Stepping off the gravel driveway onto the fresh-cut lawn of Anderson Farm, Forest Grove cross country fans couldn’t breathe deeply enough.
The air was heavy with moisture but still cool. A hint of chimney smoke hung in the air, but just enough to remind the assembled runners that they might need to throw on a sweatshirt before warming up – and to remind the surrounding Douglas Firs that winter was around the corner.
Sue Fleskes stood smiling, holding a clipboard. She’s been here before.
Fleskes knows Mike and Andrea Anderson, the owners of the farm that donate their property and time to help put on Forest Grove’s only home meet of the year. Fleskes knows this course. She knows the kids. Knows the parents.
But really Fleskes is on the verge of taking the Vikings’ cross country program – left for dead, like many other sports, when the district cut funding for athletics in 1989 – back to the to the top.
“She has done a phenomenal job building a great program,” said former Forest Grove athletic director Jeff Basinski. “When former cross country coach Gordon Garlock left he didn’t think that Forest Grove would ever truly be able to compete. He said Sue surprised him.”
Fleskes started in 1993, just two years after the district began funding athletics again. That season she coached seven runners. A year later she had six boys and four girls. Today she has over 60 runners, and both the boys and girls varsity squads are chasing a spot in the OSAA state championship meet, which will be held next month.
“This is the biggest group we’ve ever had,” Fleskes said of the 2009 team. “We’ve got 60 kids. [At one time] they all fit in my Suburban. We didn’t even have a team bus.”
The question: How did she do it with so few runners?
“You have patience and stick to it,” Fleskes said. “We had kids that had some success and that breeds [more] success.”
And the Vikings have had plenty of success on Fleskes’ watch.
Senior Nick Robbins is preparing to lead this year’s Forest Grove boys team to the Pacific Conference district meet on Oct. 29 and then, hopefully, the state meet on Nov. 7. Fellow senior Kino Kinoshita and junior James Meyers, along with Robbins, round out the Vikings’ top three runners.
Robbins finished last Wednesday’s race in 18:37, good for first place and just two seconds ahead of Kinoshita, who finished second, but those times are misleading – the 5K course at Anderson Farm is one of the most difficult in the Pacific Conference. For comparison, both Robbins and Kinoshita have personal records around the 16-minute mark.
“Hills aren’t my favorite, but you’ve got to do it,” Robbins said of the circuit at Anderson Farm. “I’ve heard this is one of the hardest courses in the state.”
Robbins went to the state meet last year as an individual qualifier and finished in 16:49, which was good enough for 29th place. Now he’s looking to help Forest Grove qualify as a team.
“I don’t want to say we’re a lock, but there is a good probability the team will be at [the state meet],” said Robbins, who has three wins and seven Top 10 finishes this season.
The top two teams from each district as well as the top four individuals are selected each year to run at the state championships in Eugene. Last season Robbins was the only Forest Grove boy to qualify, while the girls sent two runners – Laura Matzke and Sharon Rooker. Matzke finished 22nd in 19:45 and Rooker took 31st in 20:24.
Those two, plus senior Eredi Pintor, give Fleskes the talent and experience to make a run at qualifying the girls team for this year’s state meet. Pintor was Forest Grove’s top finisher last Wednesday, taking second place overall in 22:36 while Matzke finished third in 23:04. Rooker did not compete.
“Tualatin will win the girls district meet,” Fleskes said matter-of-factly. “Right now we are [hoping] to go to state as the No. 2 team. But we don’t talk about it. I don’t talk to the kids about rankings. If the kids want to find it, they can. But every race is different, no matter what it says on paper.”
No matter what it says on paper – that’s something Fleskes has been preaching since she took over 17 years ago, and she still coaches her runners to do the best they can.
“My years on the team were great,” said former Forest Grove runner Eric Weinbender, who won a district championship in 2007 and was on hand for last week’s meet at Anderson Farm.
“They played a very important role in who I am today. I like to think of coach Fleskes as not only a sports coach, but also a coach in life. She takes coaching to a new level, not only trying to make you a great athlete but also a great person.”
With the two most important meets of the season approaching rapidly, Fleskes and the Vikings are training hard.
“We are still in the competitive part [of our training],” Fleskes said. “Next week we start the championship phase. We will scale back hills and work on more speed. We do fun things like relays and fartlek work, but it’s still hard.”
Hard work, high expectations and a sprinkle of fun – that seems to be Fleskes’ recipe for success, and it’s one that other coaches would be wise to copy. After all, the Vikings’ roster has increased nearly tenfold during Fleskes’ tenure and almost all of those athletes are willing to go the extra mile for their favorite coach.
“I’m very lucky,” Fleskes said. “I’m very blessed.”
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