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Submitted photo.
Submitted photo.
By Patrick Browne
When Mason Schindler came over 14,000 kilometers from Australia to live with his aunt and uncle Gail and Mike Brzoznowski this school year, little did he realize he would not only be attending high school at Forest Park, but by joining the Cross Country team would be the first varsity boy runner at Forest Park to compete in a meet since 2005.
For decades Forest Park had a competitive Cross Country team populated by dozens of athletes who ran for Coach Jim Nocerini. A home meet was run annually at Glidden Lake and teams recognized the competitive spirit of the Trojans whenever they lined up to run.
Over the years, although the school continued to offer the program, the number of runners dwindled and when financially leaner times entered the district the program was challenged to continue and ultimately ended. Subsequent years saw the school co-op with West Iron for a short period of time, but runners were few and far between. For 18 years the Trojans did not field a team and, although occasionally a single runner would participate in meets, the school did not have their own program and they did not have a male runner at the varsity level.
Two years ago the program was restarted by the School Board and Coach DJ Rasner was hired to be the coach. Last year the school had runners at the varsity girls level and the middle school level, but not a single boy lined up to run in a varsity boys race.
When this year started, it appeared the school was on track to have middle school standout Iziah Tarter ready to run as a ninth grader. Unfortunately, Tarter came up injured and it appeared another year would pass. That is until Mason was approached on his first day at Forest Park and asked if he was a runner.
Running in his first meet on Sept. 20, Mason posted a respectable time of 24 minutes for the five kilometer race and was pleased to represent his school.