(Photo courtesy of BCR)
2008 BCR RUNNER OF THE YEAR The Scott Janusick File: State medalist, 24th place in 1A 1st place Seneca Regional 1st place NCIC Lincoln 4th place Aurora SectionalScott Janusick Named BCR Harrier of the Year
by Chris Yucus- BCR
November 28, 2008
Made in the Shade
Janusick one cool runner
By Chris Yucus
cyucus@bcrnews.com
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:33 PM CST
SPRING VALLEY — While on the course, Scott Janusick is known for
his sense of style as well as his speed.
Always sporting sunglasses, Janusick is easily identifiable in another way — he’s at the front of the pack.
“It’s just a thing I have, and it’s kind of my trademark now, I guess,” Janusick chuckled when asked about his fashionable lenses.
The shades help Janusick not only improve his cool factor, but serve a technical function as well, helping to stop the wind from drying out his contact lenses.
The Hall sophomore harrier had a tremendous season that culminated with a medal at the Class A state meet, coming in 24th with a time of 15:45. He is just the fifth Hall Red Devil to earn all-state honors and now becomes the first to earn BCR Runner of the Year honors.
Janusick who placed first at the Seneca Regional at 16:38, and fourth in the Aurora Sectionals at 15:33, was also the first ever Hall harrier to win at the NCIC conference meet, which he accomplished with a time of 16:30.
For Janusick, the groundwork for getting to the state race was laid this summer. Running multiple miles nearly every day in the offseason provided him with the tools to accomplish his goal of making state.
“My longest runs were on Sundays, I ran anywhere from eight to 15 miles on that day, throughout the week it was anywhere from five to 10,” Janusick said.
“If you want to get better at anything you have to work, and that’s what separates the average, ordinary athlete, the kid who just wants to participate, and the kid who wants to excel and be really good,” Hall coach Tom Keegan said.
“Obviously, he’s got that natural ability, but he worked very hard to develop it, and he’s going to continue to do so in the next two years,”
Janusick credits his dad, Jeff, for helping instill his work ethic.
“He’s done a lot for me over the past year, he really motivates me to want to train harder and get better,” he said.
Janusick’s father even helps serve as a nutritionist of sorts for his son.
“He looks up a lot of stuff on the Internet on good diets,” Janusick said.
One piece of pertinent advice dad has given him: “Lay off the sweets.”
With two more years in the fold for the Red Devils, Keegan looks to Janusick to be a motivator for the other members of the team.
“Hopefully, he can drag everybody else with him. I’m sure he probably opened some eyes with his teammates this year. They got the general sense that Scott got a lot of recognition, and deservedly so, but it just didn’t come to him. He worked to achieve it.”
Janusick said running with former Red Devil Mike Miroux helped him understand what it takes to be a top notch performer. Miroux, who placed ninth at state last year for Hall and now runs for Mt. Mercy College, passed the torch of team leadership to Janusick after graduating.
“He taught me a lot just with his work ethic all of last year. He trained really hard over the summer,” Janusick said.
Keegan said that not a lot of people predicted the kind of year that Janusick would have.
“He came in, probably, underneath everybody’s radar,” said Keegan.
However, with his stellar sophomore season now in the books, Janusick has a big blip on the state cross country scene.
“I want to pick up where I left off and, hopefully, go further at state, just work off of what I did this year and, hopefully, improve a little bit more,” Janusick said about his goals for next year.
Whatever he manages to accomplish, people will definitely see it coming next year.
“Obviously, now everybody knows about him. He’s no secret,” Keegan said.
