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For Chancellor's Chris Young, Loriella Park conjures both pleasant and painful memories. At the park, he regularly ran with his father, William, won the Battlefield District individual title last week, and experienced a tremendous loss.
Chancellor athletic trainer Pat Sheehan (left) and Charger cross country coach Dennis Bane (right) support an exhausted Chris Young after he won the Battlefield District boys race.
Young channeled his grief into his preparations for the Battlefield meet, where he maintained a lead throughout the race to win the title. |
The day after Chris Young's father died, the Chancellor senior cross country standout drove the red 1986 Porsche his parents helped him buy to Loriella Park, pulled into a spot near the tennis courts and dug into the trunk for his running shorts and shoes.
Young hadn't told his teammates, teachers or coaches that his father, William Young, had a heart attack and died Sept. 24 while jogging Loriella's rolling hills. It's the park where Chancellor's cross country team trains and where Chris last week won his first Battlefield District cross country individual title.
He just kept doing what he'd been doing for years: He ran.
"I didn't think he would want me to quit," Chris said. "He would never think like that."
"Running is something he does all the time," said Young's mother, Laura. "It was something he did with his dad and he just wanted to keep on doing it."
Will Young worked for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, but his passion was his family and specifically his son.
When Chris took up hockey, Will became the quintessential hockey dad, ferrying his son to practices, scoring games and operating the penalty box when no one else could.
When Chris showed an interest in cross country in middle school, Will read up on running and shared the strategy and motivational techniques he learned with his son.
"He always showed an interest in something I liked and it was something we could do together," Chris said.
By Chris' senior season, Chancellor coach Dennis Bane had begun calling Will an assistant coach, for it was Will who often volunteered to help mark Loriella's course for meets, accompanied the Chargers on road trips and was known for bringing doughnuts to races for Chris and his teammates.
With Chris set to go to college next year, Will began to make plans to stay on and help Chancellor's cross country team.
"Anything you asked him he would do," Bane said. "When we had the Region I meet here two years ago, it was pouring down rain and he strapped a leaf-blower to his back and he was down on the trails blowing water out of puddles. He was that kind of guy."
Will also took up running.
Though Chris was emerging as a talented runner, his father would show up at practices from work for jogs with his son.
"He couldn't keep up with me, but he was all right," Chris said with a smile.
This year, Will had finally gotten semiserious about the sport, and he was training to run an open race at the Maymont Cross Country Festival in Richmond Sept. 30.
Chris would run with his teammates in a varsity race, and Will was planning to run the 3.1-mile course with Chancellor's coaches.
"He told me he wasn't going to run competitively, but he was going to do it, try and finish the race, and it was going to be a good accomplishment," Chris said.
But on the morning of Sept. 24, Will collapsed at Loriella and died of a heart attack. He was 58.
For Chris, the race at Maymont loomed in less than a week, as did his father's funeral in New York.
He had a choice, but it wasn't a tough one.
He raced at Maymont, finished 17th in the boys' silver division and crossed the finish line in 17 minutes and 36 seconds. The time remains a personal record.
And after the race, he sat on a curb and cried. Then, he left for New York.
"I wasn't going to not do it," Chris said.
"It was a little bit hard afterwards. I had done so well," he added.
Then, his voice trailed off. His mother was there to root for him, as were his teammates. But his father wasn't.
"I don't know, it was just hard," Chris said.
At the start of every season, Chancellor's coaches go over race strategy with their runners. Among the advice: Clear your mind when running.
"They say it's best to think about nothing. It's best to have neutral thoughts because otherwise you get distracted," Young said.
That's been impossible for Young, and he doesn't mind.
His thoughts have often drifted to good memories of his father, of the many times they ran together at Loriella, of hockey practices, or of afternoons working on Chris' used Porsche.
He ran at times because it was a release and at other times because his father was an inspiration.
"When I am running it's just me and my thoughts. It's good to relax a little bit," Chris said. "I think about him a lot."
After the initial shock of his father's death subsided, Chris eventually told his coaches and his teammates that his father died.
But he has remained an intensely private person, preferring to bury himself in his daily routine, to keep studying (he's an honor student at Chancellor and attends Governor's School classes at Riverbend) and keep running.
He has missed just one practice and hasn't missed a beat during his workouts.
"I think he has probably run harder," Bane said. "When you have a death, you deal with the anger side. Maybe it was some of the anger coming through, that kind of thing."
Running was normal to Chris, his mother said, and she encouraged him to continue his workouts.
"I think actually he was very much motivated after my husband passed away," Laura Young said. "He was constantly running, and his times were just really excellent. I think that's what kind of pushed him a little bit. He just wanted to do it for his dad.
"Will was really excited about him finishing the year," she said. "He had been running really well all season."
Chris entered this season as one of Chancellor's top runners, but his cross country career has taken a long and windy path.
He ran at Chancellor as a freshman, but after attending Riverbend as a sophomore, he applied to transfer back to Chancellor.
To do so, he had to sit out of athletics for 365 days. He made it back in time for the district meet last year, but he finished 21st.
This year has been different.
Just more than a month after his dad's death, Young won the Battlefield District cross country title at Loriella Oct. 25, finishing the race in 17:41 to beat out Riverbend's Colby Ward.
He collapsed after the race in exhaustion and had to be helped from the finish line by his coach and a team trainer.
"It was important to me," he said that day. "I just wanted to do it for my dad."
He'll be back at Loriella today for the Region I cross country meet. The top 15 finishers will qualify for the state cross country meet Nov. 11.
Laura admits it's still difficult to walk the Loriella course, where parents from Chancellor's team planted a weeping cherry tree in honor of Will, but Chris hasn't stayed away.
"His dad was there a lot with him," Laura said. "For him it's more a place to connect with his dad."
"I know he would've wanted me to keep going all the way," Chris said.
To reach TODD JACOBSON:
Email: tjacobson@freelancestar.com
REGION I MEET Today, Loriella Park, Spotsylvania Girls: 3 p.m.; Boys: 3:45 p.m. NORTHWEST REGION MEET Today, Panorama Farms, Charlottesville Girls: 1:30 p.m.; Boys: 2:15 p.m. Top four finishing teams, top |
| 'When I am running it's just me and my thoughts. I think about him a lot.' Chris Young, on his sport, and his father |
