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| Lake Forest cross country coach Ray Parker gives his runners a pep talk before Wednesday's meet at Killens Pond State Park. Parker and other coaches are determined to carry on the tradition of the Lake Forest Invitational in honor of legendary coach Jim Blades, who died last month. Delaware State News/Doug Curran |
FELTON - He would usually start during the summer.
At least several times during that stretch, Jim Blades would take his clippers
and a saw and head into the woods.
He'd walk the cross country course at Killens Pond State Park, making sure
that everything was just right along the 3.1-mile path.
"He treated that place like home," said Blades' wife, Bonnie. "He'd clip the
bushes to make sure no one would be bumping into bushes. Or he'd have his saw
and he'd take down a branch."
Then, in the days right before the Lake Forest Invitational, Blades would be
out there again putting the finishing touches on the course.
He'd have his Lake Forest runners raking the path while he'd
paint the markers.
But Jim Blades isn't walking through the woods of Killens Pond this week. The
Downstate coaching legend died Aug. 30 at age 57 after a long battle with
cancer.
That will make Saturday's 47th annual running of the Lake Forest Invitational
a bittersweet moment.
For those who knew him, it will be impossible not to think of Blades when
approximately 40 high school teams from five states hit the course at 10 a.m.
At the same time, they know Blades would be happy to know that the event he
loved was still going strong.
"It was tough last year not seeing him doing too well, kind of sitting under a
tent and not being his normal self," said Milford coach Czar Bloom, who ran
for Blades at Lake Forest.
"But, I tell you what, this year it's going to be a lot
different knowing that he's not there at all - except in spirit maybe."
Blades knew he would not be at this year's meet. He was simply too sick.
So about three weeks before he died, the committee that now runs the
invitational met at his bedside.
That group included Bonnie Blades, Lake Forest coach Ray Parker, St. Thomas
More athletic director Rob Karnbach, Dale Hammond, Dave Buck and Chuck Little.
Blades, who could barely speak, went over little things, like making sure the
proceeds from the race would be split between Lake Forest and St. Thomas More,
where he spent the last two years as athletic director.
"The promise was made that it would always be between the two schools and that
we would carry on," said Bonnie Blades.
One thing that was also clear was that Blades didn't want the event named
after him. Lake Forest officials had tried to do that after Blades retired
from the school two years ago.
"He just sort of smiled, looked at me and kind of rolled his eyes," Bonnie
Blades remembered. "Then later on he said, 'We're going to keep it Lake
Forest.'
"I don't think Jim would want that. This is for the kids."
Several years ago, Blades helped redesign the course that the runners will be
competing on Saturday. It's fitting that he left something lasting in cross
country.
While Blades was also a successful track and field coach, his
wife said cross country was closest to his heart.
"It's so amazing to see someone start at a certain point and their main
competition is a clock and themselves," said Bonnie. "He really took a great
thrill out of watching someone cut a lot of time and then figure out how good
they can be. And taking kids like that and making a team from them.
"I mean, he loved track, but I think cross country was his true passion."
"He had a passion about the sport," agreed Bloom. "And he cared for every
single person on the team. He saw potential in every person. Every person on
the team meant something.
"You'd finish a race and he'd simply come up to you with a handshake and say,
'Well done.' It was a very simple thing but it was very real and sincere."
Blades won't be there on Saturday to shake any runners' hands. And he won't be
around to check that everything is run smoothly and that the course is in
perfect condition.
But his friends hope that, between all of them, they can hold a meet that
would make him proud.
"Jim always surrounded himself with a lot of really neat people," said Bonnie.
"We would laugh because he would get the credit because he was the
coordinator. But he always had so much help with everything he did. People
more than willingly helped him."
"It was pride for him to go out there and make that meet the best it possibly
could be," said Bloom. "To make it a meet where 40 teams a year wanted to come
back and race, he took pride in that. . . . It's a big meet - because of all
the effort he poured into it over the years.
"Now the big test is to see if we can continue it being an elite cross country
invitational."
"We want it to go just as smooth as it would be as if he were there," said
Parker. "That's the goal."
So earlier this week, Parker went out on the course at Killens Pond.
He trimmed some shrubs and cut some branches. Everything needs to be just
right for Saturday.
"I just finished it up today doing the exact same thing that he would be
doing," Parker said on Tuesday.
"I've told the kids, out there on the track and even out there on that course,
I said, 'Man, you just don't know how much energy Jim Blades put into all
this. There's something magical about this place.' "