Central Catholic OR finds a reason to go Postal

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Back in the late 1970s when he was a high school standout in the suburbs south of Portland, Ore., Dave Frank can recall running a mile, putting his result down on a piece of paper and mailing an envelope to Starting Line Sports.

And then a few weeks later, Frank got a return letter telling him where his time ranked nationally.

That wasn't exactly postal nationals, but it was something similar. And while Frank was aware of cross country postal nationals in that era, he didn't know of any nearby schools that participated.

This summer, when Hoka One One announced plans to revive Postal Nationals and update it for the 21st Century, the coach of Portland's Central Catholic High School took notice.

"Postal nationals was a cool thing. I remember reading about it," Frank said. "But, I'll be honest. I wouldn't do it if I thought it wasn't something that fit into what we're trying to accomplish."

As it turned out, Frank figured his Central Catholic boys needed at least one good race-type effort before going to the Sundodger Invitational in Seattle on Sept. 20.

So he assembled the team at Grant Park and ran a 2-mile time trial and then posted those results on the Hoka Postal Nationals site.

Central Catholic became one of the first big-name programs to sign up and participate in the new postal nationals. The Rams have won seven Oregon big-school titles since 2003, the year Galen Rupp was a senior and Alberto Salazar was the head coach. Frank expects that many more teams will come on board next year when coaches have a chance to schedule it into their training plan.

"Some of the guys (on the team) said it would be a cool thing to do between state and (NXN) regionals," Frank said. "They think (postal nationals) is pretty cool."

Central Catholic used to run a two-mile time trial before the start of the season and it's possible, Frank said, that Hoka Postal Nationals will be the impetus to start doing that again.

"Kids are in good shape at the start of cross country season and a race like this is low stress," the coach said. "I think kids are in better shape at the start of the fall than they are at the start of spring."

Next year, Frank hopes to invite a lot more Portland-area teams to join the Rams next year.

"Hopefully we'll get 30 teams together and we can run 10 heats," he said.