Coach Sean O'Connor - 'I Was Tired Of Losing'
O'Connor is in his fifth year as the head cross country coach at Lafayette and the turnaround he has authored is nothing short of remarkable.
"My first year as the boys cross country coach…," O'Connor begins but then hesitates. He wants to be sure to phrase this correctly but gently.
"I love those kids to death -- but we were horrible," admits O'Connor. He makes a pained face as he relives that season in his mind.
"We were last at conference. We were last at districts. We were just BAD!"
"I was tired of losing," said O'Connor. His shoulders droop and his palms point upward as he grapples with the words to explain.
"I never saw this coming or said to myself, 'We're going to blend this group to become a legend!' That never crossed my mind. I was tired of losing! I was tired of losing to SLU and I was tired of being terrible. Let's fix this."
O'Connor decided to read everything written by the great distance coaches and try and conceive a program of his own that he could introduce at Lafayette -- one that would reverse the Lancers morbid cross country history.
"OC is a running nerd," laughs Steven Stallis, O'Connor's assistant cross country coach and a former cross country runner at LHS.
"A major running nerd," Stallis repeats for emphasis.
"The first time I met OC I thought he was a nerd," Alec Haines, the defending 1600-meter state champ, responds when I ask him to recall his first meeting with O'Connor.
Upon meeting O'Connor, it is not difficult to understand why he evokes the term "nerd" from those who do not know him. His clothes hang on his thin awkward frame as if they were tossed on him as he ran past the outlet mall. His voice is strained and too high for an adult.
But get to know the man and all that nerdiness disappears into a background of fog as a leader of men emerges. A trailblazer with more than enough stones to mentor young runners to heights they could never have imagined.
"You should see the pile of running books this guy has stacked up in his office," Stallis says with much more than a wisp of admiration. "He has 12 of them he hasn't even had a chance to read yet! He has a book from just about every running coach who has written one. He reads them all and then he morphs their systems all together to make his own ideas. It's incredible. I just try to learn from him."
It is easy to see that Stallis reveres O'Connor. He also loves him -- as does just about everyone I spoke to about the wiry Irishman whose grandfather was born in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland. His grandmother was the first of her Irish/English family to be born here in the states.
Stallis met O'Connor the first day of cross country practice during his senior year at Lafayette.
"I showed up for practice and I thought to myself, 'Who is this guy?'" recalls Stallis. "So all of a sudden we have two cross country coaches?"
Stallis remembers the bad days of Lafayette cross country because he was a part of the losing. Cross country wasn't much more than a filler sport before O'Connor took the reins as the head coach after Stallis graduated. What changed?
"It's the training," gushes Stallis.
"I swear, it's the training programs he has come up with. I was a low 17-mimute 5K runner in high school and now I'm running in the mid-15s. It's the training. It's incredible! It works -- and it's all his design. Those four top guys (on Lafayette's varsity) have four different workouts. It all depends on how they're feeling each week. He adjusts. It's that funnel system that he does."
Without getting too technical -- because I am far from a knowledgeable source on distance training -- O'Connor's "funnel system" starts his two-milers and 800 runners at different plateaus and then trains them to meet in the middle at the 5K distance at the season's end -- or the State meet in November. Does it work? It sure looks to be kicking out elite times from his runners.
"I think he's an amazing coach," said Tommy Laarman, the all-important fifth man on Lafayette's fab five. "I think I can speak for all of us and say we would not be where we are today if it wasn't for him."