Athletics

History in the Making

Each day we witness history being made, as communities change, as world leaders take action, as families grow. Even this magazine, in many ways, is a record and bulletin of Holy Cross College’s history. But few are the days when one is able to witness firsthand a truly remarkable event, an event that forges a new path in the course of history, and fewer still are the chances to be a part of such a day.

A day like that happened for Holy Cross College.

The Meet

It was one of those sunny days in early fall, when summer isn’t ready to let go just yet. It was the National Catholic Cross Country Invitational on September 15, 2006, the first intercollegiate athletic competition in which Holy Cross College would ever participate. Holy Cross College junior, Tyler Martin, ran for the Saints.

“That meet, competing in that race, that was one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had,” says Martin. “There were so many Holy Cross people there, there were so many of my friends from Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s there. I played football in high school and baseball, but that meet just put it all away.”

Martin is one of six men on the first Saints athletic team, the cross country team. There is also one woman, freshman Kelly Payne. She says that’s a pretty amazing status.

“I’m making history,” she says humbly. “I’m the first woman athlete at Holy Cross College.” Payne also ran the first race at the first meet, making her the first Saints athlete ever to compete.

Both Martin and Payne say they were honored and excited to represent Holy Cross College, but they were also a little overwhelmed, being from such a small school and a small team at such a big invitational.

“Coach made us feel pretty comfortable about everything though. He said we’re all runners, and it’s not a big deal,” says Martin. “He just put us right there, and I felt like a college runner. Coach has really made this program go.”

The Coach

“Coach” is Joe Mendelson, another first, the first Saints intercollegiate athletic coach. Mendelson says he started running in the 6th grade when he moved from Michigan to California and actually saw people out running. It wasn’t too long after that he started coaching, for his own 8th grade team! But it wasn’t cross country, it was football.

Mendelson has been leading teams ever since at various levels. He also swims, race walks and rides horses, but his long and a distinguished athletic career has focused on running and coaching runners.

“I do a combination of all the great coaches I’ve ever been around or worked under,” he says. “I kind of make an individual assessment on each runner and train them more individually, rather than just run them all together in a group.

“He knows his stuff. He is a pure runner,” Martin says. “And he’s a great coach. He knows what needs to be done, and he gets it done.”

The Students

Over the past summer, what Mendelson knew his team needed was “homework.” He was communicating with the athletes and giving them running assignments. Now that the students are back at school, they’re learning juggling as well as cross country running!

Martin is not only a member of the cross country team, but he’s vice president of the student government association, captain of the club basketball team and a studious college student. He carries a PDA (personal digital assistant) that is part planner, part phone, part camera and part computer (for emails mostly) in an attempt to keep his schedule straight and his social life in order.

“It’s tough to balance everything, but my grades are the highest they’ve ever been in college right now,” he says.

As a first-year student, Payne is still figuring out the collegiate world, but she was a swimmer and golfer in high school, so she’s had some experience as a student athlete.

“I think it works well for me because if I’m in a sport I’m more motivated to concentrate on my work. I’m not lazy. If I exercise I just have more energy,” she says.

Working with the men has the same effect. “When I practice with the guys it makes me want to do better, so I don’t mind it at all. It’s fun.”

And they aren’t giving her any breaks. They don’t need to.

“She doesn’t have any problems staying with the guys in the workouts,” Martin says.

That means 90-minute runs some days and mile “speed runs” other days, which is basically running a mile as fast as you can, taking a quick break, and then doing it again. How do they do it? How does anyone do it?

“The runners, we all talk about this,” Martin says. “It’s a peaceful thing, like you can just get away from school, studies and stuff like that. I just think about my feet hitting the ground.”

And those footsteps are making quite an imprint in the history pages of Holy Cross College.

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