Ms. D'Alfanso, Owen Riesberg, and the MJHS Cross Country State Championship

Ms. D'Alfanso is the Cross Country coach for Morton Junior High School. Her team recently won the state competition, highlighting her success as a coach and the accomplishments of her athletes. She plays a key role in shaping the young runners, guiding them both physically and mentally to perform at their best. 
Owen secured 4th place at the state competition, helping to lift his team to a championship.  He shares some of his physical preparations prior to the season, his race mindset, and his favorite super heroes.  
Listen in on the wonders of cross country, Ms. D'Alfanso's coaching philosophy, and how Owen is building off of this season's success with plans ahead for next year.

Transcript

Ben: 0:02

Okay. Tell me about the ice bath. They're pretty cold. My dad gets ice before the day, before I take a bath. And it's pretty cold. I'm not used to that. Dad, what are we talking? 30 pounds of ice? 20 pound bag of ice? Going in the bathtub at home? Yep. Okay. I've been doing the ice bath stuff for six, seven years. I love the ice bath stuff. Coach you? No, not a chance. Not a chance. Never in a million years. I'm one of those people that belongs in

Ms. D'Alfanso: 0:32

Florida. So I'm cold blooded. So deliberately being cold. So if you had to pick, it's the sauna. Yeah, absolutely.

0:37

Okay. All right.

Ben: 0:39

Welcome to Morton Musin News, where we bring you events, highlight the voices, and celebrate the unique charm of our community. From local happenings and business spotlights to heartfelt interviews with people who make Morton special, this is your go to source for staying connected with all things Morton. Tune in and let's discover what makes our town truly remarkable, one story at a time. Hello, good morning, good morning, good morning. I hope everybody's having a beautiful day. It is a rainy day. It was humid last night. Didn't sleep well, particularly. I think the wind and the rain kind of knocking on my, on the side of my house kind of kept me up. And today is voting day. So a lot of people are out and about doing their voting. And the public schools in Illinois don't have school today. Is that right? Okay. Pretty cool. And because of that availability, I was able to bring in two special guests from the school system, from the junior high school here in Morton to talk about their recent accomplishments with the end of the cross country season. I have Owen Riesberg. You were an eighth grader, right? And you participated in cross country in seventh grade and eighth grade. So you get to talk about. Your cross country experience through your junior high and then coach Delfonso. Is that right? That's

Ms. D'Alfanso: 1:56

correct.

Ben: 1:57

And you've been in the district now for

Ms. D'Alfanso: 1:59

Seven years.

Ben: 2:00

Seven years and you teach at the junior high school. I do. Language arts.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 2:04

That's correct.

Ben: 2:04

Green team room 212. Is Jen Rabe on your team? She is. Oh man, she's one of my favorite people. I'll let her

Ms. D'Alfanso: 2:12

know.

Ben: 2:14

Worked really close with Jen Rabe and Brandon? Correct.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 2:17

Oh man. It's a fun team.

Ben: 2:19

That's exactly where I was. Yeah. I'm the old veteran. That's great. Younger crowd. Holding it down. Hanging in there. That's awesome. So we're here to talk about cross country and we're here to talk about the end, well the beginning, the middle and the end of the season. I have questions for the both of you. Yeah. But first for my listeners, I wanted to quickly remind people that if they haven't already heard or listened to the previous podcast, we have an interview featuring Kim Litwiler, the Morton Chamber of Commerce director from October 30th. We also have an interview from Jeremy Short from Precision Planting somewhere in the show notes. And we also have Alyssa Williams, the Morton Public Library director. So if you're interested in any of those three stories or those three individuals. Go ahead and dig a little bit deeper into the Morton Musin News podcast and give those a listen. So, Coach Delfonso, I wanted to start with you today. A couple of questions. Could you give me just a brief background? You began to tell me a little bit about East Peoria prior to hitting the record button. Tell me a little bit more. Fill it in for the rest of the listeners.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 3:18

I think I have 24 years in, approximately 24 years in education. An unusual route, I think. I was in education and then had two children, spent some time off, a little, had them a little older. When I was a little older, I came back to Morton School District in a coordinator role as the MTSS coordinator, and two years ago left for just one year had an opportunity to work for the IESA, the Illinois Elementary School Association, and took that opportunity and was still involved with sports. It was a, it was an interesting job, a fun job, but just not really Great in terms of a family fit. So came back to the district and actually spent last year back in the classroom after many years at Lincoln elementary as a sixth grade teacher. And then had an opportunity to come to the junior high this year. And I, as an, as a seventh grade ELA teacher, and I've spent a lot of years teaching junior high early in my career. And so it felt like a really, really good fit. So

Ben: 4:15

what could you tell the listeners about a junior high school?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 4:19

Do I need to tell the listeners about Junior High? It's a very specific breed of animal. It is, and you have to, yeah. You don't get to

Ben: 4:26

nod your head at that, Owen. Sorry, you don't get to know how special of a breed you are until you are looking at the breed. From another point in life. I do appreciate the optimism though. He's he you I could sense that you see that there's something different probably

4:42

hard as a

Ben: 4:42

teacher. It could be hard as a teacher. It could also be very rewarding. So what would you say?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 4:47

Yeah, I really think you have to love the age, right? You have to speak sarcasm a little bit You like the kids are a lot of fun the sports aspect that a junior high brings There's just there's so many activities, but yeah, you just I think you just have to love that age I think similar to a Kindergarten first grade teacher you have to love that age to be in it to be a high school teacher So I think you know part of education is really finding your niche and I'm living the teen dream with two teenagers at home As well, so I've got a daughter at the junior high and then one as a sophomore So I think that helps me to speak their language. Yeah, stay relevant and all those things But

Ben: 5:21

I appreciate that parallel saying that you have a kindergarten teacher a preschool teacher They are cut from a certain cloth and I think junior high school teachers are the ones that fit well You know, the square peg in the square hole kind of thing. They're cut from a certain kind of cloth material as well.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 5:36

And junior high kids, they're just fun. I mean, it's a fun age. I mean, going through a lot, but it's still, you mentioned sarcasm. You have to,

Ben: 5:43

you got to carry that with you. You got to pack that in your lunchbox every day. Yep. A couple of bad

Ms. D'Alfanso: 5:47

jokes here and there make sure they're still awake.

Ben: 5:50

You mentioned sports. Yeah. You gave me a little bit of the background about your teaching and education. Where do sports come in? Did you start that early, too?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 5:57

Yeah, so I grew up playing sports. I went to Richards High School. Played three sports there. Cross country was one of them. Went on to Illinois Wesleyan University. Played two sports there. Basketball and softball, didn't run there, thought about it, but just would have been too much. But running and cross country have always been in my blood. And went on after graduating and started my teaching career and I've coached a lot of sports. I've coached junior high cross country, high school track, high school basketball. Junior high softball, you name it. I've coached it. That's a lot. But this is, and I joke with the kids and the team, this is my second go around after having kids and taking some time off. That's a, it's a difficult, it's a difficult situation to navigate when you're coaching. Coaching just takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort and you really want to put everything into it. And so that's hard to do when you have young kids at home. So yeah, it is a struggle, isn't it? Yeah. So I thought this was an appropriate time and I told the parents early on that there was one sport that would bring me out of coaching retirement. It would be cross country.

Ben: 6:57

Okay, I might ask you a little bit about what those values in cross country might be, because I have a very soft spot in my heart for cross country as well. I coached at the junior high school for Cross country for eight years. I think track for 12. I think so it's like always running sports. So I might come back to that. Oh, and I'm going to go ahead and point a little bit of attention at you. 7th grade, 8th grade. You ran cross country both years, right? Okay. What was it like transitioning from a private school? into a public school. I guess maybe I'm bouncing around a little bit here. Not about sports or cross country, but just as a student in Wharton,

7:33

there's way more kids at public school. I think you can find more friends there. But that private school was Catholic and I get to learn about my faith a lot there. Okay. Okay. Private schools. I also had some friends there, but just a junior high different experience and different like mood.

Ben: 7:52

Okay. Okay. Tell me a little bit about your experience at the seventh grade starting cross country. That was your first time in a cross country sport competing for running. I mean, I know you have a background with soccer. Yep. Right. So that obviously carries over pretty well. Did you immediately find some success when you entered in seventh grade and you're competing with the eighth graders and you're running and racing for time for the first time?

8:15

I would say our team found us success a lot, but it's a little bit hard as me as a seventh grader versus an eighth graders also, because I was in a varsity races ever since seventh grade.

Ben: 8:24

Okay. So you were already running up in varsity seventh grade. Yeah. Okay. Congrats to that. Thank you. That's great. Okay, let's stay with Owen here for a second. Let's talk about your, and I guess I could talk to you about school questions, but I think I really want to lean in on this cross country stuff. What do you think that you do that's maybe specific to you that maybe some of the other cross country kids don't do that lends itself well to like your own development? Like maybe like a VIP insider's perspective into Owen that maybe something that you do that maybe other kids don't do?

8:58

I would say I like look at the course maybe a day before and I look like if there's a hill or anything or where I should push or where I should find where I should be in the pack.

Ben: 9:08

Okay. How do you come up with that terminology? Like you mentioned push, another coach might call that something else or another individual, another runner might call that something else. Maybe a hill or a turn or a bend or a leg. How do you come up with the terminology? Is that borrowed terminology from coach? Is that something that maybe you picked up from other people? Along the way,

9:26

I would say I've picked it up from coaching other people along the way. So like hills is one One way I would push because usually a lot of people slow down on that because you're going uphill But I would push there so I can break people and get past people also some maybe like flat areas It's really straight. I might put surge or push to get ahead of people or get a good spot of where I should be Okay

Ben: 9:49

can you give me a little bit of or give the listeners a little bit of an insight into How how cross country is unique in the way of that. It's an individualized sport as well as a team sport at the same time. It's unlike basketball. You win and lose as a team, but cross country. You also win and lose as a team, but you can also win individually out. So can you

10:11

lend some insight to that, please? I would say you're right. It's an individual and team sport as there's individual placements as you run by yourself and through your own brain, and you work by yourself, but you also work as a team. I would say the individual part is also good because if your team isn't the best, you can also win individually. But if your team is also good, it can be good. But my team is both good and myself is good. So I would say I had a great team and myself, so that's how we won state.

Ben: 10:41

Okay. And so, yeah, I mean, I guess let's go ahead and we'll jump back to coach here for this one. You guys won state this year. Could you, could we rewind? It was about two weeks ago, yeah?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 10:50

Sure, yeah. October 19th.

Ben: 10:51

Okay. Let's rewind back to the week before. And you guys know you're going to state. You're preparing. How do you, do you make a shift in training as you, as you encroach upon preparing for state? I know some coaches, philosophies. Might say that I don't want to introduce anything new. Other coaches might say, this is a time for rest and we're not going to really do much of anything. And then a third type of coach might approach it in a different way and say, Hey, this is our last chance to go ahead and push. We'll push early in the week and maybe we'll rest on the very last day and just carve up. How do you approach it as a coach?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 11:24

Yeah, I think there are different philosophies out there. And I do believe in tapering. However, I do think that. Approaching a high school team versus a junior high team is much different. With junior high students, they're balancing our girls were balancing basketball and games, and we're splitting time with basketball practice and basketball games. Our boys are still practicing soccer throughout the week, getting ready for basketball tryouts. So I think My philosophy is I still wanted them to be mentally sharp. And so we did taper a little bit, but I also wanted them not to back off so much that we are disconnected with cross country and disconnected with the things that brought us to this point. So, we did that week of state. We did, we actually middle of the week ran some of our four hundreds that we usually do weekly and we had a chance to do those at the state course. So I tried to, we lightened up, we definitely lightened up in the last two weeks, maybe not as much as The kids would have liked to have lighten up. I just think keeping a mentally focused, just doing easy runs day in and day out, I think takes you mentally out of, out of the game a little bit when you're this age. So we did mix in some tougher workouts, but as you said, we didn't introduce anything new. Probably a huge priority. We were very, very fortunate to not have injuries this year. And I think in the last two weeks with the number of kids that played soccer, And getting ready for basketball tryouts. Injuries were always on my mind. So really trying to keep it safe keep them focused, but mentally still be ready for the race.

Ben: 13:02

Obviously we can't control all the factors, and you mentioned injuries. Do you make any effort to try and influence or impact how healthy the kids are able to endure throughout the season because cross country is not just a an endurance race. It's an endurance season. If I remember correctly, it's the longest season of all the. I-E-I-E-S-A-I-H-S-A sports because it starts before school even starts.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 13:27

Yeah. I, if you think about baseball, softball, they're, they're finished about a month before we are. Yeah. Unless you make a really deep postseason run. Mm-Hmm. So we start, started officially August 5th. It's a long season and Owen and core group of these eighth graders were running all summer as well. So it really is a long season. I am a firm believer to that. I do think some of these other sports and do help keep them injury free in terms of they're sprinting a lot in soccer. And I, the contact makes me a little nervous, especially as we got closer to state but they're strong kids. And I think multiple activities. Makes them even stronger, which some people might disagree with and, and, and again, we got, we got fortunate. We were fortunate.

Ben: 14:10

Let me jump over to Owen here. She mentioned something about you guys running over the summer. Can you tell me how did you, how did you come to, did somebody else organize that for you? Or did you come to organize that?

14:19

I would say I organized that by myself, like picking a day throughout the week. You

Ben: 14:24

just hitting them

14:24

up on your phone. And also we organized like some runners from last year and just some sunkers coming in and we. Ran before the season started as a group, which kind of brought us together before the season.

Ben: 14:37

Okay, because a coach can't technically do that, at least not under the name of cross country, right? Because there are very specific limitations on when your season can begin and when your season can end. So I mean, how deep into the summer, how early in the summer did you start? We talking like June? May?

14:55

I would say a little bit after that. Okay. I like tapered and slowly got into it more. I would start maybe two times a week and then I'd keep going into it until it led up to cross country season where I was running like maybe five times a week to four.

Ben: 15:07

Okay. And what's a run?

15:10

I would say Two miles? Three miles? Five miles? Two to I think

Ben: 15:14

six. And each time you guys go out, how many people are running with you in the summer?

15:19

When we got together, I would say around five at least to ten ran together. So we were packed.

Ben: 15:25

Okay. Tell me places where you guys ran.

15:28

We ran by the JFL fields or also by Idlewood. Okay.

Ben: 15:36

Early in the morning before the heat?

15:38

Early or we usually ran later because we had stuff in the morning.

Ben: 15:44

I got a question that you may or may not be able to answer. You may not even anticipate this because you're, you're young. I mean, you're eighth grade, but like Keeping your body in condition to avoid injury, jumping back a little bit to the injury. I mean, did you do anything specifically or is this just something that's not even on your mind because you've never had any kind of serious injury that has stunted you or slowed you down?

16:09

I think I had it on my mind as I stretched every day, maybe before meets, I would take an ice bath or stretch really well, which is what I did. So then I didn't get hurt because Last year we had someone who's really fast get hurt, and that really hurts the team. Okay. Tell me about the ice bath. They're pretty cold. My dad gets ice before the day, before I take a bath, and it's pretty cold. I'm not used to that.

Ben: 16:35

Dad, what are we talking, like, 30 pounds of ice? 20 pound bag of ice? Going in the bathtub at home? Yep. Okay. I've been doing the ice bath stuff for six, seven years. I love the ice bath stuff coach. You know, never in a million years,

Ms. D'Alfanso: 16:55

okay. So if you had to pick it's the sauna. Yeah. Absolutely.

Ben: 16:59

Okay. All right. Let's jump back up to some coach questions. If you guys don't mind me toggling back and forth. It's great. This is all really good and insightful stuff. I appreciate it. Mental preparations, like you mentioned a little bit about keeping that vision in front of the kids, you're tapering into the later part of the season. How, in your experience, I guess, how likely is it that focus will be lost? And then what are the consequences of losing focus?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 17:29

Sure. I think with the nature of the IESA season, unfortunately, it's easier for the, it's harder for the girls. to keep that focus because they really might be balancing because they're butting up against other seasons, three basketball games a week. We're trying to where kids are running intervals. They're leaving practice early, heading to a basketball game. It's very, very tricky. So I do think it's harder for the girls to maintain that focus with the seasons being split. I think one of the challenges with junior high Students and runners is the length of the season. It is long season. And so I think towards the end you do have a little bit of mental fatigue, like, let's going. Let's get to these big races. But I do think with the nature as well as we started with 82 kids, 42, 40 boys, 40 boys, and then narrowing that down to 10 really. Immediately helps us recenter do you have cuts? No, not in junior high cross country. So they, so you went from

Ben: 18:33

42 kids down to 10 boys, so Yeah. Or 42 boys. So your sectional team Oh, to your section team. Your, your sectional roster is 10. Right? Right. So you still had 42 boys competing through the entire season.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 18:42

Yeah. And 40 and 41 or 42 girls approximately the same. So 80 kids on your team. Yeah. And so that's that's one of the big differences with, cross country as well. Your basketball team, you have 15 on your basketball team. You start with 15, you end with 15. And so it's almost feels as a coach, I said this to my assistant, it almost feels like you have two seasons. And the second one is a shorter one, but you really go from coaching 80 84 kids, 82 kids, depending on some injuries down to 20. And so it's really a different feel. So I do, I do think even though it's a long season, being able to Focus on those 20 at the end of the season really helps your mental preparation.

Ben: 19:23

Did you approach the end of the season by inviting the other 70 or 60 other runners to join if they would like to? Like, hey your season's come to an end, or you can come and watch and be a spectator, but my focus and my energy is just on these 10 now, or these 20 now?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 19:39

Yeah, so They were invited to attend the races, the sectional and state races, but in terms of practices whittled down. Yeah. Yeah. And which we really need that. We really need to focus on the 10 that we've got. As you've been a junior high teacher. There's, there's more than just showing up and practicing. There's, there's management, there's organization, there's just lots of logistics that come with. having 82 kids on your team and 82 families.

Ben: 20:08

Oh, yeah. 82 kids is like 160 parents too.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 20:12

Right. And so so getting down to to the last few weeks, the mental preparation, I think is a little easier. When practices could be shortened up a little bit, things don't take quite as long. Yeah, just transitions, transitions are faster, we had a chance to go over to I might be jumping the gun here, but We had a chance to go over to Maxwell Park the week before and we specifically chose two dates to go over and we talked about Owen talked about visualizing. We had a chance the first day to walk the course. A lot of the runners that were running the state course hadn't run it before or served as alternates. So our ten boys, we had nine eighth graders. And one 7th grader, so obviously the 7th grader hadn't run the course. Oh, and what, we have three that were returning from last year that would have run the that ran the state

21:04

course. So we're, so really

Ms. D'Alfanso: 21:05

we had very few that had run the course. So the first day that we came, we went over was the Monday. And we walked the course and really looked at, okay, here's the mile mark. Here's, here's, here's the half mile mark. Let's take a look at the finish. Let's look at the hills. Let's look at the start all those types of things. And then the second time we really got in a better workout. We did some 400s finish at the start.

Ben: 21:29

400s is the way to get faster.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 21:32

Yeah, I love I love 400 400 repeats. I know. Yeah, that's all they're going to remember. Owen's over here shaking his head. I know they're they're tortuous, but aren't they? You get through a 400.

Ben: 21:41

Tell the tell the listeners what a 400 is like, Owen.

21:44

It's probably one of the hardest racers in track and to repeat them many times is very hard.

Ben: 21:50

So for the listeners who may or may not know, a 400 meters is one time around a standard track or around a football field. And I mean, the idea is that it's a sprint, right? It's not a, it's not a jog or a stroll. It's not a, a section of your two mile race. It's supposed to be. 80 percent to 90 percent to 100 percent of your sprinting capability. And when they do this this type of practice called repeats, you're going to run for 400 meters. And you should be in and do you give them a time?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 22:20

Yeah, we ran 1 10 1 15. Okay, 70 pretty consistently Everybody

Ben: 22:28

should be in an under 80 ideally. Yeah, and then you give them another what two minutes to rest or something A little longer. Okay, we

Ms. D'Alfanso: 22:34

went three three and a half Again, you have more, more kids with a lot of groups with 80 kids

Ben: 22:41

But it's usually like a one to four ratio, yep, right whatever you're sprinting at you're resting You know, three times that and we build,

Ms. D'Alfanso: 22:48

we build I think we started the season doing four and then we we built up to eight. I, I'm probably one too that I've seen a lot of junior high programs over the year that really run a ton of mileage and then programs run into injury and kids don't run in high school and they're burned out. And I think you mentioned coaching philosophy. I think that's probably one of the. And that's one of the key components of my philosophy is not to put in too many miles to the fact that we're battling injuries.

Ben: 23:19

You guys run those 400s over at the track?

23:22

No, I would say we usually run them at our cross country

Ben: 23:25

course. You guys are now running out at Kennel Lake? Yep, we run at Kennel Lake. When I was coaching we were at Northwoods. Northwoods Park, yes, thank you. And we were doing, sorry, but we were doing our practices around town. And our meets were over at. Northwoods Park. So Owen community support. I mean, you get to participate in this sport and you're running through the miles and you get to see the people on the sidelines. Can you talk to me a little bit about and there's a loaded question because I know what you're going to say about it. What I love so much about cross country is like this communal support. I mean, everybody's cheering on everybody. I mean, the kid who's coming in 1st I mean, people are red faced, screaming their faces off, and they've never met these kids, right? Just because they just see the grit, and the teeth, and the sweat on the face, and, and just the, the effort in the body language, and they just vicariously, for ten seconds, they want to be part of that so badly, right? Can you tell me about, I mean, what, what's that like from an athlete's perspective, specifically Morton community support say

24:32

great. When I see that Morton shirt cheering for me, I gives me a little smile where I'm happy and giving me a little bit of that boost because when you're running, it's hard. I mean, you're, you're through that grit and to see those people cheering you on, it just gives you a little bit of that boost that you need.

Ben: 24:47

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 24:50

I love hearing that. I always have to chuckle a little bit though. Why races? Because all the moms and dads for a short moment, as you said, become runners. Oh, yeah. And in my heart, I'm a little worried for some of them like, all right, you got to know your limits here, right? But I'd love that they're all out sprinting across that Wilder Park. Yeah, right. Parents have been doing that for years. You're hoping

Ben: 25:09

nobody like trips and falls or, Oh, and are you, are you getting mile splits? I mean, are you breaking down your, your race and in the way of like, Hey, I'm at my mile, I should be at, let's see, what would you be, you would be at like Oh, five 15 in your mile. Yeah. For my

25:24

first mile.

Ben: 25:24

That's ridiculous. And I know, you know, you know that, right. That's pretty ridiculous, man. That's pretty cool. So then your, your splits five 15, your race time on your, your PR this year. What was that?

25:37

10

Ben: 25:38

31, 10 31. And coach, what place did he get at state this year's fourth, fourth and state? Was it a tight finish?

25:47

I would say I had a lot of space, but once it got down to like 11s, there was so many people from like 10 50s to like 12 minutes. There were so many people. Okay. Okay.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 25:58

We had to we had to in the top 10, which is extremely impressive. He had to run 1040 and to run Fourth place. Yeah. First place. Oh, and do you remember what the winning time is? I should know. I think it was 10 08. 10 08. So and your finish time was 10

Ben: 26:11

41 41. That's ridiculously fast time. Yeah. Goals into going into next year. Is this something that you sustain?

26:20

Yeah, I think so. Off my success. I think I want to keep that success going into high school and maybe helping the team out.

Ben: 26:26

Okay. How's the cross country team at the high school coach?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 26:30

Well, both teams just won their sectionals. Get out of here. Saturday. Both of them. Have they competed in state yet? So next week. Next week. Oh, they're headed out now. So yeah, the sectional I wasn't able to go, but both teams were first. The girls race was really tight. I think something like 30 points separated the top five teams. So it was very close and boys race was. I think pretty tight as well. But yeah, they'll be running this weekend. So,

Ben: 26:57

so for the listeners who may not know this cause it is a kind of a convoluted system of scoring. Coach, could you help me walk through this scoring system because it is a bit of a I mean, it's it's easy to optically be like, Hey, that kid with the green jersey got first place. Good for that kid. But how does a team end up winning a meet?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 27:16

Sure. Yeah. So team scoring is a little different in cross country. So you essentially are scoring your top five placers. So And how many

Ben: 27:25

runners do you have out?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 27:26

So in a varsity race, you have seven. Okay. So five will be your scores. So if you have two, five, eight, nine. You're talking second place, fifth place, eighth place, ninth place. Back it up. Yeah, that's okay. So if you, in a race, in a varsity race, if you're second, fifth, ninth, tenth, and fifteenth, you would add up all those scores for, say, thirty. So it's two plus

Ben: 27:46

five plus. So it's like. It's like golf in the way that lowest score wins. You want

Ms. D'Alfanso: 27:51

a low score. So let's say your team score is 35 and another team may have had the first runner, but their pack wasn't as good. Maybe they came up with 40 points. You'd be the winner because you had 35 to their 40. So the key with cross country is really to have a tight pack. I mean, you could have the first place, second place, third place and fourth place runner, but if your fifth runner is placing 45. fifth. That's really going to be crucial to pull you out of the top three positions. Absolutely. And then your sixth runner and your seventh runner become tiebreakers. Your sixth becomes the tiebreaker, but your seventh also six and seven will hold their place. So they're not tossed out. Your seventh runner will hold the place and could move back. If they're 35th, they can move back a team that's very close to you, they can move their runners back push, they can push. Yeah. And so this, this boy's team, I think very early on I knew they'd had some success last year, but I knew that they had lost a lot of eighth graders to the high school. Just very early on from a coaching perspective, I knew this team was going to be strong because the pack was so tight and we call it a split. You're, you're 1 5, whatever time you want them to be very close. If they're running, if your first runner is running 10 30 and you're close. Fifth runner is running 1330. That's a three minute split and you're not going to be successful. So very early on, even though we've got Owen who was up front and is always going to provide a low number and Luke who was also up front and going to provide a low number, it was all about how close three, four, and five could be to those one, two runners and also how close they were within each other. So just to give you a little perspective. So at the state meet. Owns fourth. Very low number. Loot was tenth. So we're sitting at fourteen points right there. Three, four, five ran within ten seconds. Each other, which was amazing. I mean, absolutely. That's how you win a state meet. That's a tight pack. Uhhuh But to tell you how, how fast the race was, there were 25 individuals that placed in those 10 seconds. Wow. Yeah. So nowadays that had, that had to have

Ben: 30:02

been a pretty wild finish.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 30:03

Yeah. So, so we finished with 125 points. Edwardsville Liberty finished with 137. So there were 12 points ah, spread, which is. Nothing in a race that size and a race that fast. So I was just so proud of how, how we finished and we had a lot of we had some variability as well in our four or five, six, seven. We really also went nine, nine runners deep.

Ben: 30:28

I'm going to ask you to toss out a couple of names because I'd imagine that once the podcast gets out, I would, I'd hope that people on the cross country team would want to listen to it too. Owen, maybe you can call out some, some names to some runners on the team, girls team, boys team, people that helped make this season. fun for you, gratifying and not just not just successful. We've already talked about the success, but I think something may be greater than that. That will carry on from your eighth grade year into high school is, you know whether or not you had a good time, and feel fulfilled by the accomplishments. Who are some of the people on the team? Drop some, drop some names for these people so that they know that you appreciate, the time that you guys spent together.

31:06

I would say a lot of the varsity members I hanged out with and they were here to cheer me on and I cheer them on like Luke. Cooper Schroeder, Milo, Ben. Those are some that really helped me through the season. Okay. Okay.

Ben: 31:24

Coach, some of the other players on the team.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 31:27

Sure. We had trying to think who you hadn't mentioned Schaefer. Brought a little levity to our team. Always get the jokester on the team. Yeah. Everyone, everyone, everyone needs one of those. Right. But when it came race day, it was ready to go. Trig, um, always consistent as well. Couple other eighth graders. Liam was always, always working hard. Always had a positive attitude. And, um, Charles, I think that rounds out our top 10. So And those were our varsity kids. But again, I think we had maybe 15 other eighth graders that really were a pleasure to coach. I mean, if you know, cross country and and you know, cross country kids, they're generally Very dedicated. You don't come out for this sport unless you have a sense of dedication. We've got some really good students, a lot of honor roll students. The number of students that we have in band, in other sports, student council. I mean, cross country kids in general are generally very well rounded. We're

Ben: 32:26

talking about the meaty stuff now, like the parenting stuff. I'm seeing the parenting eyes right over there. My kids in cross country too. And if I were to You know, and I didn't compete in cross country when I was in school, so it wasn't until I was teaching at the junior high school and Jen Dawson asked me to help her pick up the rest of the cross country. I think we had nine kids to start like when we started the program years and years ago,

Ms. D'Alfanso: 32:53

so I would have been coaching and that's been neat to see the evolution of the Morton junior cross country program because when I was coaching at East Peoria we had upwards 60 to 70 kids and we would run against Morton. And back in that time, it was very, it was a small, small program. It hadn't had a lot of success. And then to just look in our gym and to look at the boards of our state placers, I think starting in 2017, um, is when they really started to. You know show up at these not show up But just really be competitive at these state meets and ever since I mean you you look up there 2017 2019 So I think that's a testament also to Morton's evolved into a running community I think a lot of our parents are runners or former runners Kids will come and say I did a run with my dad this morning that wasn't happening 20 years ago, as far as I know, but it's, I think it's really evolved and I think, training has become, we have opportunities for our kids, we've got things like Be Relentless you know, Torque Fitness, some of those things that are providing opportunities for kids that didn't exist that weren't there before 20 years ago, we know more, we know more about nutrition, we know more about, sleep and just overall health. And I think we're really pushing that not pushing it down, but really influencing our kids with that. So it's great to see. And if you've never been to a cross country meet or don't know much about cross country, it's just It's a fantastic sport. I mean, it just goes, it goes much deeper than running. I mean, there's just time management and persevering through pain. And, there's just a lot of life lessons. Yeah. And just the camaraderie, having played multiple sports and Owen's a basketball player. So he knows this, the camaraderie is just different in cross country. For every sport. Yeah. It's just different in cross country. You have, yeah, yeah. And one of the only, other than track, one of the only co ed sports, right? So, some of these, some of the 8th grade girls ran with them during the summer as well. And these girls will go on to run high school cross country and they'll still be able to play. Work together and socialize and practice together and things like that. So the nature of cross country, it's just, it's truly a special sport. And I will, I'll be a coach, a cross country fan forever. Right. Absolutely.

Ben: 35:07

Oh, and as cross country at the top of the list for your favorite sports, I mean, maybe not the very top it's it's up there though, right? Second to first

35:13

one up there. Okay. Depends

Ben: 35:14

on

35:15

what season you're in, right?

Ben: 35:17

Is the other one basketball then?

35:19

Right now. Basketball. But right before this is cross country. Yeah. Okay.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 35:23

Soccer. Yeah. I mean, I think still doing soccer. Yeah. How many of the, how many of our varsity kids were soccer players? Six. Six. Six. Six

35:31

of the 10. Yeah. Okay.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 35:34

So they're, yeah, they're managing going from a cross country practice to a soccer practice to, from a soccer, from a cross country meet to a soccer tournament. So

Ben: 35:42

yeah. So if there, if there are any like young parents out there. Or grandparents who have younger grandchildren or who are getting into the age group of like fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade. Point your point, your needle at cross country. I tell you, it's, it's probably one of the most genuinely still really pretty pure and true sports where you can achieve individually. As well as, as a team. And you learn a whole lot about yourself and, and what you're able to endure and how you have to manage your own temptations, your own, your own. Complaining in your own whining. How do you manage that? Owen coach says, Hey, we're going to go do 400 today. And you're just like, Oh my God, do 400 again. What do you do to tamper down all of that? Like that whiny, I mean, we all have it, right? Having to do just, just the fact of having to do something, somebody telling you to do something. And even, even sometimes if it's something that you want to do, just the fact of somebody telling you to do it takes away your own agency a little bit, but what do you do to, to resolve that? Tube. To help cope with the idea you're gonna be put through something really uncomfortable here in about 20 minutes and it's gonna be uncomfortable for about an hour. So let's go walk across the street. What do you do? What, what, what happens in your head?

36:56

I would say, I tell myself this is gonna help me when I run state or sessions, which is gonna matter and I want to do good. So these, all these workouts and runs, these will help me at state.

Ben: 37:08

I'm gonna ask you a question. This is something that's a personal question. Ha. It happens to me when I'm running. There's a meter that I'm counting, like with my steps and it's like three feet, I'm breathing in two feet, I'm breathing out and that's how I slip into this, like thoughtless space so that I'm not thinking about maybe how my knee hurts or my shoes on my shoes, not tied. Right. I know we're too tight. Is there anything that you do like in the process of the run? Maybe not necessarily a race because race brain is different than run brain. When you're out on that five mile run, what do you do? Are you listening to music? Are you spacing out in lyrics? Or are you counting with your feet like, like I do? What happens in your head? I would say that music

37:54

really helps. It just gets me where I'm not thinking about the run and just running how I normally run every day.

Ben: 38:00

This is where I'm gonna feel really old. What are you listening to?

38:03

I actually listened to a lot of the different stuff. It just depends on how I feel.

Ben: 38:07

Make me proud. What's it going to be? Can you call out some artists here? I actually don't know. So I'm putting you on the spot.

38:16

Okay.

Ben: 38:18

I just got a couple of simple questions for you. I'll turn, can I jump in one? Yeah, absolutely.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 38:23

When we talk about getting started in cross country, I think some of the, something that Morton does well is we've got running clubs. At most of our elementary schools and so that gets students exposed early on. I think most of them also do a little prep work for the pumpkin festival for the two mile race. Oh. And then they'll show up as a, as a, as a group. For example, Letty Brown, did you do that, Owen, when you were young? You were at Blessed Sacrament. I was at Blessed Sacrament when I was younger. So Letty Brown would put together a group that would train for the pumpkin festival. And then show up as a group and that was, you know, pretty special. And then the other schools, Lincoln's got a running club. They've got a mileage club where students are, are, and that's, and that's the start for so many of these fifth

Ben: 39:07

graders, sixth graders who are like, Oh, this running thing doesn't have to be by myself in the rain. Yeah. And I think

Ms. D'Alfanso: 39:13

too, they get to see older siblings having success in junior high. I mean, we've got a lot of elementary kids who, Have siblings on this junior high team who are seeing their success and seeing the fun that they have in cross country. And it starts to perpetuate, hopefully that helps build the program as well.

Ben: 39:27

Dad, you got to get on the mic. Now I got to get Owen's dad in here. Uh, Ed, does your microphone work? Uh, yeah. Oh, there you go. From a parent's perspective, Ed, what, what kind of comments can you give the listeners about the season that you had eyes on? You probably went to almost every single meet you're there at, at the ends of practices. What are some of the three takeaways that some three takeaways that you've got out of the season?

Ed: 39:56

The first I'd probably say is the community, like you guys alluded to earlier, that. It is truly a community based thing. And I'm a track guy and I love track meets, but cross country is this whole different atmosphere. One it's short, sweet, exciting, but like you said, the, the community and the people running around and cheering that it is in a fun environment that you are truly cheering for the first place to the end. Everybody in between and you don't know somebody and somebody could be yelling for an Owen for the girls that it truly lifts everybody up. Uh, that would be the first one. The second one is probably the excitement from the kids to have an undefeated total season, like they didn't lose an entire meet.

Ben: 40:50

Ooh, that wasn't mentioned yet. That has got to feel pretty. Oh, and he's got a big funny smile on his face right now.

Ed: 40:58

Right. Of going in and that's, that's hard to do. Like you said, from the scoring to there's injury prevention, there's schedules, there's a whole lot of stuff that the parents are dealing with that the kids are dealing with every course is different. So you say, Oh, it's just running, but it's not just running because every course is different. But to accomplish that in that. Not just community of the families, but then the kids, like you see the boys and girls, the girl, all the boys are out before their race, cheering for the girls and the girls finish their race and they're dead tired, but they head out to cheer for the boys. It's that fun co ed community. And lastly, it's the, it's that the word I know the junior high purchase is the grit of seeing that grit because it is a team sport, but it's very much individual to see each one of these kids. Cause it's really. The joy of cross country is it's time based. You can't fudge a number. You can't say, well, I could do this. Well, here's your time and here's what it is. And every kid gets to see their own personal growth and improvement. And you get to see that grit on their face and the joy of somebody that might be a 14 minute runner hit that 13 minute mark

Ben: 42:13

that

Ed: 42:14

every single person sees these little successes because it's a, it's a. It's, it's a testament of grit and effort and the team lifting everybody up.

Ben: 42:24

Oftentimes at like camp, at the end of a, of a race, I'll see, cross country runners coming in exhausted and throwing themselves on the ground. And they're already taking the laces off of their shoes to try and start their like post race cool down comforts. And they're almost always asking each other, Hey, what time did you get? What's your PR because they're constantly holding each other accountable. Not in any kind of like holding, holding you accountable in a workplace kind of way, but holding you up to your own accomplishments, your previous accomplishments to say like, Hey, what, you know, what was your PR? Let's keep this in the front of our minds. Did you PR today? And then if they do, there's always a congratulation. There's always like, Hey, good job.

Ed: 43:05

Yeah, there's a lot of high fives and you see just everybody building each other up from. If a five second PR is a five second PR, it doesn't matter what your PR is, are you improving yourself?

Ben: 43:17

Right. All right, coach, back to you. And I got a couple more questions. Long term goals, long term visions on next season.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 43:25

Yeah, I think, there will be some turnover with losing nine out of 10. However, when I look at our team, our 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 are all seventh graders who were very hungry at the end of the year And I would say the same for our girls team girls. We had a few more seventh graders in the mix. I didn't talk a lot about our girls team, but they finished 10th overall state, which is outstanding. That was a fast, fast race. And these races just get faster. And we had two in the top 50. But I think you keep building. We have one of the one of the disadvantages is that, our junior high is only seventh and eighth. Where other schools have sixth graders and some of our private schools have fifth graders that can run. So you can have a four year junior high and you race in against some private schools too, don't you? We do. So I say that, but if we had sixth grade, I think our team would probably be around 130 people. So that would be pretty difficult. We just have two. So I think you'd have to expand that. But I think The beauty of cross country to is, the seventh graders that that didn't get in the sectional team or qualify for the sectional team had really great role models. And I think they got a chance to see, tremendous work ethic by Owen and those other eighth graders. And I think it's going to carry on. I'm looking forward to next year.

Ben: 44:42

Owen, same question. Future plans?

44:46

I'm going to try to do cross country in high school. You gonna start

Ben: 44:51

working in the summer

44:52

just like last time? Yeah. It'd be great to also win A-I-H-S-A championship there, so I'll get a middle school and a high school one. Let's go. That could be amazing. Yeah. Hanging

Ben: 45:02

on that cool little metal rack you got at home. Yeah. Yeah.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 45:05

Brought home a lot of hardware this year for sure.

Ben: 45:07

Yeah. Did you bring home a lot of hardware this year? Yeah. How many medals? I

45:11

would

Ben: 45:11

say probably eight or something. Eight or something. Look at you, you've lost count. it's like, I don't know, eight, nine, maybe 10. That's great. Ed, future plans?

Ed: 45:22

Uh,

Ben: 45:23

That's not really a fair question. I've given up on trying to

Ed: 45:25

keep up with him. You can't. No, it's impossible. I remember,

Ben: 45:29

that was like a month ago, you told me something about like, yeah, it's just, it's over, you know. But that's what we do though, right? We hand it off and we can't keep staying at that pace forever. I know you ran college.

Ed: 45:40

Yeah, but this is a full different, I was a sprinter. So this distance stuff is for the birds, but

Ben: 45:46

it was for the birds and now you're seeing the light.

Ed: 45:50

Yes. Right. But the, the days of trying to see each runner at like six spots is slowly fading.

Ben: 45:58

Yeah.

Ed: 45:58

My training now is to maybe keep up on a bike.

Ben: 46:02

Yeah. On a bike, get you out there with a mountain bike. That'd be great. I mean, cross country has got to be the only sport where, Like the athletes run two miles and in high school, it's three 3. 1 or something like that. And the parents probably run a mile themselves, just to try and get the angle and the view back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It looks like if you've never gone to a cross country meet, it looks like chaos. It just looks like people running everywhere, screaming and yelling at each other. And then everything cools down. And then there's a bang and everybody runs around for another 20, 30 minutes or something like that.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 46:39

If you don't know as a parent where you're going, you just follow the crowd. So

Ben: 46:43

let's, let's wrap this up here. I got two little sections left. I got your favorites because this is a Morton podcast after all. So let's go with some of the Morton favorites. And then we'll do this little roll of the dice game where each side of the dice pertains to a list of four questions that I have over here. And they're all kinds of get to know you. Are you an M& Ms or Skittles kind of person. Kinds of questions. They're not about cross country and they're not about English language arts And they're not about I don't know being a dad to a junior high school kid or so Let's start with favorites and we're gonna go left to right Owens here on my left favorite place to eat in Morton

47:16

I Would say probably Lafayette's is one of my favorite places to eat in Morton

Ben: 47:22

You probably don't remember the old location, do you? No. You guys remember, you remember the old location, do Okay. That's where Eli's is at now. Yep. The hub over there by Kmart. Well, I guess Kmart's not there either. Yeah. A U Haul? Is that what it's called? That is. A U Haul now. Favorite place to eat, Coach?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 47:37

I have to be with Owen on this one. I'm a fan of La Fiesta. Yeah.

Ben: 47:41

Arrows Compoyo.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 47:43

Yeah.

Ben: 47:43

That's my number right there. Chicken and peppers.

Ed: 47:47

We like to hit up Aunt Jenny's. What is it? A little breakfast joint.

Ben: 47:51

Oh, okay.

Ed: 47:51

Kind of the Jimmy John's. Okay,

Ben: 47:54

okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Diner food. Okay. You've probably been to a number of the parks. Being a park district you know, around the parks running and stuff like that. Do you have a favorite park? I

48:04

would say Idawood's a pretty good place with the pool to the open area to the big theater. Yeah.

Ben: 48:10

The big stage thing. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

48:12

Coach.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 48:13

Yeah. I'm a fan of Birchwood Park as well, probably because as a parent, I've spent a lot of time watching baseball. Okay. I'm sorry. I said Birchwood. Westwood. Westwood Park. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Spent a lot of time. That's on veterans, right? Yeah. Yeah. But it's also got some neat trails back there. Have you been back there at the golf course? The frisbee golf? Yeah. I've done some hiking with my kids. I go run that sometimes. I've played a little frisbee golf with my son. It's a good way to get lost and lose an hour. Absolutely. So, yeah, and it's close to where I live. So so that's probably a favorite.

Ed: 48:43

Ed Northwood. Northwood. You get a little bit of everything there. That's the original Frisbee golf park. That is, there's two big courses I've in midwinter

Ben: 48:51

hikes too. Ah, we went on a winter hike out in Northwood. You did? Didn't with snowshoes, snowshoeing. It's good place to also. Good day. You also got stuck in the snow that day. I did remember. Yep. Yep.

Ed: 49:03

I remember that. We had to get pull. He had to pull me out. That was unfortunate. I tried to pull

Ben: 49:06

you out with the Jeep, but it didn't work. It was an epic fail. No, Jeep's not heavy enough. A a couple of other favorites. Let's see. Favorite time of the year for Morton for you?

49:16

I would say spring. I like spring. Springtime coach.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 49:21

Yeah, I'll say summer. I know I should say fall with the pumpkin festival. But having having the summer off as a teacher. Okay. Yeah. That's a bonus. And kids activities in the summer baseball.

Ben: 49:32

Okay. Okay. We'll

Ed: 49:34

just follow the seasons fall. We'll just follow. Okay, there we go. We got them on the bonfires. The changing of the colors. Yeah. You know, sweatshirts.

Ben: 49:44

Nobody picked the dead of winter. I noticed that not everybody's here. What's your fan of season? Um, I go fall. That'd be my favorite time of the year. I like hiking. So you know, you got the foliage and you got the colors out there. And so that'd be my pick. And then for restaurant, I guess I'd probably have to go with um, like camps. Ever been to camps? Yeah, it's good stuff right there. I also like La Fiesta. It depends on how I'm feeling as far as whether or not I'm going to be paying for the meal for everybody. Right,

Ms. D'Alfanso: 50:13

and I just saw that Kemp's is changing ownership. Yeah, yeah,

Ben: 50:16

exactly. Thinking about maybe inviting the new owner and the previous owner out here to tell us a little bit about the handoff of the torch and what that looks like. Okay, dice time. I got the dice here. Owen I might not go through all four questions just because I don't want to take up a ton of time, but let's go ahead and roll the dice and give you a number. Do story time. What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you?

50:40

I need to think about that one. Would say, could it be something that happened to someone else that was there? Yeah, I mean, you were there. Okay. So I was sweating, I think at Northwoods and okay. So one of my friends going down a hill. Dad's laughing over here. You know the story?

Ed: 51:04

Yeah, there's video of it. Oh boy.

51:06

Even better. We tell him to watch out for the tree. He tries to, he like just swerves into it and runs its face

Ben: 51:13

right into

51:13

it, and that

Ben: 51:14

was pretty funny. See that's classic junior high boy right there. Like somebody else's pain was your point of humor. Yeah, that's your entertainment. That's great. Oh man, it kind of makes me giggle a little bit too. So What are you okay though? Yeah. Okay. Then I can laugh and not feel guilty about it. Coach, you want to give that dice a roll? Number three, three hypothetical situations. If you had unlimited time and resources, what passion project would you pursue?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 51:47

Yeah. In terms of service, I'm thinking of passion project in terms of, of research and things like that. And at the junior high, are you thinking? More of a, a service related project or just, I guess

Ben: 51:59

you can take that however you want to. I guess when I see passion project, I think of like maybe something that I would want to pursue. Hmm. Like becoming a airplane pilot or something like that. You know,

Ms. D'Alfanso: 52:12

gosh, this is, these are not easy. I could get behind the wheel of a, these are deep questions. I don't have any desire to do anything that dangerous.

Ben: 52:21

It doesn't have to be dangerous. I think. No, I know, but it's more exciting. It has to present some risk because the question suggests unlimited time and resources, right? I mean, even if the risk is that you don't have enough time or you don't have enough money to do it, this gives you the, the genie in a lamp kind of unlimited powers in a tiny bottle.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 52:39

Goodness, if I, I think if I had unlimited time and resources, I mean, this might sound like I'm, Can it be like an activity? Absolutely. I think I'd put the time and effort to really become a better golfer. Okay. Good answer. Good answer. Too old to say something like that. Is it family feud where

Ben: 53:01

they go down the line and they're like, good answer, good answer. Yeah, I do need somebody to say, I'm at that point in life

Ms. D'Alfanso: 53:05

where somebody saying good answer is encouraging to me. Uh,

Ben: 53:10

let's go slide the dice over to dad. Six. I'm glad that they were all different numbers. Wildcard questions. Hmm. Oh, this is perfect for you. Ed, if you could have any superpower, what would it be? Ed's a big comic book guy.

Ed: 53:29

Wait a

Ben: 53:33

second. Oh, and are you in the comics? Who's who's the hero? Who's the number one or who's on your Mount Rushmore? Give me, give me three. Um,

53:43

I would say, sorry,

Ben: 53:44

ed, I, I, this was an idea that I had last night when I was like three in the morning. My daughter was coughing and I was like, I need to come up with a really creative question for Owen. This is it.

53:55

Maybe I like Batman, um, I think Wonder Woman. And then you're going like Justice League. I

Ben: 54:08

would say Flash. Ooh, see that makes sense.

Ed: 54:12

We're a DC house.

Ben: 54:13

Yeah. Wasn't Flash's name Barry something? Barry Allen. Barry Allen. Start calling me Barry. All right, back to dad. Superpower. Uh,

Ed: 54:24

It's usually a toss up between two. The first one was probably be, like, I grew up loving Flash. Okay. The fast, Flash. Quirky blonde dude that could just be really fast. So that part I think would be fantastic. As I've aged out, the

Ben: 54:43

You want Wolverine for healing powers? That would be great.

Ed: 54:46

That would be great. Often now like the older laziness of, You want to reach an outlet? Oh. I want You want Mr. Fantastic? I want Mr. Fan like, I gotta turn that light off oh, I gotta get up. No, let me just stretch my arm. There we go, it's done.

Ben: 55:04

That's great.

Ed: 55:05

That would be kind of a fun, like, oh, I don't have to do

Ben: 55:07

this. I'll clap for that one, that's a good answer. I'll get behind that. I guess these two guys got a chance to talk about superpowers. Are you into comics at all? I'm not. Okay, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't ask you that question. No, no. Alright. We're wrapping things up here, folks. Okay, ice bucket challenge is the last little bit right here. If you were to suggest to me somebody, and this may or may not make it onto the podcast at the end, but if you were to suggest somebody to the podcast to be interviewed, who to be, it could be somebody with a neat hobby, somebody who you know really well, like who's deeply rooted in, I don't know, your church or somebody at school, a favorite teacher or an influential person, some other capacity in your life, a favorite business owner. Or a favorite business.

55:50

I would say maybe going to school again if our basketball team or the girls basketball team makes it to like I would say makes regionals. Maybe you could ask one of them. Yeah.

Ben: 56:00

All right. Good answer.

56:02

Coach.

Ms. D'Alfanso: 56:02

Yeah, I think just having been in the school system as a teacher and coordinator, I'd I'd probably promote maybe one of our elementary. Principals. Okay. There are a lot of neat things going on in our elementary schools and yeah, they, them. Where did you say you were at prior to the junior high? I was, were you at an elementary, you were at sixth grade where? Well, I, I spent a year at Lincoln. Lincoln. So, so Julie Ham is, retiring this year. But her assistant principal, Wendy Vasteen, is well rooted in the community. I know she's had some involvement with the band and has had some success with her son moving on to the college ranks in terms of being a drum major. But I think Faith Waterfield would be another one. Buddy Brown, elementary principal. Our principals put in a lot of time and effort. And I think sometimes Some of the things that they do go unrecognized and they bring it, they really bring a different perspective to, I think, you know, with our community.

56:56

Okay,

Ed: 56:57

Ed? Following the school trend, the Zeller or any of the high school coaches. Yeah. Yeah. Would be a good one. Otherwise the, uh, Jordan. Volleyball. Jordan Jordan Williams. Oh, okay. Coach Williams about the growth of volleyball in the area. Okay.

57:14

Awesome.

Ed: 57:15

What that all entails. Yeah, fantastic. Just for the community to hear more. Yeah, they see but what goes on behind the scenes.

Ben: 57:23

Right, right, right. Well, let me take a moment to just say thank you guys. Thank you. All three coach Delfonso Owen. Thank you for coming. Congratulations on a remarkable season. I look forward to seeing what you do next year and good luck on your basketball season to coach. Are you going into another sport right now?

Ms. D'Alfanso: 57:41

I'm not.

57:42

Okay,

Ben: 57:42

I'm not. I'm going to enjoy that free time getting that

Ms. D'Alfanso: 57:44

back for spring. Spring baseball. I've

Ben: 57:46

got one at the high school. So yeah. And Ed, it's always great to see you, man. Am I gonna see you on Thursday?

Ed: 57:53

You said maybe. Basketball. I might swing over after basketball.

Ben: 57:56

Okay. Alright. You guys are great. Here comes my outro. Hey, this is Ben. Thanks for listening to this episode of Morton Musin news. I'm excited to share more stories with you, but I need your help to keep the content growing and engaging. If you know someone in our community with an interesting story to tell, or who's making a difference, we'd love to hear from you. Maybe it's a local business owner, maybe a community volunteer, or even a neighbor with a unique hobby. Send us their names and a little bit about why you think they'd be great for the show. You can find us by searching Morton Musen News on Facebook or by emailing me at b van de twelve@gmail.com. B-V-A-N-D-E two. Additionally, if you're interested in sponsoring our show or supporting our effort to highlight our wonderful community, we'd love to partner with you. Sponsorship not only helps us continue to produce quality content, but it also provides great exposure for your business and your organization. Thanks for being part of the community and the show. Together, let's continue to celebrate the people and the stories that make Morton special. Until next time, keep making Morton matter.