For CV star, track is journey that almost didn’t begin

“No straight lines make up my life;

And all my roads have bends;

There’s no clear-cut beginnings;

And so far no dead-ends.”

Circle, by Harry Chapin

One of Central Valley High School coach Chuck Bowden’s favorite themes to talk about is the sport of track and field as a metaphor for life.

“I like to think of this sport as a journey of discovery,” he says. “Every athlete out there is looking to break their own world record – to be just a little better than they have ever been before.”

Senior distance runner Sean Coyle likes that metaphor, and he’s worked hard to make himself just a little better each day.

And along the way, he’s become the best distance runner the CV track program has ever produced. Coyle graduates this month owning every school record in both the 1,600 meters and the 3,200 meters: the freshman, sophomore, junior and school records. Some of those records have stood since 1966-67.

Coyle’s track career almost didn’t materialize.

“Before I got here, I wanted to play football, club soccer and baseball,” Coyle said. “But the cross country coach, John Preston, came to my house and talked me into turning out for cross country. And I loved everything about it – I loved running, I loved the workouts and I loved the guys I ran with.

“But I still wanted to play baseball.”

Bowden laughs about it now – and allows that he has a non-interference rule when it comes to student athletes and their interest in other sports.

“I encourage them all to try new things – I do,” he laughs. “But when I talked to Sean Coyle and he told me he was going to play baseball, I just said ‘No.’

“I went to talk to the baseball coach, Steve Rasmussen at the time, and I told him that he had to cut this freshman kid. He said ‘Chuck, he’s a left-handed pitcher. I can’t cut a left-handed pitcher – are you crazy?’ But I kept telling him that this kid could be the best runner this school has seen.

“To this day, it’s a joke around here. Sean goes out and does something really incredible and someone will say ‘Yeah, but he could have been a left-handed pitcher.’”

Along the way, Coyle and his teammates have, he hopes, solidified a tradition for the school. Not only did the Bears win their first Greater Spokane League title, but Coyle managed to exorcise a demon.

For the first time, the senior did not finish behind a runner from Mead in an important meet.

“I remember lining up for the finals in a big meet and there were six guys from Mead entered along with me and two guys from the Big Nine Conference,” Coyle remembered. “The Big Nine guys looked at each other and said ‘What are we even bothering to run for? We’re not going to beat those guys.’

“Our coach keeps telling us that they’re just kids like the rest of us. This year I went out there with the idea that they weren’t going to beat me.”

Coyle’s journey of discovery hit on an important piece of buried treasure in the senior’s make-up on the final weekend of his high school career.

After running brilliantly to qualify for state in both the mile and two-mile, Coyle went to the start line of the state 3,200 in Pasco on May 25 and knew it was a different day.

“When you run you have days when you just know you don’t have it,” he said. “I knew that everything I had planned for that race went right out the window.”

Lake Stevens’ Joey Bywater took off midway through the race, looking to burn off the field, especially those runners with better finishing kicks.

“It was a great strategy,” Bowden said. “I was hoping that Sean would go with him, or at least go part way and stay within striking distance. I watched as one guy passed him, then another guy passed him.”

At the time, all Coyle thought about was how much it hurt.

“All of a sudden I thought about being a Bear,” he told The Spokesman-Review’s Dave Trimmer after the race. “Coach always said not to quit and that’s what I was doing.”

Despite the pain, he surged and saw that the rest of the GSL runners in the race were falling out of the medal picture. With a half-lap remaining, he kicked.

“All year everyone said if I was with anyone I could out-kick them,” he told Trimmer. “Even though I hurt more than I ever hurt in a race, I could kick.”

Ultimately, Coyle lowered his own personal record by two seconds, finishing in 9:10.84, less than two seconds behind Bywater in second place – the highest finish by a CV runner in the state 3,200.

Bowden is certain that Coyle’s best days as a distance runner still are in front of him – a thought that pleases the graduating senior.

Coyle will definitely run in college. Where, however, is another question. Washington State, Eastern Washington and Long Beach State all are Division I possibilities. So is a two-year stint with the powerful track team at Community Colleges of Spokane.

“The one thing I think I can predict about Sean is this: I know he’s going to come back and stay connected with Central Valley track,” Bowden said.

“All my life’s a circle;

But I can’t tell you why;

Season’s spinning round again;

The years keep rollin’ by.”