Last weekend of April; Recap of Penn Relays

“No place in America brings together the track and field community like the Penn Relays at Philadelphia's Franklin Field, run every year on the last weekend in April. Some 15,000 athletes compete, beginning early in the week with high school relays and culminating on Saturday afternoon when Olympians such as Usain Bolt and Allyson Felix race in the old stadium for crowds that regularly exceed 50,000. It is part athletic event and part family reunion, where a sport's passion is annually reborn.”

Tim Layden
Oh, The Places You Can Go
A DOZEN WELL-TRAVELED SPORTS ILLUSTRATED WRITERS NAME THE NO. 1 FAN EXPERIENCES IN THE SPORTS THEY KNOW BEST
Sports Illustrated April 9th 2012.


The last weekend in April. Spring is in full bloom and the Northeast USA begins the annual reawakening from the winter doldrums. This year though, was a little different. The winter season, unusually warm and strangely devoid of snow, raced along, giving everyone in the region hope for an early Spring and great Summer.

Alas, the last weekend of April comes along and it resembles what the last weekend of February should have been. Rainy. Cold. Less track weather and more NFL on the television weather.

Against this backdrop, teams of boys and girls, men and women of all levels of competition and abilities congregated at Franklin Field for the 2012 Penn Relay Festival. The overall vibe was different. The London Olympics are a scant few months away, so while several countries trying to reach qualifying times sent teams to Philadelphia, other countries and their stars stayed away, preferring to focus on the upcoming Diamond League races and getting ready for London.

So on a rainy, chilly April Saturday, the caravans of track and field fans-most of them Jamaican-from near and far entered the stadium on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania for the penultimate day of the meet. Many of the fans were there to support their alma maters or support friends. Some came to support family members, running for schools in their new homeland, building new legacies. Others simply came to Franklin Field to soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the food and mingle with one of the greatest crowds you will ever come across at a sporting event anywhere.

On this Saturday, with the temperatures approximately 40 degrees less than the Jamaican student-athletes were used to, it surprised no one that the times were slow and the results disappointing.

Both of the USA versus the World 4x100 relays (L) were won by the USA over watered down Jamaican teams. Not even the presence of the Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller could brighten the fortunes at that point.

After the US victories, the large crowd awash in green and yellow was subdued and in need of reason to cheer. They got it in the first College men’s 4x100 relay as UWI won in a time of 39.94. Despite the weather, the buzz was coming back. That race was followed by UTech (39.46) running a creditable second to Auburn University (39.34.)

That set the stage for the High School 4x100 relays.

Wolmers Boys and Jamaica College (R) ran first and second in their race, putting the crowd-estimated to be the fourth biggest Saturday crowd all time-into a nice buzz.

That was extinguished quickly however, as Junipero Serra High from California took down both St. Jago and Calabar in their 4x100. Kingston College had the fastest times pre-meet in the 4x100, but in their final with an unbeatable lead, they dropped the baton on the last exchange.

The USA versus the World 4x400 further served to quiet the crowd, as Jermaine Gonzales basically jogged the second leg and the USA again won going away. Ditto the women's race, with Sanya Richards-Ross running better than she has in a couple of years now anchoring the US to a convincing victory.

So it was left to UTech to try and get the crowd back into it, and they did, easily defeating Texas A&M in the College Men’s 4x200 relay, even as their third leg runner appeared to suffer a cramp before the handoff.

Quite possibly the best race of the day was the High School Boys 4x800 relays, and again the Jamaican schoolboys came up short, as KC, St Jago and Holmwood all fell to the number one US team, Westfield from Virginia. The anchor leg runners of KC and Westfield ran a stirring final 150 meters that had the entire stadium on there feet down the stretch.

What is usually the crown jewel event of track, the 4x400 relay, was the last stand for the Jamaican high schoolers. With the sun peeking out (just barely on what I can attest was the coldest day in recent memory) Munro College took it home, winning ahead of Kingston College, Lodge HS of Barbados, Manchester High, Calabar and STETHS. Delano Williams of Munro, who provided a stellar performance in the 100 and 200 at the recent Boy and Girls Championship, sprinted the anchor leg as if it were a 100 meter race to finish in an astonishing 45.8 split. He will be a force to reckon with in the future.

Despite the cold and the bleak weather conditions the Penn Relays did not disappoint, and as the season progresses and culminates at the Olympics, fans will be watching the stars of today on the world stage. And the next generation of young men and women who make track special and the purest form of competition known to man will be getting ready. People like Edward Cheserek, Delano Williams, Danniel Thomas and Mary Cain.

Ready for the next run, the next race, the next season and on the last weekend of April, their moment in the sun.

Who knows, maybe next year we'll see these guys out on the track trying to get in on the fun...

Thanks to Sportingeventsfotos.com for the great shots!

Basketball in the city

In NYC, basketball is part of our DNA. Yeah, the Yankees team and their stars are quite possibly the greatest team in all of sports, setting a standard for championships and expectations across the board. The Giants, Jets and Rangers compete for attention in the Big Apple also, usually existing somewhere below the rarefied atmosphere that the Yankees habitually reside.

That being said, make no mistake, New York City is a basketball town. From the Bronx to Queens, high school to the pros, basketball stars are icons; as acclaimed in many circles as (some) movie stars, gangsters and rappers. NYC has long carved out its station in the world as the place where ballers earn their stripes.

Before I was born, there was Lew Alcindor of Power Memorial High School in the Bronx. One of the first players to be subjected to a major recruiting battle, Alcindor left the Bronx for UCLA and began a dynasty there, forever changing how the game was played, how players were recruited, where they played and their visibility on the high school level.

When I moved to New York, Kenny Anderson was the star of the moment; an All-City hotshot from Lefrak City who set the city record for most points in a high school career among other accolades. Since Kenny Anderson, there have been many others; Kemba Walker, Ben Gordon (of Jamaican descent) Malik Sealy, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin (who preceded Anderson,) Felipe Lopez, Rod Strickland and the one who was considered by many to be the best NYC player since Lew Alcindor, the enigmatic Lloyd Daniels. All of them prep stars that made their name on the blacktops and hard courts on New York City.

Proof of the status on basketball in the city pantheon can be seen in the publicity basketball gets in NYC on all levels: before Felipe Lopez (R) ever played a game for St. John’s he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, hailed as the next Jordan, and was as recognizable as any celebrity. Manny ‘Hit Man’ Ramirez was arguably the best high school baseball player to come out of New York, a .650 hitter his senior year and likely a Hall of Famer when he retires. And unless you were a scout, member of his family or a hard core fan no one could point him out in a crowd when he was building his legend in the Bronx.

It’s against this backdrop that you have to consider this unmistakable fact: the only professional basketball team in NYC, the Knicks, has not won a NBA title in almost four decades.

And despite that run of failure, the Knicks are the only team that can challenge the Yankees for popularity in and beyond the boroughs.

It’s not just because they are the only professional basketball team in New York (at least till Mikhail Prokhorov brings the Nets to Brooklyn.) It’s because they represent the city in the city’s game. You want to see the surest sign that the annual iron grip of winter is loosening? Listen for the sound of a basketball bouncing on the asphalt. That sound tells you one undisputable fact: Spring in NYC is coming with summer right behind it. Kids and adults playing pickup games in playgrounds all over Gotham.

The Knick teams of (Jamaican born) Patrick Ewing, Mark Jackson, John Starks, Anthony Mason and Allan Houston were scrappy teams that fought, elbowed and beat other teams down physically and mentally. They appealed to the average fan, and though they couldn’t close the deal (Hey, an entire generation of Hall of Famers couldn’t close the deal in the Jordan era!) they were respected in their town.

St. Johns University, similar to the Knicks, was for a very long time the only team repping not just NYC but the entire metropolitan area. That has changed over the last twenty years; Hofstra, UConn, Seton Hall and others vie with St. Johns to keep the best local talent close to home. Call it the curse of the name change (old time Saint John’s fans know what im talking about.)


The arrival of Amare Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks this season has reenergized Knicks fans and put them in playoff contention. The resurgence of the St. Johns basketball team has likewise created a buzz and those events confirm one thing that purists and experts have said as the city teams floundered over the last decade: Basketball is always more fun when the New York teams are competitive.

You don’t have to be a winner to win over the hearts of New Yorkers, you just have to always hustle hard and if you talk the talk, you better walk the walk.

That blue collar ethic is why Derek Jeter is revered and that swagger is why Mark Messier (below) is forever loved but Patrick Ewing (R) creates feelings of ambivalence in many fans. Messier talked brash and won it all. Ewing, as great as he was and as respected as he is, will forever be remembered by many fans for his empty guarantees of a championship.

Realistically, the chances of either the Knicks or St. Johns winning titles this season are slim, but they have reemerged and become the one thing that you have to be in New York-relevant. And as the chill of winter recedes, all one has to do is go to the nearest park and watch kids and adults, wealthy and poor, all races, religions and ideologues playing the one game that defines New Yorkers. And ask the question that never gets old: Who’s got next?