by Bob Hahn
Sometimes a story writes itself. I was asked to write a story about one of the Illinois coaching legends, Pete Struck, who is being inducted into the Illinois Track & Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame on January 11th. I reached out to several of his former student athletes who have moved on, inspired by Pete, to become coaches themselves. What they had to say tells the story of Pete Struck.
-------
“Like all great high school coaches, Coach Struck instilled confidence in me as a person, as well as a runner. I am grateful for all his hard work and effort to make me a better runner, but it is his friendship and guidance during my high school years that I appreciate and will always remember.”
-------
“He has meant a lot to not just me and my love of the sport of distance running, but to so many that he has coached over the years. That is clearly evident in the number of his former runners who are still now deeply involved in the sport. Coach Struck was able to foster a climate at practice (that I try to emulate now) he always emphasized the team's accomplishments over the individual, but he made distance running important. He taught me and the guys about the sport of running and intricacies involved in the sport; the importance of a top 5/7 split, and the critical importance of analyzing your race from your splits (that he would compile for us). Coach Struck was doing things (and he made it look easy) that I thought every coach did, but after I graduated I came to realize that Coach Struck was doing so much for us compared to other coaches. He made it a priority to record every workout for every kid (His handwriting is excellent as well!), he recorded all of our splits for every race on the track, he put together excellent season summaries, and he fostered and supported guys on the team to help compile the history of Sandburg Cross Country/Track. Additionally, he truly cared for each of us and was invested in our development throughout high school into a young man.”
-------
“Coach Struck was always prepared for practice. Everyone always had a workout assignment.
Route assignments were planned and measured. We had a good sized team, so there was plenty of group running. Coach Struck made sure everyone was in the right group; even if it was the first day of practice and you were placed in the 6 mile group and the farthest you had ever run before was
3 miles. It was still the right group. Smile.”
-------
Jeff talked of Pete’s interest beyond the athlete.
-------
“Maybe it was because I was friends with Rob (Pete’s son), but Coach Struck was always willing to give me a ride home after practice. During this ride we rarely talked about running. I don't
actually recall what we talked about, but I can remember laughing a lot!”
Jeremy Borling also ran for Pete in the 90’s and had this to say.
-------
“One memory that will always stick with me, and that speaks volumes of this notion, is a picture that
I have of me, John O’Malley, Jeff Boele, Rudy Kovachevich and Jim Mladic, all representing different schools at the 1999 NCAA Division III cross country regionals. Rob Struck was running at a different D3 regional that same day, and John Sipple was running at Eastern Illinois and I believe Tom Murphy at Bradley. That’s a testament to Coach Struck not only developing us into runners who could compete at the college level, but teaching us to love the sport and to run and compete for the
right reasons. The love of running is something that I will always carry with me and I have Coach Struck to thank for that.”