Time Warp Tuesday --- When Winning WAS Everything

As most of you know, track was kind of my big thing back in high school. Our relay teams made it to states every year, and I made it all the way to the state finals in the 200 meter dash my senior year. One of the big meets every year was in Altoona that was by invitation only. There would be top runners not only from PA, but WV, NY, and OH as well. Because people came from such a great distance for a Friday night, it would always start late and we would run under the lights and would not end until after midnight (and our 4 X 400 relay team was always the very last event to run).

There was another event we liked to go to in Oil City. It had a lot of smaller schools there, so we could take our entire team and winning a lot of awards wasn't as difficult. During my senior year a problem arose....the late night Altoona meet was on Friday night, and the Oil City meet was the next day starting in the morning. Only a few of us were invited to be part of the one in Altoona, so a few of us went there and the rest of the team was going to go to Oil City. But, this was my senior year and I wanted to go to both! So I was able to talk my coach into letting me sign up for both knowing I would just sleep on the way back and the way to.

OK, so here's where the story gets good. I remember getting home from Altoona and only having a few hours to sleep. When the alarm went off, I was far from being awake. I just threw on sweats, went to the bus and continued to sleep on my way to Oil City. My first event there was the 100 yard dash. They would announce our name, and we would go out to the track in our lanes. I had a routine (maybe superstition?) that I would do a practice start with my sweats on, take them off, and do another practice start.

So I hear, "Mike Catanzarito, DuBois High School" and go onto the track and do my practice start. I took my sweats off and did my second practice start. Everything is looking good. As I walk back to the starting line I start to tuck in my shirt and realize I have a problem...a serious problem...I HAVE NO SHORTS ON! Apparently being half asleep that morning I completely forgot to put them on. So I hurried up and put my sweats back on, but the official said that was against the PIAA rules and I had to have shorts.

So did I give up? Of course not! Winning was everything back then, remember? One of my teammates, Shawn, who was only a sophomore was sitting by the track. I said, "Give me your shorts". Believe it or not, with no questions asked, he dropped them right there and handed them over. Of course this entire time people were wondering what the hold up was....I heard an official from the finish line call down on the CB radio inquiring, and the official on our end not being able to give a response because he was laughing so hard.

The rest of the day went much better! I won that race, and actually took 4 first places that day and our team was first overall as well. It was a day I won't soon forget! (nor will Shawn).