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'Fifth Man' Recounts An Unforgettable Era At Long Island's Mepham High And Pays Tribute To Coach Paul Limmer

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DyeStat.com   Aug 12th 2022, 6:11pm
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'Everyone Has Value' Is Core Message Of Cross Country Movie Due For Release On iTunes Aug. 16

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Paul Limmer retired from coaching in 2000 after a 35-year run at Mepham High in Bellmore, N.Y., on Long Island. 

He has remained influential, nationally, as a board member of the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation and a key member of its staff. Limmer helps the big events run smoothly. He knows everyone. 

And the former science teacher also tends to an enormous daylily garden and business in his backyard. 

He was reluctant, at first, when former students approached him about doing a documentary on his coaching career. Limmer built a lasting legacy at Mepham through countless hours of work combined with his natural charm and charisma. But he doesn't go around reminding everyone about it. 

"We had to get coach on board," said Dexter Braff, producer of 'The Fifth Man' and one of three brothers who ran for Limmer in the 1970s.

"We had to get Coach on board and he doesn't like that kind of attention. I called for the first time in 10 years, and he called me back in one minute. I told him what I wanted to do and he said, 'It's not my thing, but if you want to do it, I have complete faith and trust in you.' We had a meeting and once he saw how serious we were about telling this story, he jumped on board." 

By his own assessment, Limmer didn't know what he was doing when he first began coaching runners at Mepham, and only started figuring it out when one of his runners started researching Jim Ryun's training methods and then brought those workout schedules to the coach's office. 

By his own admission, he got lucky that Mark Belger happened to live just inside the enrollment boundary of the school, talent oozing out of every pore, and he turned out to be one of the best mid-distance runners in the U.S. in the early 1970s. And lightning struck again, in the initial wave after Title IX, when Christine Curtin arrived and suddenly Limmer was charged with leading the best young female runner in America. (She won the third Kinney Cross Country Championship). 

'The Fifth Man' will be available on iTunes on Aug. 16 after making the rounds on the film festival circuit in 2021.  

As a pre-season cross country documentary, it's well-timed to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation for viewers across the country. 

But it's also a movie that could have been made in hundreds of other places around the United States about hundreds of other coaches, former and current, who have made immeasurable impact on the lives of high school students. 

Mepham High didn't always have the best runner in its cross country races. It almost always had the best fifth man, thanks to the large teams that Limmer carefully tended, much like his flower beds. 

"Everybody has value," Limmer said of his coaching philosophy.

There is no fifth man, in particular, to focus on in the film. The movie's title is a reminder that the fifth man is the most important to the team score, and winning the day. 

That's why Limmer approached kids when he saw them eating alone in the cafeteria. The unconnected. The loners and nerds. He made a place for them and then made the investment that there was room for growth. 

He built one of the largest summer running camps in the U.S. in upstate New York to give them a place to train, and bond, in July and August. 

He cajoled the school administrators to give him a dedicated locker room. At Mepham, runners had year-round lockers and team space that exceeded what the football players had. 

Limmer's dedication and capacity to love hundreds of athletes all at once became a model for other coaches in Long Island and New York, even if it meant being absent too much in his own childrens' lives. 

But the story isn't unique. Everyone-has-value is a mantra that can be found in thousands of high school cross country teams. 

All of those programs have value, too, and a great many of them have someone like Limmer leading the band and making a positive difference every day. 

'The Fifth Man' captures the highs and lows that come with 35 years of dedication to the craft of coaching. 

"You have to be able to make kids believe in things that may not even be true," Limmer said. 

Scatter those seeds. Hope they grow. Do enough work to ensure that the individual goals are met so that the collective goals are achieved. 

"Coach has an incredible emotional IQ," Braff said. "He knew how to connect with athletes in a way that was emotionally satisfying."

Limmer, like all of the best coaches, grew to understand how to get kids excited. 

"I was lucky we came from a lower middle class community with kids who could see the forest for the trees, who didn't require immediate gratification," Limmer said. "The more work you put in, the better you get. The stopwatch doesn't lie."



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