School: Cheltenham
Cross Country, Track
Favorite athlete: Jrue Holiday
Favorite team: Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Our last race on our home course this year when a ran a 25-second PR
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Losing to a girl in the 3200 freshman year.
Music on iPod: Lupe Fiasco, The Roots, Kanye West, Mac Miller, Talib Kweli
Future plans: Run in college
Words to live by: “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.” Vince Lombardi
One goal before turning 30: Graduate college and get a job I enjoy
One thing people don’t know about me: I used to swim and play soccer.
By Alex Frazier
Cheltenham’s Tom Sexton has been coaching cross country for 44 years.
Needless to say, a lot of runners have passed him by.
But none have impressed him as much as senior Ryan Callahan.
“I don’t think I’ve coached a finer runner or a finer person,” said Sexton.
And that’s quite a tribute.
Callahan is a four-year varsity runner in cross country, indoor and spring track and a co-captain of the Panther cross country team for the past two years.
“It takes real maturity for a junior to be captain but last year's team, including seniors, had no trouble following his lead as he is so respected by his peers,” said Sexton. “He’s the best leader I have ever coached.”
Callahan is the type of captain who leads by example.
“He doesn’t say a lot,” said Sexton. “Even though he is the best runner on our team and one of the best in our district, he never sets himself above the others. He relates so well to his teammates and is always thinking of the team and what is best for the team. He has a wonderful sense of himself for someone so young and I have never coached a runner with more drive, desire and determination.”
Callahan started running in middle school. He played soccer in the fall and ran track in the spring.
When he graduated to the high school in ninth grade, he decided to drop soccer and start cross country.
“I was pretty good in middle school,” he said. “Then I decided I might as well try cross country and see if I could get better, and if not I could go back to soccer the next year.”
It didn’t take him long to get hooked.
“It worked out pretty well,” he said, “so I decided to stick with it. I liked it a lot more than soccer.”
Last year Callahan suffered a stress fracture in his shin and missed competing in districts.
But this year he turned in his best performances.
He ran one of the fastest times on his home course, clocking a 15:06 to beat Wissahickon’s Dillon Farrell, who finished second in the SOL meet.
“That was a super time,” said Sexton. “It was the greatest race I can remember any Cheltenham runner running. He’s run some amazing times.”
At the Suburban One League championships, he finished fifth with a personal best time of 16:37.
“He told me after the race he was tired, he had been tired for three weeks,” said Sexton. “He felt like he didn’t have any kick left with a mile to go.”
Sexton rested him for the district race.
The following week on the same course at Lehigh, he lowered his time to 16:14 with a 26th place finish, which qualified him for states for the first time in his career.
Having never run the brutally hilly state course before, Callahan wasn’t exactly prepared, even though he had a chance to jog it the day before.
“It would have helped if I had gone the year before,” he said. “Even on Friday I was tired going up the hills.’
It was a huge contrast to the relatively flat Lehigh course.
“It was ridiculously hilly,” he said. “My time was a minute worse than the Lehigh course. Usually when it’s hilly, you get downhills, but it was really muddy, so you had to be careful not to slip. A lot of kids were falling.”
He also ran without any of his teammates, who usually motivate him.
“Our team is really close and that’s one of the reasons I was motivated,” he said. “I got to train with my best friends every day.”
His team came up to support him in Hershey, but it wasn’t the same as their being on the course with him.
He finished in 100th place with a time of 17:20.
Two of the runners from Upper Dublin that he had beaten by nine seconds in districts, finished ahead of him. Ironically, Francis Ferruzzi finished nine seconds ahead of him. Had he just kept up with the Cardinal runner, he would have moved up 32 places. That’s how close the runners were.
“That was a gauge for him about how his race was like,” said Sexton. “If he had the race he had at districts, he would have been in the top 30-35 runners.”
The single most important quality that makes Callahan a good runner is his competitive nature.
“Most kids you coach are competitive, but some kids are ultra competitive and that describes Ryan,” said Sexton. “He loves to compete.”
It also translates into strong determination.
“His work ethic is very impressive as is his race day effort,” said Sexton. “He sets very high standards for himself and is willing to work very hard to reach these standards.”
“I just love training to get better at running,” said Callahan. “I just want to keep getting better and better.”
A sub-par finish at states is something Callahan can use as motivation as he moves ahead into indoor and outdoor track.
“It didn’t end on the best note,” he said. “I didn’t have it that day, but I still have track.”
Callahan runs the mile and 3K indoors and the mile and 3200 outdoors.
Although Callahan hasn’t been accepted at college yet, he has applied early decision to Emory in Atlanta, Ga., and is likely to be accepted.
He certainly has the academic credentials. He has been taking honors and advanced placement courses all along and is ranked in the top 10 percent of his class.
“He’s just a very solid student who does whatever it takes to excel in the classroom,” said Sexton.
Callahan visited Emory and was very impressed.
“It’s a really good academic school, really good with the sciences,” he said.
He plans on majoring in health sciences.
He hopes to run cross country, which is by far his favorite of the three running seasons. He’s already been in contact with the coach.
“He’s a really cool guy,” said Callahan. “He reminded me of our assistant coach. I liked the guys on the team, too.”
There’s no doubt Callahan has a bright future ahead wherever he goes, whatever he does.
“He is very, very motivated to excel and pushes himself to reach his goals,” said Sexton.
