It wasn’t quite as wild as the throngs lining First Avenue during the New York City Marathon or the women of Wellesley College midway through the Boston Marathon, but the second-graders of Westminster’s Cotton Creek Elementary School got a nice boost heading for the home stretch in their third annual Pumpkin Run this month.
First- and fourth-graders gathered on both sides of the race course, holding up signs and chanting loudly, “Go second grade! Go second grade!”
Effort crinkling their faces, the second-graders drove themselves to a finish-line chute just like the ones at road races for big people. Every finisher got a goodie bag and a pumpkin.
“I want these kids to be runners as adults,” said Cotton Creek’s passionate physical education coordinator, Matt Obernesser. “It’s a great thing for them to maintain their wellness.”
Yes, it is. And it should be replicated at every school in America.
Cotton Creek has 630 students, and virtually all of them participated in the Pumpkin Run. Kindergarten through second grade went a half-mile. Grades three through five ran a mile. A third of the school — 210 kids — trained for the big race in an after-school program.
On race day they got a motorcycle escort from the Westminster police. They got to meet two-time Olympian Alan Culpepper. Many wore very cool race T-shirts — better than a few local road-race shirts I could name — designed by a fifth-grader.
When first-grader Tristan Ruigrok came through the finish chute, he shot his mother a proud look that said, “Hey, look what I just did!” It was a sweet moment in a morning that offered many.
“I think it’s a great concept because it’s wonderful exercise for the children, introduces them to sports in an exciting way, where it’s a contest, and they have a lot of fun,” said Ruigrok’s mother, Lisa. “I’ve been hearing about this for two weeks from my first-grader. Mr. Obernesser is one of the favorite teachers. Everyone loves him.”
Principal Bill Kempsell led each grade through a series of stretching exercises in the gym — six separate sessions — before the race.
“He’ll be flexible by the end of the day,” Obernesser said with a laugh. “He’ll hate me.”
But Kempsell knows the value of physical fitness in and out of the classroom.
“There’s a great deal of research coming out on the importance of physical activity and the arts, promoting brain development,” Kempsell said. “We know a healthy body promotes higher achievement.”
So why are so many schools cutting back or eliminating PE?
“It makes no sense to me because our obesity epidemic is so high,” Obernesser said. “Type 2 diabetes is appearing in children — never used to appear there. We should be feeding money into PE programs galore, but we’re not.”
Oscar Ponce is on a similar mission at Lincoln High School, a predominantly Hispanic school on South Federal Boulevard that hadn’t had a cross country team for six years until he revived it this fall. Despite the hiatus, 40 kids joined the team.
Ponce is hoping to do at Lincoln what Jeff Young has done at North — lift the aspirations and change the lives of young Hispanic kids through running.
“It’s huge from a health standpoint,” Ponce said. “We (Hispanics) have the highest diabetes incidence in the city and the country. Diet, nutrition and lifestyle is a huge part of this.”
Some of those who have come through the program at North say they would be dead or in jail if not for the lessons they learned running for Young. Ponce ran for North and went on to the University of Colorado, where he was a teammate of Adam Goucher. Today he has a master’s degree in counseling.
“I don’t know if I would be where I am today without running,” Ponce said. “It was because of a coach and because of running and the elements that running taught me — and continues to teach me — that I do what I do. I was involved in different stuff, and once I joined cross country and track, it was a complete turnaround.”
Lincoln sophomore Gabe Villegas says he wants to go to CU on a scholarship, too, but Ponce tells him he’d better keep his grades up.
“Now I’ve actually got good grades, I’m passing every class,” Villegas said. “Running, that’s what got me my grades — thinking of running.”
At the beginning of the season, Ponce had three guys who could run a mile under 6 minutes. Now he’s got 12 — six are freshmen — and junior Victor Salva- tierra recently broke 5 minutes.
“I like to run and beat other guys so people will be talking about my school,” Salvatierra said.
But running isn’t just about beating people. It’s about learning how to be the best we can be.
“I feel like a different person,” Lincoln senior Nicole Barela said. “I was quiet. Now I’m, like, open. Running made me outgoing.”
Ponce says he’s using running to help kids at Lincoln believe they can go further than society expects of them.
“It’s more than just about running,” Ponce said. “It’s about them finding themselves and not putting limits. You have limits already engrained, and I think this is about transcending those, moving on and being your own person.”
Sounds like he’s getting through.
“He’s a great coach,” Salvatierra said. “We love this coach.”
I believe there’s a special place in heaven for people like Matt Obernesser, Jeff Young and Oscar Ponce — men who deeply appreciate what running can do for people and who realize how much good can be done by spreading the word — especially to the young.
