Janota’s learning leadership lessons

Neuqua Valley’s Jaime Janota has gained an appreciation of a track and field head coach’s responsibilities — now that he is one.

Though it’s proved to be a community effort, Janota has taken the reigns as the Wildcats’ interim head coach with Mike Kennedy on a year’s sabbatical in Washington, D.C., serving in the Department of Energy as an Einstein Fellow.

Like any sport, everything comfortably falls into place when it comes to practices or meets. It’s the stuff in between, the administrative duties, that Janota has described as “like playing Whac-A-Mole.”

“Now I think I see the much broader perspective of head coaching,” said Janota, who as a distance coach never had to worry about picking up the bus keys or sending regular e-mails to 1,000 people on his list.

“It’s another world of getting stuff done,” he said.

The coaches on Neuqua’s staff have quickly discovered it’s best to “divide and conquer” the various chores Kennedy handled.

Sprints coach Steve Saul, throws coach Dave Ricca, jumps coach Matt Ragusa and Paul Vandersteen, the head boys cross country coach who’s also helping out, have all chipped in to help make this season as smooth as possible for the athletes.

Having a better understanding of the program’s infrastructure will help Janota down the road, he said.

“It will make me a much better assistant coach in the next year and in the years following,” he said.

First try:

Wheaton Warrenville South’s girls opened their outdoor schedule with the annual Gene Shipley Invitational at Moline on Saturday. The Tigers placed second to Rock Island in the three-tier meet, 291.5 points to 223.5.

WW South’s winners in the A Class included junior Amy Yong in the 800-meter run and sophomore Mikayla Kightlinger in the 1,600.

The Tigers featured a couple of sophomore standouts. Soph Jessica Spera took both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles races.

Another sophomore, McKenna Kiple, won the 3,200 then came back to win the 400, breaking the minute mark over that one lap, at 59.35 seconds. Kiple finished the meet leading off a victorious 1,600 relay with Kelli O’Dwyer, Emily Phillip and Yong.

He said it:

While speaking with Fenton’s 43-year head boys track coach John Kurtz for last week’s track preview, he came up with a good one.

Asked for his bottom-line expectations this outdoor season, the Hall of Fame coach said: “I’m very happy with our staff, it’s just a matter of getting athletes who want to pay the price, so to speak. You don’t play at track and field, you compete and you train.”