{"id":6646,"date":"2023-09-10T09:12:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T13:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6646"},"modified":"2023-09-10T17:49:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T21:49:13","slug":"the-mcgowan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/09\/10\/the-mcgowan\/","title":{"rendered":"The McGowan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is another in the Sunday Story series \u2013 no politics here, just the story of a tradition, started half a century ago.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small Town<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was fifty years ago, in 1974.  A young graduate of Western North Carolina State University in Cullowhee came back home to Pataskala, Ohio.  He became the gym teacher at Etna Elementary, the track coach at his alma mater, Watkins Memorial High School, and he revived the cross country running program there.  John McGowan brought a \u201ckid-centered\u201d attitude to coaching.  His teams became families, tied both to John and each other, some for life.  And as part of their cross country experience, he started a small invitational, just a few teams competing the then-two mile distance. Only boys ran,  girls \u201ccouldn\u2019t\u201d run that far, it was thought. They went around the Future Farmers of America (FFA) cornfield behind the new middle school, and into the school woods to run a \u201cshort\u201d loop and finish beside the \u201cold\u201d high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John was one of the early advocates for women in both cross country and track.  Within three years, there was a girls race at the \u201cWatkins Invitational\u201d, and by 1978 girls cross country was an \u201cofficial\u201d sport, sponsored by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.  Watkins had a girls team from the beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Developments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The length of the race increased, first to two and a half miles, then to the present three miles, 176 yards (3.1 miles or, more exactly, 5000 meters).   The path in the woods was extended too.  If you \u201cknow\u201d the woods at Watkins, the two mile path is the \u201cmiddle school loop\u201d, the two and a half mile path is the \u201clong loop\u201d, and the 5000 meter path is the \u201csuper loop\u201d, the same course run today.  John literally built the \u201csuper loop\u201d in the early 1980\u2019s, with the help of a local bulldozer operator doing other work around the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot has changed in fifty years.  The FFA cornfield is now the \u201crugby pitch\u201d, there\u2019s a baseball field beside it, and the middle school became the high school and now is back to a middle school again.  There\u2019s a new football and track stadium, a soccer stadium and an athletic building with lots of locker rooms and restrooms. It\u2019s a good thing.  The cornfield next to the starting line that used to \u201crelieve\u201d that problem, is now a housing development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just this year, they are building a new elementary school on the same site, where the races used to start.  Off the \u201cback\u201d of the super loop woods, there\u2019s a whole new campus, with a new high school and intermediate school (grades four and five).  But the Watkins Invitational still remains on the second Saturday of September.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The McGowan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not called the Watkins Invitational anymore.  Twenty-one years ago it was renamed in honor of John McGowan, the \u201cMcGowan Invitational at Watkins\u201d, or in Ohio cross country shorthand, \u201cThe McGowan\u201d.  And it\u2019s not just a few teams and a single race or two.  Yesterday there were sixteen races, boys, girls, high school, middle school; varsity and reserve.  2,600 kids participated in the meet this year, down from a decade ago, but still one of the biggest meets in the state.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on the finish line, \u201cwelcoming\u201d kids at the end of the race, was John McGowan.  Welcoming is probably not quite the right word for what happens.  The runners finish;  some \u201chigh five\u201d in celebration, some fall over from exertion, some throw up.  As one middle school Dad asked his kid after the race; \u201cDo you still have that beef jerky I gave you to eat?\u201d \u201cNo, Dad, I already ate it before the race.\u201d  For most kids, they don\u2019t know the \u201cold guys\u201d at the finish line \u2013 they\u2019re just glad to be done, to have tested themselves against the distance, the heat, the roots in the woods and the other competitors in their race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They ran \u201cthe McGowan\u201d, a unique race in today\u2019s modern cross country world.  Most races today are around athletic fields, closely monitored by carts at the front and back.  But at Watkins, two-thirds of the race is still on that \u201csuper loop\u201d, running through the paths among the trees.  Sure, the old creek-crossing now has a full bridge, and there\u2019s a beautiful walkway over the path through the \u201cwetland\u201d (we used to call it the swamp).  There are a lot of folks who contributed time and effort to improve the place.  But the \u201cessence\u201d of the \u201cMcGowan\u201d is what John himself planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been a part of the Watkins cross country family for all but the first four years.  While I\u2019m now one of those \u201cold guys\u201d on the finish line, I also help \u201cput out fires\u201d so that the current coaches can coach their kids.  So at one point yesterday, among the thousands of kids and thousands of spectators, I got to go back in the woods to \u201cswitch\u201d paths for the shorter middle school races.  With all of the surging, cheering crowds out in front, there still was quiet in the woods.  I ran into other \u201cold coaches\u201d, almost “ghosts of cross country past”, and a couple that I think I had a conversation with last year in the very same place.  One of my runners from two decades ago was sitting on a log, waiting for her kid to run by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most of all, there was the calm of the woods, followed by the sound of three hundred feet skipping across the hard dirt path, then the labored breathing of competition.  Finally the leaders came into view, focusing on the path, the competitors, and their own efforts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fiftieth \u201cMcGowan\u201d is in the books.  There\u2019s a whole new cross country family with \u201cnew\u201d coaches (John Jarvis has been coaching since the 1990\u2019s).  But we all still cherish what John McGowan started fifty years ago.  Sure there\u2019s the races, and the woods; but most importantly, there\u2019s the family.  That\u2019s John\u2019s biggest accomplishment, a half-century later.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h4>\n\n\n\n