'Five-man' may lack headlines but not value

With 15:17 on the clock and 49 runners behind him, Palatine senior Eddie Lopez sprinted across the finish line.

As Lopez stopped to catch his breath after running 2.95 miles, several reporters gathered around his teammate Mat Smoody, who had placed second.

Although Lopez finished 30th to clinch the Pirates' fifth straight Mid-Suburban League boys cross country title, he walked past the group unnoticed.

It was nothing new for Lopez, who is accustomed to anonymity as the team's typical fifth finisher. His role as Palatine's final point scorer, called the "five-man" in cross country jargon, can often be the deciding factor in the Pirates' success.

However, it usually is his higher-placing teammates who receive the spotlight.

Lopez said he simply focuses on his job, but he acknowledged that the lack of personal acclaim can be difficult at times.

"I just have to close and make sure to put a gap on other people's fourth and fifth men," Lopez said.

"It's hard. You don't really get that much recognition. It's definitely more for the team."

Barrington coach Ty Gorman explained that although the front-runners get the publicity, the guys in the back are critical to team success.

"The first top couple of runners always get the headlines. They're always the ones to get the names in the paper," Gorman said. "The fifth man isn't going to get his name in the paper. But if we don't have a good fifth man, we go nowhere."

Hoffman Estates senior Chris Hoffman accepts his role and doesn't fret over the lack of outside recognition.

"It doesn't bother me. I just run," the Hawks' five-man said. "I know that my teammates have respect for me and being a fifth man is an important job. I don't really care about the papers."

While the media and public might overlook guys like Lopez and Hoffman, Palatine coach Chris Quick is acutely aware of their value.

Saying a five-man's importance increases in bigger meets, Quick compared the relative damage to the Pirates if Smoody or Lopez has a bad race.

"At the state meet, guys come in two, three or four guys a second. So if you run 10 seconds off as a five-man, you might lose 20 or 30 points," Quick said.

"Where if Smoody runs 10 seconds off, he might lose five points. That's why everybody obsesses about their five-man all year and spends all their time looking for it."

With meets often determined by 20 or fewer points, a five-man enters the race knowing that he could single-handedly determine his team's fate that day.

"I think that with the fifth position, it's such a pivotal position for a team that there is a lot of pressure on that person in many cases," Buffalo Grove coach Jamie Klotz said. "You're trying to do the best for your team, but you're like if I don't get the job done today then our team is screwed."

A five-man enters a race with no chance of any personal awards and instead does whatever he can to ensure team success.

Barrington's five-man compared his role to damage control.

"The fifth man is kind of like the extra weight on the back that you're just trying to minimize as much as possible," said senior Jeff Robinson. "So you're just trying to stay as close as you can to the rest of your teammates. I'm not focused on myself so much. I just care about where the team finishes."

On teams with aspirations of making it downstate, the pressure on a five-man grows.

Conant hopes to advance to Peoria, but first it needs to get out of the brutal Schaumburg sectional.

Senior Pablo Ramirez believes he could be the determining factor.

"I think I could be the difference between (going to) state and not going to state," Conant's five-man said.

"In my role you either made the race or broke it for everybody. Sometimes you feel the most guilty when you come in that far back."

No matter the outcome, a five-man can always be counted on to do one thing: complete the team.

"It's never the individual that is the most important, it's the team," Klotz said.

"It's the five guys you place and you're only as good as your fifth guy. So those people that fulfill that role on the team make or break it."