Head coach Vince DeGrado sat back in his office chair and smiled Wednesday afternoon.
The veteran coach hadnt done much smiling over the past year and this one was particularly carefree and relieved.
For the first time in over a year, DeGrado was fully reinstated as head coach of the Allen Community College cross country and track and field programs after serving a suspension stemming from an altercation at last years NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships where DeGrado pushed an opposing assistant coach to the ground after hearing him mock one of his athletes.
It ended up being a nasty business. DeGrado was arrested, but the Class A misdemeanor assault charges were eventually dismissed. The NJCAA offered multiple sanctions before settling on one that kept DeGrado away from any NJCAA-sanctioned meet for an entire year.
That year ended on Saturday when the Red Devils competed in Pittsburg at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship, their final indoor meet of the season.
I felt like Mel Gibson in Braveheart yelling Freedom, DeGrado said. Im so happy to be back but Ive also learned a lot. When you go through something like this, you can really see who has your back and who doesnt. But Ive let it all go and Im excited to just be at meets and be a coach again.
And while DeGrado will be happy to return to normalcy here in a couple of weeks when the outdoor season begins, its his runners that will have the most to benefit after a full year of racing without their coach.
I trained them, DeGrado said. But they raced without a coach. You could see it at the one meet in the past year that I was able to go. They were just much more comfortable. But theyve done a good job without me. Theyve represented the college well.
And they did just that over the weekend in Pittsburg. The Red Devils came away with multiple personal records and several podium finishes and All-American performances.
Both the men and the women left Pittsburg ranked higher than they were coming in. The men came in 23rd and left 14th while the women jumped nearly 20 spots.
We left ranked nine places higher than we were coming in, DeGrado said. And I also think there were a few areas where we left points on the board. I think there were probably some races that, if I wouldve been there, it probably could have helped just by saying certain things at certain points. But anytime you can run faster than your rank, its a successful season.
The women werent supposed to do anything. They came in ranked 41st and finished 23rd which was really good especially considering how small our womens track team is. Over the years, weve had coaching changes and thats affected the stability of that part of the program. But there are some things in the works that I think will help that.
Leading the way for the Allen men was the distance medley relay team who finished third overall with a time of 10:06.28, less than three seconds away from a national title. The runners were an all-sophomore group made up of Yoel Yoel, Michael Knowles, Joshua Clethen and Josh Doria.
We put all of our eggs in that basket, DeGrado said. We really did feel like we couldve won a national title. We were ahead going into the bell lap but we ended up falling to third. But we shattered the school record by 8 seconds. For us to drop the hammer on that record is huge and I still think our guys couldve run faster.
Yoel earned one of his two All-American honors of the tournament in that race. The other came in the mens 1000-meter run. Yoel finished with the sixth fastest time in the prelims before coming away with a second place finish in the finals with a time of 2:30.17, beating out runners from Cloud, Cowley and Colby.
Yoel has now become my most successful mens track athlete, DeGrado said. Hes now a four-time NJCAA All-American. When you look at him and see him compete, hes such a quiet guy. Ive always called him the silent assassin because thered be times where, out of nowhere, hed be in the finals. Hes just got a natural instinct for it.