Track and field: Glenbard South's Crissey diving into 'insanity' of another top job
Ryan Crissey is in his first year as Glenbard South girls track coach after 13 years solely coaching discus and shot put. He's in his fifth year as Raiders football coach.
Though being a football coach is a year-round job, Crissey discovered that coaching track is more like a sprint than a marathon.
“If you look at it from that perspective football entails more, requires more. But strictly in season and all the various aspects of preparing for meets, having events covered, (finding meet) workers, there's just more to it. On top of the administrative things with rosters, eligibility and all that fun stuff,” Crissey said.
In football he's got 13 assistants to delegate to. Not so in track and field.
“It is one thing after another. It is pure insanity,” he said.
Sanity aside, Tuesday he saw two of his throwers, Ciara Jackson and Nikki Newman, set personal records in discus at East Aurora. Chris Nobles also did in triple jump, and the foursome of Aaliyah Coleman, India Lucas, Corrine Shirley and Katyla Sims ran well enough in their 200-meter races to provide optimism for a downstate 800 relay.
Crissey enjoys talking with his assistants to assemble relay teams and meet lineups. Though the job encompasses more than he anticipated, he's having fun succeeding the retired Mark Tacchi in the role.
“There was an obvious void that needed to be filled and I didn't want it going to someone unfamiliar with the culture,” Crissey said. “I just felt the best way to continue with business as usual was for me to step into the position and hopefully continue with some of the success we've had.”
Breaking through:
For many boys track programs having a thrower who surpasses 40 feet in shot put is no big deal. Though some of DuPage County's strongest athletes have roamed its halls, that hasn't been a given at Montini.
Now with Patrick Peters throwing consistently in the 40s, it is.
The junior, a defensive tackle on the football team, first broke through — 40 feet, 8 inches — at the 2018 Mike Yavorski Invitational at Hinsdale South.
In the years since Joe Davis threw the shot 54 feet, 10¼ inches to finish seventh in Class AA as a senior in 2006, only Brady Powers in 2012 and Jon Embrey in 2015 had exceeded 40 feet for the Broncos, said coach Eric Brechtel.
Coached by Glenbard East graduate and former thrower Ben Sullivan, Peters has gone over 40 more often than not since the 2018 Yavorski. He placed fifth at the Chicago Catholic Conference indoor meet at 42 feet and hasn't dipped below 40 feet since. Peters reached 43-4½ in a dual meet with Marmion April 9 and on April 17 threw 42-4 at Montini's Wednesday Night Lights.
Big win:
Hard to believe, but for the first time in 34 years Downers Grove South won the title of its own Bud Mohns Invitational on April 13. The Mustangs racked up 139.5 points to 99 by a good York squad.
Junior Shawn Lee won both discus and shot put. Another known commodity, junior Jayden Lambert, who finished third in Class 3A triple jump last year as a sophomore, won that event at 45-8.
As good as the Mustangs are now they've got a promising future. Lambert also ran on winning 800 and 1,600 relays along with freshmen Kenny Creamer and Elijah Reed. Junior Stephen Nicholson was the sole runner to break 10 minutes in the 3,200.
Also of note at the Bud Mohns, Lake Park's duo of Zach Frye and Michael Shuff went 1-2 in pole vault at 14-8 and 14-2, respectively. York's Daniel Klysh opened the outdoor invite season winning the 400 in 51.76 seconds.
Downers South will host its second high-profile meet in as many weekends with the Bob Cohoon Invite on Friday. The Mustangs host defending Class 3A champion Neuqua Valley as well as Downers North, Glenbard North and Hinsdale South.