New Gulf coach resumes chosen career

By JOEY KNIGHT

NEW PORT RICHEY - The knees that once operated like pistons during an All-American running career are shot. Brian Schmit lapped his prime years ago. Now, he lags.

Even at Gulf High - hardly a boys cross country juggernaut - Schmit, 40, is always behind the pack of Bucs runners.

Every step of the way.

``He's there with us,'' Bucs junior Tommy Accaria said of his new coach. ``Each and every one of us.''

Schmit passionately coaxed and cajoled each of his runners across the finish line at last week's season-opening meet at Wesley Chapel, where the Bucs boys finished a surprising second.

It was a defibrillation of sorts, each syllable of encouragement sending a surge of life into a program that recently has languished. Schmit urged his kids to finish hard as they grimaced through the last 100 yards. He counseled them following their cool- down.

And he beamed afterward.

``We have a team,'' he said, smiling.

One wonders if the team, in turn, realizes what it has.

Cross Country - Literally

Schmit's assumption of the Gulf boys coaching reins is the cross country equivalent of ex-Super Bowl participant Ryan Benjamin returning to coach River Ridge's long snappers, or Zephyrhills' David Eiland descending from the big leagues to become Bulldogs pitching coach.

A 1982 graduate of Clearwater Countryside, Schmit once held the nation's fastest high school time in the mile (4 minutes, 10 seconds), and won the Big Ten title in the 1,000 meters at Minnesota. His school-record time in that event (2:23) still stands.

He later spent more than a decade in coaching, assisting Bob Braman with the USF men's cross country and track teams from 1988 to 1992, before taking over programs at Tennessee-Martin and Concordia (Minn.).

He is, essentially, overqualified for Gulf.

Not to mention overjoyed.

After a few years running his own real estate business, Schmit is back at his natural vocation. He teaches history during the school day and tries rewriting Gulf's in the afternoons, running vicariously through mostly unrefined legs and lungs.

``I quit coaching, but then I realized [real estate] is not me,'' the father of two said. ``I need to coach, and I need to teach.''

Braman, now the men's cross country and track coach at FSU, calls Schmit a ``true coaching addict.''

``He's 24-7,'' Braman said. ``He doesn't go through states of depression. Brian can see where things are going to be, not just where they are. He has that twinkle in his eye and has excitement.''

In a brief period, he has made that excitement contagious.

Making A Splash

These days, Gulf's practices are a veritable smorgasbord of cardiovascular exertion. One day, the Bucs might engage in a ``fun run,'' with push-ups and jumping jacks incorporated at different points of the workout. The next, they might go swimming at a local water hole.

``I'm a big believer that the way to improve as a runner is to run,'' Schmit said. ``But with these other things, they're not just pounding the pavement every single day.''

The kids have responded.

Though the six-team Wesley Chapel meet hardly represented a gauge of how the 2004 season will transpire, Schmit had to be encouraged. Three of his runners - Accaria, Justin Rood and Eric Paracko - finished in the top eight.

``To have him is really nice,'' said Accaria, the team's No. 1 runner. ``He's there with us, each and every one of us. He's not just, `Oh, you go run this.' ''

Saturday's meet at Crews Lake Park - on Pasco County's northern fringe - will provide a more accurate barometer of Schmit's team. With a larger field, flaws could be exposed. Even Schmit admits many of his runners are still learning how to train.

``It's far away from college, but we're starting fresh,'' he said.

Again, Schmit betrays the smile of someone doing exactly what he wants, where he wants.

His team could be years from a conference title. But never has an uphill climb seemed like such a fun run.

``I wanted to get back in this area and have some nice weather,'' he said. ``So it all kind of worked out.''