South XC trying to believe

Schoepfer starts with bigger goals

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Brian Schoepfer could be one of the best runners in the state says West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys’ cross country coach Kurt Wayton.
   Schoepfer just has to believe it.
   ”He’s always telling us that,” said Schoepfer, a sophomore with the Pirates. “I hear that a lot.”
   Believing it is a big battle for him given where he’s come from in just a few years. Schoepfer wasn’t even good enough to make his middle school track and field team as a sixth grader, yet he’s come far enough to last year break through as the third finisher for the runner-up Pirates at the Mercer County Championships.
   ”Last year, honestly I had no idea what I could do,” Schoepfer said. “At counties, I ran pretty well. That’s when I started to understand I could really help my team out. If I do what I can do, I could be really good. Now I have to do it even more as the third guy.”
   Schoepfer ran his customary third for the Pirates on Friday, behind teammates Sam Macaluso and Kevin Foy, as they suffered their first Colonial Valley Conference loss to unbeaten rival WW-P North on Friday.
   ”I wish the kids believed in themselves half as much as I do,” Wayton said. “(WW-P) North is a good team. We’re never going to run with teams like that if we don’t take a shot.”
   Schoepfer and the Pirates had wanted to stay with their Knight counterparts later into the race, but the top North runners got away by the mile mark. The Pirates want to believe, but Friday’s loss is something that muddies Wayton’s message.
   ”I guess it is sometimes hard,” Schoepfer said. “You’re training hard day in and day out and your neighbors beat you pretty easily.”
   Schoepfer and the Pirates hope to learn from Friday’s race as they look to the top races coming in the next month. The Mercer County Championships are on Halloween, and the sectionals follow the next week. In each, Schoepfer will continue to try to run with Macaluso and Foy, who are among the top 10 in the county.
   ”I had no expectation of trying to do anything like that this year,” Schoepfer said. “That’s another of my goals — try to be up there with them at the end.”
   Wayton has bigger visions for Schoepfer this season. He saw Schoepfer come on at the end of last season to be the Pirates’ fourth finisher at the Meet of Champions and he finished eighth in the Central Jersey Group IV mile in the outdoor season.
   ”The kid is good and fast,” Wayton said. “He’s got a lot of leg speed. It’s tough to get a kid like that to understand, the next progression is to start running with the guys that are the top sophomores. He could easily be a guy who’s at 16:30 at Holmdel.
   ”He just needs to look in the mirror with a lot more clarity. He’s looking at himself now with some kind of doubt. He has to realize what he’s got.”
   Schoepfer is still coming to grips with a new set of goals for this year. He is eyeing a 16:30 finish as well as finishing in the top 40 at the state meet. It’s already a big leap from 2007.
   ”Last year, there were no expectations,” Schoepfer said. “I was just going with it. Now I’m definitely a bigger part of the team and there’s a lot more responsibility.”
   Schoepfer is hardly alone in moving up for South. The Pirates lost MOC winner Brian Leung, but returned enough to have Wayton confident his team could compete with any team in the state.
   ”They’re a great group of kids,” he said. “It’s the most fun team I’ve had the opportunity to coach. They’re tough. It’s just not coming through in races. It’s up to me to figure out why and fix it.”
   The Pirates’ weekly mileage is still high, and when it comes down as they get into the more important races, Schoepfer expects to see better results. It happened for him over the final four weeks of last year.
   ”It gives me some confidence knowing I can do well in those races,” Schoepfer said. “It gives me a bit of edge knowing that I can compete well in those big races.”
   Since then, Brian Schoepfer has trained harder, run more miles and taken workouts more seriously. And, yes, he’s even starting to believe a bit more.
   ”I’ve come a long way,” he said.