, thanks to Nike's Josh Rowe, here we are.

When I saw how our Nike Team Nationals event unfolded in Portland, and how our sport was celebrated as never before-when teams down to the last man were exalted because of values we hold dearly that go far beyond the race course-I just shook my head in disbelief. Part of me wanted to scream out loud, another part of me was practically in tears.

What really warmed my heart was how Nike greats of yesteryear had rallied behind the event and turned out to witness it. Nike and running are synonymous. You can talk about Tiger Woods of Michael Jordan all you want. For my money, Nike is still people running, still embodies the ethic of running, still understands what this sport is all about. Nike is still Pre, and Pre would have loved NTN.

Jeff Johnson, the first Nike employee who created the name Nike (and whose coaching includes high school teams in New Hampshire), delivered the keynote address to the athletes and seemed in awe of the proceedings. Same with Geoff Hollister, a runner's runner who was responsible for a lot of Nike marketing and advertising.

Former Nike president Tom Clarke showed up. Bill Dellinger was there. Joan Samuelson was there. Everybody standing within a few feet of one another, waiting for the bugle, the gun, the Jumbo-trons, the kids. Nike. And kids. You better believe it.

Afterwards, as the results were savored, people came up to meet to say my 15 years of rankings were right, my efforts were validated, that the results were amazingly close to how I had it figured. I didn't really think of it that way. I never doubted that historically great programs like York or Mead or Saratoga or Mountain View would prove themselves. Or that more recent headliners would show they really belonged with the best.