All-American Shay is most decorated runner in Irish history
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Senior Staff Writer
One look at his résumé quickly makes it obvious why the Michigan license plate on Ryan Shay's car reads "U.S. SHAY".
With eight All-American finishes under his belt already and a chance to add two more later this month, Shay is the most decorated runner in the history of an Irish track and field program that was once coached by Knute Rockne.
Shay, who competed in the 2000 Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters, won that event at last year's NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Notre Dame's first individual national champion outdoors since 1954. He earned All-America honors in the 5,000 meters during both the indoor and outdoor seasons as well as two All-America finishes in cross country.
With that list of accomplishments, it was not difficult to select Shay as The Observer's 2001-2002 Outstanding Notre Dame Senior Male Athlete. Not as simple, though, is telling Shay's story.
Shay was not one of the nation's top recruits following four successful seasons at Central Lake High School in Northern Michigan. While he placed first at the state cross-country meet all four years and won seven state titles in track, Shay — whose graduating class numbered 26 — only competed against other small Class D schools.
"I think he felt that he had a lot to prove coming in as a freshman," said Irish head coach Joe Piane.
Something to prove
The first time Luke Watson and Pat Conway saw Shay run, the didn't exactly see a runner they would expect to become a captain by his junior season.
It was the 1997 National Catholic Invitational, Shay's first home meet of his collegiate career. Shay took it out hard from the start, leading the race by a wide margin from end to end. That was the way Shay always ran in high school, so he thought nothing of doing the same in college.
But some of the older Irish runners who weren't competing that day thought Shay should have stayed back and run with the other Notre Dame runners. And they yelled at him to do so throughout the race. Finally around the two-mile mark, Shay had had enough.
"I got upset and I just flipped them off," Shay explained. "It just happened that Pat Conway and Luke Watson were on their recruit visits that day standing next to those guys."
While Shay, who trained for the 10,000-meters in high school, was more than physically prepared for Notre Dame when he arrived that fall, his mental expectations were different.
"I thought as a runner, if you're running at the NCAA I level, you're there to run because you want to try to become like the elite," Shay said.
But not all of the Irish runners shared Shay's enthusiasm. They didn't go out as hard in practice. And some didn't seem to regard track and cross-country as priority No. 1, which irked Shay at first but he later came to understand.
"I realized that that's not the goal of everyone out there running, especially at a school like Notre Dame where athletes are coming here to get an education and their passion is maybe in their major, to get a job or whatever," Shay said.
Shay's frustration continued into his sophomore year. By that time the senior leaders from the cross-country team had graduated, and the team performed below Shay's expectations. Whereas Shay advanced to the NCAA Championship race with his team as a freshman, he had to qualify individually as a sophomore.
"We had no leadership on the team," Shay said. "The guys who were the leaders were seniors who already graduated and the seniors that year weren't really leadership material. I was still just a sophomore, I was still in that state where I was really individually focused."
By Shay's junior season, he knew that if the team was to perform at the level he expected, he had to take some of the leadership role upon himself.
"I realized that if I really want to make a difference in this program, I can't just do it by example," Shay said. "You have to motivate other people, communicate with them, help them out. Let them feel like this is a team, like everyone counts."
It was a decision that helped the team, which returned to the NCAA Championships with the same core of runners as the previous year. And it was a change that ultimately helped Shay.
"When you're just thinking about what you need to do individually, you can get caught up in that too much," Shay said. "Its almost like you're putting too much pressure on yourself. When you spread that out amongst some of your teammates, it's less stress on you."
These days, Shay shares an apartment with teammates Watson, Nate Andrulonis and Sean Zanderson. And he regards their friendship as one of his most important memories of Notre Dame.
"We feel comfortable communicating with each other, letting each other know what's going in on in our lives," Shay said. "I'm always going to be there for them and they're always going to be there for me."
Leaving a legacy
When Shay started looking for a place to run in college, he looked for a mix of academics and athletics. Wake Forest, Tulane and Stanford were among the schools on his list. But Shay, who grew up with his friends and family cheering for Michigan and Michigan State, never thought about Notre Dame.
"I probably wouldn't have even considered Notre Dame if Coach Piane hadn't called me because I wasn't a Notre Dame fan growing up," Shay said.
But when he arrived, Shay, who was coached by his father in high school, found that Piane's coaching philosophy differed greatly from that of his father, who had already helped four of Shay's older siblings earn college scholarships.
Shay wanted to go out hard and treat every lap in practice like it was the final turn at the Olympics. Piane was more cautious.
But working with Piane, whose athletes have earned All-America status 40 times in his 27 years at Notre Dame, soon began to pay off for Shay.
At the Big East Cross Country Championship in New York City during Shay's junior season, Keith Kelly of Providence took a dominating lead from the start. Shay wanted to catch up with him, but Piane kept urging Shay to stay back, counting on Kelly falling behind later.
On the final hill, Kelly — who won the NCAA Championship in cross-country a year later — did drop back, and Shay caught and passed him for his first and only first-place Big East finish.
"I think Coach Piane taught me that in my racing to be patient, that some races are tactical and its not always the best strategy to go right to the front as hard as you can from the start to finish," Shay said.
Junior year was also around the time when Shay started to become a student of the sport. He read books by various experts in distance running and soon was suggesting different workouts to Piane.
"At first he'd be like, `Well okay, we'll do this workout, we'll see how you feel and if you want to do more you can do more,'" Shay said.
As time went on, Piane began to work with Shay to adapt the team's workouts to those Shay designed for himself. Shay also began spending more and more time in Piane's office suggesting practices.
"Sometimes I have a hard time getting Ryan to leave the office," Piane said. "He's here as a lot. That's good, I would rather have that as a problem than trying to pull kids in."
"I think that's great to have a coach that will work with you like that and listen," Shay added. "A lot of coaches will be like, `It's my way or no way, you have no input.' I'm just not that type of athlete, I like to have a hand in everything I do."
Piane also points out the difference Shay has made for the program in setting the bar for the team's younger athletes.
"I think it'll have a positive effect for years to come because the new kids are going to learn from the old kids, who learned from Ryan," Piane said.
After the NCAA Championships, Shay plans on pursuing a professional running career — hiring an agent and signing on with a shoe company to sponsor him. Whoever he signs with, he plans on heading to Chula Vista, Calif., and working out at the ARCO Olympic training center.
Piane, for one, is excited to see Shay compete at the next level, be in in the 10,000-meters, or the marathon.
"Notre Dame should take great pride in this kid when he makes the Olympic team," Piane said.
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002
