Who's On Your Wall?
Next time you race at a Nike sponsored meet and you look in your little bag of goodies that they give you at check-in, ask if you could exchange your Steve Prefontaine poster for a Michael Stember one. Because, lets be honest here, if you want to honor somebody you might as well bow down before a guy who has more to do with your running than good ol' Steve-O.
Some of you may be asking, Michael who? To that I say shame on you! What a sad state of affairs if you don't know who Stember is. So, keep reading. To those of you who say, yeah, I know who he is but why should he be up on my wall, I will answer your question in due time here. I am aware that a teen's wall is prime real estate. The vetting process to get on mine was long and arduous. So, I am taking this seriously. Take my word on that.
First, let me take you back to a dark time, a time of chaos and cold: the early 90's. Sure we had (much) better music than you do now. Yes, we had Michael Jordan and Larry Bird and you have Lebron James and some other guys I can't remember the names of right now. We had George Bush the greater and you have George Bush the lesser. We also had phones that attached to walls. You have the internet. High School track was a local sport for the most part. If Johnny Nobody or Sally Somebody blitzed a hot mile somewhere across the country you would not find out until the June Track and Field News arrived in your mailbox in August. There were no teenage rock stars in Track back then. Well, that was until….
Let me put this in perspective, the top milers and two milers during the early 90's were your run of the mill distance runners. They were quiet. They were thoughtful. They were full of humble pie. Think Hootie and the Blowfish. Sorry, I dated myself. Think John Mayer.
Now I want you to think about the California sun. Think 16 years old. Think shaggy blonde hair. Think ego. Think Oasis. Sorry, dated again. Think Killers. Think 1:56 for the middle 800 of a 1600. Think 4:04 as a 16 year old junior with your fist in the air. Think about pointing to the crowd with 500m to go. Think about calling the race like Babe called the shot. Think about racing a pro/elite field at the Sunkist Games in LA and letting the Pros gap you just so you can let it rip with 400 to go…just to hear the crowd gasp. Think sub 4 because that's what we thought. We were the fans that had not thought that or dared to. We were kids excited by a kid. We were you…just years earlier. We had no internet. We had no cell phones. We had no text messages. No instant results with pictures, race commentary and streaming video. We had none of that. Word of mouth is what we survived on. "There's this kid in California from Jesuit HS…he's the one". Sub four? That one? Maybe. And back then maybe was enough. Then you met somebody who had a VHS of the CA state meet and you watched. And you became a fan. You became a fan of a kid two years younger than you, a kid so much faster, and a kid so damn exciting.
He helped bring the cameras and the reporters and most importantly the kids back to the oval. He helped Jon Riley, Gabe Jennings, Sharif Karie, Andy Powell, and Don Sage believe that they could make crowds gasp. They in turn showed Alan Webb and Ritz and Ryan Hall that "elite" is a state of mind. Each successive year there are more. The wave had broken and it got a lot of people wet.
Now, Nike gives you a Pre poster. Who knows, maybe Pre shakes you up. Maybe Pre is who you think about when you are hurting and looking for inspiration. Maybe. But, maybe, just maybe, next time you round the bend with 500 to go you'll feel the urge to call the shot, or you'll stand up next to the elites and not flinch. Maybe then you'll think of Stember.
Michael Stember
Chris Bennett, a native of the Jersey Shore, attended Christian Brothers Academy where he ran on 3 NJ All Group State Championship Teams. Chris went on to captain the University of North Carolina Cross Country and Track teams. After graduation Chris to Palo Alto, CA to run for the Nike Farm Team for over 5 years. He has run 1:51 for 800, 3:43 for 1500m, 14:10 for 5000m and most importantly the Big Loop at CBA in under 7 minutes. He credits any and all knowledge he has or pretends to have regarding running to a series of excellent coaches he has had: Tom Heath at CBA, Joan Nesbit-Mabe, Jerry Schumacher and Mike Whittlesey at UNC, and Jeff Johnson, Vin Lannana, Frank "Gags" Gagliano, Jack Daniels, and Ray Appenheimer while with the Farm Team.
He's married to Tammie with two incredible kids, Jack age 3 and Maggie age 1.