The Men’s Cross Country team at North Central College in Naperville is one of the most successful collegiate programs in the nation. For over 50 years, the team was guided by coach Al Carius. He died this fall at 83.
It’s a cold November afternoon, and coaches are raking leaves at a park along the DuPage River as the team runs by. A sign near the road lists all 19 of North Central’s Division-3 national championships.
“The history that I'm aware of," said head coach Matt Sinnott, "is that Al Carius brought the team here way back in the ‘60s, and we've been coming here ever since, so almost 60 years.”
Sinnot took over a few years ago when Carius and legendary assistant coach Frank Gramarosso retired. Sinnott, like most of the coaching staff, ran for Carius as a student and then came back to coach with him.
Carius started coaching at North Central back in 1966. Since then, the team has won 50 consecutive conference championships, and he was named the “Coach of the Century” by fellow coaches.
He helped create countless traditions during his half-century run, and one of them is happening right now. It’s why those coaches are raking leaves during one of the last practices before regionals.
“We'll make a tunnel," said Sinnott, "and they'll do their ceremonial last lap, the last lap at Lincoln Park as seniors, and then we'll toss leaves up."
The small group of seniors jogs in as the team cheers and leaves rain down.
It’s been a tough year. The team is mourning Carius, while also trying to stay focused and compete. But it’s moments like this that remind them of his philosophy: “Run for fun and personal bests.”
Sinnott says, when he arrived at North Central as a student in the late ‘90s, it sounded simple.
“On the surface it was just like, ‘Okay, they value you getting better,’ he said. "Sure, yeah. As a coach now and having been around this philosophy and program for almost 30 years, it's like, ‘Okay, now I understand.’”
For one, it says nothing about your competition, it’s just about you.
“You can always be better than yesterday," said Sinnott, "but you can't always guarantee you're going to be better than the guy next to you.”
Assistant coach Dale Koepnick has also had a lot of time to think about what it means to “Run for fun and personal bests.” He ran for Carius in the late ‘70s, where his teams captured multiple national titles.
But he says it’s not the championships he and his teammates remember. It’s running with your friends every day. It’s the traditions: the pre-race meals and silly songs they sing during morning runs.
“No one talks about times or places," said Koepnick. "That kind of fades, but the feelings and the love you have for each other -- that doesn't fade. That stays pretty strong.”
Carius shared a lot of quotes and sayings. One was: "you can give someone the best training in the world, but if they don’t believe in it and they’re not having fun -- they won’t get better."
Similarly, even the best running philosophy only gets you so far if people don’t believe in it. Sinnott says “run for fun and personal bests” worked because they knew Al Carius cared about them.
He knew that as a runner and then saw behind the scenes as a coach — how Carius handled tough conversations like who to leave off the roster for regionals.
“If I quote Al," said Sinnot, "‘the most agonizing decisions,’ and having been a part of those conversations and how he handled that with empathy and humanity, and [how] he never wanted to hurt anybody's feelings, but he also wanted to make the best decision for the team."
Jacob Kluckhohn is a senior on the current team. He’s dealt with a lot of injuries throughout his career, which has changed how he thinks about their philosophy.
“It can also just be what your personal best is on that given day," he said, "and a lot of times that changes.”
Run for fun is about running with your friends and, for him and many others, it’s running with family. Kluckhohn’s known Al Carius since way before he enrolled at North Central. His mom has been the head women’s track coach since he was a kid.
“I grew up with Al being kind of like a grandpa figure for me,” he sad. “I grew up around the program, spending time here throughout the track season and cross country season.”
He says some of his earliest memories are running around in Carius’ office, grabbing candy.
Carius was like a grandfather to Kluckhorn, but Al's actual grandson is also on the team, a freshman this year. Kluckhorn says that meant Carius was around a lot more at meets and practices this fall — despite his retirement and health.
“He got to see his grandson race his first collegiate cross country race, which is awesome,” he said. “And then it was within a couple days after that, that he passed.”
Koepnick says they invited Carius back a few times over the past few years to speak to the team and, even very sick with cancer, he lit up with energy and enthusiasm when he spoke.
“He couldn't even stand for very long, but he did at those team meetings,” said Koepnick. “If you close your eyes, you would think it was when I was in school in 1978. It was still the same vigor and the message was powerful.”
“Run for fun and personal bests” is a running philosophy, but it also became a life philosophy. Koepnick says those principles apply to almost everything.
“It's interesting," he said, "because some guys get it right away, and others don't while they're in school, but they get it a few years later. So, they've taken those lessons and applied them in their work or their marriage."
Sinnott says the philosophy also worked because generations of students saw it embodied in Al Carius. Even decades into his coaching career when he’d won a dozen titles and could have walked off into the sunset, he kept innovating and evolving the program to give them an edge.
“I think people are drawn to passion,” said Sinnott. “He just lived a life of passion for what he did. He was a magnet for that.”
It’s why former students like Sinnott, Koepnick, and a host of volunteers and coaches have felt called to come back and work with Carius over the years.
A few days before the conference race this fall, Sinnott and some coaches were walking on campus while the team was out for their morning run when they came across an older woman on her morning walk.
“She stopped us, and she said, ‘Hey, have you heard anything about the old man with the cane who walks over here in the mornings?’” said Sinnott.
They knew she was talking about Al, and they had to break the bad news. He’d passed about a month before.
“She kind of sunk a little bit, and she's like, ‘Oh, he was such a nice man. He always talked to me,’” said Sinnott. “That reminded me of who he was.”
The next day, Sinnott shared that story with the team. She had no idea he was the “Coach of the Century.” She didn’t know about the championships, but she knew his kindness.
“As spiritual as that might sound," he said, "that interaction with that woman just reminded me that he is still around in some way, and he's never gonna not be around."
Sinnott sees himself as a steward of that legacy and Al Carius' philosophy. The Cardinals recently collected their 51st straight conference title. They finished 10th at nationals — but the lifelong pursuit to “run for fun and personal bests” goes on.
