By Alex Frazier
Two shoes are better than one.
As obvious as that sounds, it took Neshaminy’s Tim Haines a week to confirm that.
In the opening week of cross country, Haines lost his shoe in the first tenth of a mile at the Viking Invitational. Instead of stopping to put it back on, Haines plodded on, running through mud, gravel and sticks.
“When I got out, I was in front of the pack, and there were 80 some guys behind me,” he said. “If I would have stopped, I might have gotten run over.”
He led at the first mile, but fell back to 10th at mile two, where coach Russ Horrocks was a bit dismayed.
“Nobody knew his shoe came off during the race,” said Horrocks. “A couple of us were aggravated with him. I felt like saying, ‘How do you go from first to 10th?’”
But Horrocks didn’t know Haines had lost his shoe. As he confirmed with other coaches later, he only watches a runner’s body from the waist up.
“I always watch from the waist, with him especially, because that’s where you can tell they’re losing it or hitting the wall,” said Horrocks.
When the runners approached the final 100 meters, Horrocks still didn’t know Haines was running with just one shoe. However, he did notice that his senior captain wasn’t getting good traction on the slippery surface.
“I couldn’t understand why he slipped,” he said.
Haines still managed to pass one runner and finish ninth overall.
After the race, Haines went over to the medics to get his toe checked out.
“I hit a rock and it cut open my big toe,” he said. “I was pretty lucky otherwise. I took Saturday off and was back running Sunday.”
Last weekend’s Mill St. Run was a different story. Running with both shoes for the entire race, Haines blew away the competition, finishing in 15:14, a full 18 seconds ahead of Lansdale Catholic’s Kevin Day, who had passed Haines with less than a lap to go.
“I stayed with him and then we made another turn with about a half mile left,” he said, “and I went and passed him and just kept pulling away. After that he dropped back. I was really happy. It was the first big invite I won.”
“He got stronger and stronger,” said Horrocks.
In the final 200-meter straightaway, Haines turned on the afterburners.
“He just started cranking it,” said Horrocks. “It’s been his work ethic. He’s been working his butt off.”
Haines was Horrock’s first overall winner in his nine years at Neshaminy.
“He had a great run,” said Horrocks. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve had in a long time.”
And that was certainly a consideration when Horrocks named Haines a captain.
“He takes charge in practice,” said the coach. “It’s helped him because it brought him out of his shell. It’s given him more encouragement internally. Everything he does is full tilt.”
“I lead the warmups and the stretches and motivate the team,” he said. “There are a few guys on the team that aren’t as enthusiastic about running as I am, so I have to keep them up on the workouts. It’s not too bad.”
After playing basketball and baseball growing up, Haines started track in seventh grade because a “few friends” were doing it.
“I never ran before that,” he said.
Despite his inexperience, he clocked a 6:36 mile in his first season on the track.
In ninth grade at the high school, he dropped that to 4:58.
“Ever since then I’ve been getting better,” said Haines. “This year I want to be in the 4:20s and qualify for districts, but I have to finish cross country first.”
After a disappointing district meet last year, Haines has his sights set on Hershey this year.
“I kind of burned out toward the end of the season,” he said. “I had a good middle of the season. I wasn’t happy at all with districts and leagues. I know I can do a lot better this year. My main goal this year is to qualify for states.”
Haines is planning on running in college. His list of schools includes University of Maryland Baltimore, DeSales, Bloomsburg, West Chester, East Stroudsburg and Muhlenberg.
As a career he plans on majoring as a physician’s assistant or nurse.
“I’ve always liked the human body,” he said. “I wasn’t looking to become a doctor in 10 years. All those colleges have some variation of that.”
Haines’ goal this year is to win every invitational. On Saturday, he will try for his second title at the Briarwood Invitational.
Briarwood is one of his favorite courses. It was the first invitational he ever won a medal.
“Ever since my sophomore year, I’ve had good races at Briarwood,” he said. “Hopefully I can keep that up this year.”
Winning Mill St. is only going to motivate him more.
“It will do wonders for him,” said Horrocks. “He’s determined.”
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