I came to the realization many years ago that I might never see a Lake County athlete or team win a state title. After all, I”ve been the sports editor at the Lake County Record-Bee since late August of 1984 and have been witness in my 23-plus years here to some great individual and team accomplishments.
Mike Perez, Zeb Beatty, Steve Brown and the Upper Lake High School varsity girls” basketball teams that Annie Pivniska, Jen Bryant and Laura Wilder took for a spin to the NorCals four years in a row, coming within a win of the state title game on two occasions, were about as good as it gets. No complaints. Great memories, then and forever.
Had a state title playoff structure been in place in the fall of 2001, I have no doubt that the Middletown Mustangs (12-0) would have won that state championship if only given the opportunity to do so.
Again, no complaints. What a great team and what a great season.
So, years after I had given up hope of ever seeing a state winner come from my own backyard so to speak, this Healdsburg High graduate and dedicated Sonoma County boy has had his little world turned upside down and shaken like a rag doll inside of a Saint Bernard”s mouth the last couple of months.
On Saturday, about 12:03 p.m. in Fresno, I got my state title. Finally.
Here”s the catch. It wasn”t a Lake County athlete or a Lake County team that gave it to me.
At about 12:02 p.m., a slender young thing appeared over a grassy knoll and headed for the finish line at the CIF State Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park. She was about to complete the 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 26 seconds, a state record in Division IV and one of the fastest times on a day during which 2,000 runners would wind their away around the state championship course and its many hills.
As she crossed the finish line, she finally smiled. She didn”t smile until then, not even with a 44-second lead over her nearest pursuer. But as she came across the finish line, as she jogged down the chute the runners come down, as she exited that chute, Sarah Sumpter did smile. A big smile. A smile that could have lit up Fresno County for a week.
Yep, my first state champion in more than 23 years at the Record-Bee, in more than 25 years of working as a sports reporter, was my first born, Sarah Elizabeth Sumpter.
The balky right calf that had brought her nearly to tears the night before the race and the morning of the race was throbbing again, but she didn”t care. Once the gun sounded and more than 190 runners charged from the starting line on Saturday, Sarah Sumpter didn”t feel a thing. And as she watched the sprinters and overzealous rookies burn themselves out the first 400-600 meters, she maintained the same methodical pace that is her trademark, more so than the sunglasses she wears and the same sunglasses a state official confiscated from her prior to the start of the race (they didn”t have a frame all the way around them, so they could be a safety risk if she falls).
That was the official word anyway.
But if you don”t think this is Sarah Sumpter”s year, the Sonoma County League and North Coast Section champion could probably tell you otherwise. A Maria Carrillo coach standing nearby simply flipped his sunglasses to Sarah. They fit, perfectly, and Sarah had her shades. By 800 yards, just a half-mile into the race, it was over for the most part, just not for Sarah”s dad, whose heart didn”t stop thumping until well after she had crossed the finish line.
Before family members could find Sarah, the media did. I have to tell you that watching the media interview my daughter is something of a surreal experience. Doing the interviews is my thing, watching them take place or being asked questions myself ? well, that was something out of a Twilight Zone episode for me. I looked on like any other spectator and tried to stay out of the way. I watched her soak it all in, every bit of it, and that was almost more fun than watching her run.
More than 48 hours have elapsed since Sarah won a state title and I”m still not sure it really happened. It did, of course, and I”ve watched the race video on www.dyestat.com and her own interview after the race. Hell, I watched the whole race happen right in front of me and it still hasn”t quite sunk in. I”ve heard athletes and coaches tell me that very same thing after a big win for years and years now, and I”ve always wondered why that was. It”s only now that I get it. I mean I really get it now.
One of the things I”ll take away from this whole experience is all the pre-race publicity my daughter received before the sectional championships on Nov. 17 in Hayward and the state finals the following week. Stories proclaiming Sarah as the “runner to beat” made me nervous, because that was simply asking for another target to be added to her back, and there was already plenty of pressure on this 17-year-old.
“Now you know what that feels like,” one of my Lake County coaches told me when I phoned him after Sarah”s victory in Hayward. “It”s different when you”re on the receiving end.”
Yes, it is.
Where Sarah gets her running genes from is a mystery to us in the Sumpter family. There are no runners, just football and baseball players. There are definitely no distance runners. Sarah, who only took up the sport her sophomore year, has done it all on her own. She dedicated herself like no other following a junior year when she missed winning a state medal ? given to top-10 finishers in each division ? by one place and two seconds. She averaged 100 miles a week this past summer and ran in a different race almost every weekend.
Sarah “cut back” to 70 miles a week once school began. She gets up every morning about 4 a.m. to run. Every morning, rain or shine, regardless of whether she feels 100 percent or 50 percent.
She follows a diet so strict that I could never do it. Broccoli could be her nickname because I know the smell of raw and cooking broccoli all too well. I know she didn”t get her love of broccoli from me.
Next up for Sarah is the Footlocker Regionals this weekend. If she places high enough, she gets to go to the Footlocker Nationals. There are no divisions in these events, it”s simply the best against the best from all over the United States. I don”t know how she”ll do, I only know she”ll do the best she can.
That”s all I”ve wanted and that”s all I”ve ever cared about.
Winning a state title is an incredible accomplishment, but loving what you do and leading a happy life is more important. The rest is gravy.
