O'Kleasky turned Central of Providence R.I. into a success story

By Brian Towey for DyeStat

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- At The Armory in New York on March 11, the Central boys from Providence, R.I. were surging in the 4x200-meter relay at New Balance Nationals Indoor. 

In the prelims, following identical 21.6-seconds legs by seniors Dametrius O'Connor and Donatien Djero, Jones Malloy ran a 22.8. Then Austin Wolo, another senior, took the stick.

"We were rolling," Central track coach Dan O'Kleasky said. "On the last curve it looked like he stepped on the railing (and almost went down). He still managed to get across the finish."

Wolo's misstep tore his quadriceps muscle. When O'Kleasky reached the track, his runner had already been taken to the training room.

"What he did was admirable," O'Kleasky said, "sacrificing his physical health so the team reached the finals."

When O'Kleasky checked the race results online, he saw 1:29.57 with a "q" next to it. The team was into the finals; Wolo had run 23.4 on a torn quad.

"I told the guys to finish off the last race for Wolo," O'Kleasky said. "Then they'd be All-Americans."

Central High is located on the south side of Providence, a stone's throw from the Downtown Business District.

"It is one of the highest-crime areas in the city," the coach said.

O'Kleasky was a 400/800 meter runner at Classical High in Providence for coach Bob Palazzo in the 1990s. He was a "respectable runner" but broke a big toe as a senior, which effectively ended his senior tear. Twenty years later, he still harbors regret.

"I wish I would have gotten on a bicycle or gone in the pool -- what our guys do now when they get an injury," O'Kleasky said.

He attended Division III Rhode Island College, but passed on running at the college level.

"If I could turn back the clock, I'd have given it a shot," he said.

This weekend at New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Greensboro, N.C., O'Kleasky wore shades. At 37 years old, he has a clean-shaven head and a prominent tattoo of a Celtic cross on his right forearm.

"I'm a fanatic," O'Kleasky said of his relationship with track and field. "And when the kids see that I'm a fanatic, it gets them more excited (about the sport)."

O'Kleasky began coaching at Central 11 years ago. At the time, the school did not have an indoor track team (it was discontinued years before). He began lobbying for an indoor track team, and saw it through with two years of provisional competition, serving as a volunteer coach.

The next step was a girls program. 

"I brought up the Title IX issue" O'Kleasky said. "And the school let us have a girls team. it's really grown the past couple of years."

By the time O'Connor and Wolo arrived at Central as freshmen, O'Kleasky had had several solid teams, with upperclassmen to emulate. O'Connor, a football player, and Wolo, whose passion is theatre, formed a solid nucleus for the team's relays.

"As freshmen, we had a good relay and we were hoping to do well with our state championship, " Wolo said. "Then this guy showed up (when we were sophomores)."

Wolo is referring to Djero, who arrived in Providence from Cote 'd Ivore (Ivory Coast), a country in west Africa, in 2014. He was joining his mother, who had settled in Providence in 2005.

"My first year at Central, I played soccer, made friends, and got more comfortable," said Djero, who needed to learn English. (His native language is French).

On the recommendation of his cousin, Lee Moses, a football player and runner at Bishop Hendricken, a private school in Rhode Island, Djero joined the track team.

"Mechanically he was all over the place," O'Kleasky said. "But I could tell he ran with a lot of power."

Djero ran 54 seconds for his first 400-meter run. By the end of his sophomore year he'd split 49 seconds on the team's 4x400 relay.

"(Djero's arrival) was one of those unexpected things," Wolo said. "Now we had a runner who could help us win a state championship."

With Djero in the mix, Central, with the three sophomores and senior Lemar McFadden, won a state championship indoors in the 4x200 and then began an assault on the Rhode Island record books. At New Balance Nationals Outdoor 2016, O'Connor, Djero, Wolo and Malloy broke the state's 4x100 record, running 41.86. This winter, they set the state's all-time mark Feb. 2 in the 4x200 indoors, running 1:29.05 at the Armory Invitational.

They also own state records in the indoor and outdoor 4x400 relays (3:21.87 and 3:18.0), the outdoor 4x200 relay (1:27.53) and the sprint medley.

"In total, this group owns nine state records between spring and winter,"  O'Kleasky said. "We also won the outdoor team state championship. That hadn't been done at Central since 1995."

Djero continues to blossom. After struggling with a back injury last spring, this year he ran 10.49 in the 100 meters at the New England Championships on June 10 to break the Rhode Island state record.

"When I got on the team they made me feel like family," said Djero, who just missed qualifying for the 100-meter final at New Balance, running 10.72 in the prelims.

Djero sometimes works a job after school and track practice, at times working until 2 or 3 a.m.

"What I learned is that hard work pays off," said Djero, who will run at Northeastern University in the fall. "Life is hard everywhere you go, even America."

O'Connor, who has run 21.69 for 200 meters, will also attend Northeastern.

The relay's accomplishments have inspired other Central athletes as well. Junior high jumper Augustus Karweh dabbled in his event as a sophomore. Yet, when he saw the success the relay team was having, it inspired him to work harder. After clearing 6 feet, 7 inches indoors, Karweh has jumped 6-10.75 outdoors.

"When I saw what they were doing I wanted to be a part of it," said Karweh, who wants to jump for Oregon.

As for Wolo, who was never really a sports guy, he's shown leadership this spring. As he recovers from a torn quad (it could take up to a year before he's fully recovered, said O'Kleasky), he helped the team to its state championship.

Wolo's 50.2 second-place finish in the 400 earned valuable points for the team (he had run 48.2 before his injury). He will attend the University of Rhode Island in the fall. But perhaps more importantly, he embodies the spirit of one of this state's most memorable relay teams.

"I had an all-state football player, an all-state soccer player and a guy who didn't like sports," O'Kleasky said. "I got them all to drink the track and field Kool-Aid."