Fr. Willie ‘87 | President
Good morning!
This long Veteran’s Day weekend could not have come at a better time. Not only did the faculty, staff, and all of you deserve a few days of rest, it also provided a great opportunity for several students, coaches, and players to take part in three state championships. Cross country, golf, and swimming descended on different parts of the state in order to flex their muscles and vie for a state title. While all three did great things to get to states and deserve rightful recognition throughout their season, cross country once again came out on top in their sport.
I don’t want this email to simply be one more congratulatory message for a team that has continued an unprecedented legacy of now 13 state titles, five of which have been consecutive. I don’t want it to be simply an expression of pride of walking through hotel lobbies and elevators in Tallahassee having people gawk and stare at the boys in gold as they make their way through the cross country crowds knowing there is no chance for victory when Bay-len (“gringo” pronunciation) is on the scene. No, I want this to be an expression of a thought that came to me as I made my solitary (and very boring) drive down the state back to Miami.
What is the key to this sport’s success at Belen Jesuit? What is the secret sauce that has made this incredible run (pun intended) possible? Is it the year-long preparation that includes training over the summers, mornings, afternoons, weekends, Easter, and Christmas breaks? Yes, of course, it is. Is it the vision and inspiration of Coach Frankie Ruiz '96 and his assistants? Yes, of course, it is. Is it the dedication, hard work, talent, and “buying in” of the athletes? Yes, of course, it is. But, is it more than that? Yes, of course, it is.
So, what is the “more”? The answer: selflessness.
In a world that often sells us the idea of focusing so much on self in order to be truly successful in life, cross country preaches a very different idea that is ultimately the reason for such extraordinary success. Thinking of the other and what is best for the whole is the main reason why Belen has taken the top prize in the state for so many years and has ranked us at a national level. Don’t get me wrong, talent and hard work are essential, but that alone can’t get you to the top as consistently as we have been for as long as we have been.
I’m not a runner by any stretch of the imagination (even though as a student I use to run to the cafeteria all the time and made pretty good time) and I do not pretend to know much about cross country, but I am Belen through and through and, more importantly, I am a Christian. These two things allow me to recognize the value of selflessness and recognize it in this sport and our team’s ability to harness it is powerful energy.
Like most of our teams in the past, this year’s group had many good runners anchored by a stellar one. Adam Magoulas has been leading the pack throughout this whole season. But, towards the end of his high school career, he has been hurt. He suffered a stress fracture towards the end of the season that has kept him literally out of the running (pun once again intended). While his college career has been assured by signing a letter of intent with the University of Florida, I still saw him every day training for the state tournament in any possible way that would help him take the necessary steps to help his team. Training on erg machines, swimming in the pool, and working on upper body strength were some of the ways he stuck to it, all for the sake of his teammates.
In cross country, you run seven athletes and the sum of the individual places of your top five runners determines your score. While there is always that one individual who crosses the finish line first, the team’s total score makes you the state champion. The team with the lowest time point total is the winner, no matter what time the individuals may come in. So, you are only as good as your five runners. One runner can’t really score the winning play.
At the race on Friday, there was a strategy in place. One of the top runners in the state is Patrick Koon from Leon High School. Considering Adam’s condition, our “next man up” was Joshua Ruiz ’24. He could have given his all to race and beat Koon, but instead, he was instructed to race for the team. At the risk of emptying the tank by focusing on one guy, he was asked to pace himself accordingly so he could finish strong and add to the team’s standing.
Adam did the same. Running with a stress fracture, the goal was not to push himself to win the individual prize, but to push as hard as he could to finish the race in pain to keep our score low. Thinking not about self and individual glory, but about the team and the glory of all, these young men ran as a pack and ate up the competition. You can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to be standing at the finish line and watch the runners come in for the final stretch. There is a solitary green jersey here, a blue and then red one, and then a five-man-long flash of gold. Selflessness personified on its way to victory.
Let this be a lesson to us all. This band of brothers stuff is real and it is the key ingredient to being the best. Trust me, it translates to everything else. It is no wonder Jesus preached about it all the time. It is no wonder “men for others” has been our motto for 167 years.
Auspice Maria