Lake’s City’s Coyle plays to strength — cross country

Lake City senior John Coyle has played just about every sport other than hockey.

This fall, as in the three previous, he’ll don the T-Wolves uniform of a cross country runner.

Coyle, who said he misses the baseball, football, basketball and wrestling he participated in throughout his youth, has one prize in mind.

“I’d like to win a team state title. That’s my No. 1 goal,” said Coyle, who earned an individual 800-meter title running track last year and was first in the Young Men’s 2,000 steeplechase at the National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in July. “I’ve gone through a lot with my team, and put in a lot of miles with them.

“We also have a chance of qualifying for nationals � it’s kind of a long shot, but we have four guys who are capable of it right now and I think all we need is a fifth guy to step up.”

The recent exploits of other Lake City programs are not lost on Coyle.

“If I were on the football team this year, or on the baseball team, they both won state championships,” he said. “But it’s nice to be a part of a team that’s kind of been built from the ground up. We weren’t a real great program, but in the last couple of years we’ve become a great program, and it’s all through hard work.

“Right now, there’s three seniors on the team and we’ve all been working at it for four years, so I’m glad I switched (to cross country) � I think it’s a sport that builds more character than any other.”

It is obvious he has few, if any, regrets.

“Honestly, though, I do miss playing the other sports, but I had to make a decision based on what I felt was best for me and my future,” he said. “At the time, I really didn’t want to give them up, but it came down to financial issues and sticking with the sport I thought I had the best chance of earning a scholarship in.

“The one thing I was sure of is that if you work hard at running, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get results.”

Come next fall, Coyle hopes all that hard work pays off at the next level.

“I’d like to go D-I, and I really like the Pac-10,” he said. “I just want to make sure I end up somewhere that I don’t get lost in the shuffle � a program that I can develop in.”