Smoody charges straight ahead

Many athletes look in any number of different directions for motivation.

The customary lucky rabbit's foot or lucky penny. The lucky pair of socks or odd pre-game ritual. Yep, athletes, particularly track and field guys, are about as superstitious or regimented as they come.

One runner who made his mark early in his track and field career chooses to turn his nose up to that line of thinking. Palatine senior Mat Smoody would rather just get on the track and race.

"Give me a track with some good runners to race against and my spikes," said Smoody, "and that is all I need."

Going back to when he was in kindergarten, Smoody has participated in running in one way, shape or form. The Palatine Park District has an afternoon program that Smoody ran in twice a week. It was there that the first signs of this great runner were spotted.

"Steve Currins came in and told me that he saw (Smoody) running and said that he looked like a good one," said Palatine cross country and distance coach Chris Quick. "That was just before he got to high school."

It only took a few months into a high school cross country season before everyone knew that Smoody had the potential to be great.

In the frosh/soph conference cross country meet, Smoody moved all the way up and finished fourth. That was the first sign that he was not just an ordinary runner.

In his first high school conference meet at Schaumburg, Smoody caught and passed John Jenkins of Prospect in the final 200 meters to win the conference title in the 800-meter run, something he would do two more times in the next three years.

His win in his first conference meet prompted some of the Palatine coaches to make some very lofty comparisons.

"Coach (Kevin) Bobbitt came up to me and whispered in my ear 'Ayoub' (referring to the legendary Dave Ayoub, the current state record holder)," said Palatine track and field coach John Nalley. "That was some very high praise."

The comparisons to great runners of the past at Palatine continued shortly thereafter, but it was until Smoody raced in the 800-meter run at the Palatine Relays as a junior that the rest of the state got to finally see what everyone in the Northern suburbs already knew.

On a day where the relays celebrated its 75th anniversary, Smoody put on a show for many former Palatine greats. He shattered the school record in the 800-meter run and destroyed the Palatine Relay record clocking a 1:51.8 effort.

"If you would have told me before his junior year that he could put up a time like this, I wouldn't have thought he could," Nalley said. "But that was a historic type performance."

It was the first step in the ever-evolving legacy Smoody was creating. Some four weeks later, Smoody earned the Pirates' first running event state title in more than a decade, but he did it in a somewhat unique style.

Going back to the days of some of the great runners in Palatine history, Smoody found a replica jersey worn by one-time Palatine great and a member of the Pirates hall of fame, Al Eck. The white jersey with a red stripe turned into a good luck charm, even though Smoody isn't the superstitious type.

"I see myself in that jersey when I watch the tape and I still get goose bumps even today watching it," Smoody said.

Entering his senior season, Smoody had to deal with more than just trying to repeat his junior year successes. Trying to pick a college that was the right fit was forefront on his mind, so before the track season started, Smoody chose Wisconsin to continue his running career.

"The coaches there were great all along and stayed in contact with me a lot," he said. "It just seemed like the perfect fit for me."

Then his attention switched from selecting a college to trying to break a long dry spell for the Pirates' track program. Not since the early '70s had the Pirates won the league title.

"It was really something these seniors wanted," Nalley said. "I think last season hurt because they were so close."

Some two months after Palatine captured the indoor title at Wheeling, Palatine earned its first conference crown since 1972, but it was the performance by Smoody that night that had everyone in attendance just buzzing.

"You know, one of the neat things about this season has been when Mat gets ready to run you hear the other kids say 'Smoody is in that race, let's watch him run,' " Nalley said.

At the conference meet, Smoody ran the fastest 800 in league history, clocking a 1:51.4. That time shattered another old record, one from 1976.

After winning his second sectional crown and earning a third trip to the state meet in the 800, Smoody now sets his sights on making more history.

Not since 1966 and 1967 has a runner from Palatine won back-to-back state titles in any event. The legendary Bill Bahnfleth did so in the 400-meter dash, and Smoody will be looking to do it in the 800 this weekend.

"To win back-to-back state titles really cements his legacy," Quick said. "When you think of Palatine track and field you will mention Smoody with the best to ever run here."