Heart of a champion
NC’s Anderson appreciates sport’s pure enjoyment
I’ve covered cross country on and off the past 30 years – mostly off.
The sport hasn’t been on my radar much because, to be honest, football has garnered most of my attention in the fall.
The last two years, though, I’ve attended the Washington state championship races. The Idaho state championships are scheduled to be at Circling Raven in Worley next fall and I’ll be there.
This year I added cross country full time to my plate. That doesn’t mean it got the same treatment as football, but it wasn’t an afterthought.
I’ve come to appreciate the sport. I have Tanner Anderson of North Central and John Dressel of Mt. Spokane to thank for that.
We all know rivalries exist in most sports. Believe it or not, they can exist in cross country and track.
Anderson and Dressel are a case in point.
The head-to-head series between these spectacular runners stands at 18-17, favoring Anderson. His final surge in the State 3A meet Saturday was nothing short of epic.
He was trailing Dressel by as much as 30 meters, but Anderson found another gear and pulled ahead with about 400 meters to go to defend his state championship.
Anderson was trying to put the brakes on the adrenaline still speeding through his body when I spoke with him.
Runners, by and large, have a lot of respect for their opponents. Anderson was humbled by the victory and took time to thank everyone associated with his win. You could sense everything he said was coming from his heart.
“Coming down that last hill, I just felt pure enjoyment,” Anderson said. “It was painful, but it’s the most enjoyable thing. I know most people say, ‘I don’t get why you run.’ It’s not for the podium and it’s definitely not to win races. It’s to be a better human being, to be a better person. It teaches you discipline. I have my coach (Jon Knight) to thank for that.”
Without transition, Anderson continued to explain why he loves running.
“I know I’ve said this a billion times, but I was just doing it for my team, for the boys,” he said. “The boys, meaning the future and the past teams.”
At North Central the past and the future are intertwined.
“It’s had such a big impact for our community and for our school,” Anderson said. “I owe a lot of my success to him (Knight), the coaching staff and especially (teammate) Andrew Vandine, who was the one who actually got me running in fourth grade. I owe a lot of my success to a lot of people and very little to myself.”
Then Anderson took a moment to thank Dressel.
“I’ll remember all the times that he beat me,” Anderson said. “I probably won’t remember as much as when I beat him.
“We make each other better. If I’m not running today (I’m thinking), then what is he doing? Is he out doing a 10-mile run or an 8-mile tempo? He motivates me to get better.”
Knight, whose team tied the most consecutive title victories set by Mead (nine) and coached by his friend and mentor Pat Tyson, also expressed appreciation to the throng of NC followers at the state meet.
He wanted to specifically point out one person, NC night custodian Dick Dolan.
“He just loves this team,” Knight said. “He wears a North Central shirt every day at work. He loves us and we love him. We’re running for a lot of people like that. He’s our No. 1 fan, he says.”
You could almost sense a sigh of relief from Knight after his team held off a significant challenge from Kamiakin.
“There’s quite a bit of pressure that comes with this whole gig,” Knight said. “When it’s finally over, you can just feel it start to lift a little bit.”