Wildcats' Porcari is No 'Average Joe'

Every middle school athletic team manager out there who yearns to someday trade in the clipboard for a spot on the roster could learn an inspirational lesson from Joe Porcari.

Team manager was exactly Porcari's title in the spring of his seventh-grade year at East Middle School when he handled a series of non-competitive tasks for the track team's coaches.

"I couldn't run for the track team in seventh grade because of an injury, so I was the team manager," Porcari reflected. "When I tried out for the team in eighth grade, everybody thought I'd be bad because I was the team manager the year before."

Everybody was wrong.

Once Porcari was healthy, it didn't take him long to show his stuff. A long-time soccer player, he quicky established  himself as one of the school's top distance runners.

Now,  less than four years later, he is an enduring figure on the state's high school distance-running map, having run a personal-best 5K time of 16:05, which ranks him among the state's top-12 runners.

It wouldn't surprise Plymouth head coach Jon Mikosz if his talented senior captain earns a top-10 finish at the Division 1 state meet next month.

"From a coach's standpoint, it's great to have someone with Joe's ability on the team," said Mikosz, a former top-flight distance runner. "He's not only a talented runner, but he listens to what the coaches are telling him. He knows what's going on out there.

"Prior to this year, he kind of just went with the flow of the race. Now, he knows he's a No. 1 guy, so he doesn't sit back in the pack any more. He takes the race over from the start and never lets down."

Mikosz praised Porcari's leadership skills.

"Overall, Joe's pretty quiet, but he's vocal when he needs to be," said Mikosz. "He knows how to get his point across."

Porcari's high school cross country career got a delayed start, shelved temporarily by his passion for soccer.

"I decided to play soccer instead of run cross country my freshmen year in high school," he said. "But when my sophomore year came around, it came down to trying out for the JV soccer team or running on the varsity cross country team. I picked cross country."

And Mikosz, for one, is glad he did.

The Wildcats have not lost a dual meet -- they're 15-0 -- in Porcari's three years on the varsity squad.

"Coach Mikosz definitely knows what he's talking about," Porcari said. "He ran in college, so he has a lot of experience as far as knowing what we need to do to succeed.

"For instance, he knows that running hard all the time isn't good. Other teams run more than us during the season, but we only run about 30 miles a week, so we're fresh when we need to be."

Porcari said his change of strategy this fall is one reason he's been able to clip 10 seconds off last season's personal-best clocking of 6:15.

"Last year I was more cautious when it came to attacking," he said. "This year I'm going out hard right away."

Like all runners, Porcari has days when he'd rather be chilling than lacing up the ASICS and hitting the trails.

"Those are the days when the support of your teammates helps you," he said. "There are days when you're sick and you just don't feel like getting out there, but you have to do it anyway."

Porcari's running skills match his academic prowess. The owner of a 4.06 grade-point average, he's received letters of interest from several collegiate cross country programs, including Madonna University and Cornerstone.

"I'd like to run in college, but I'm going to college to get an education first, so I won't let running interfere with that."

  Here are some of Joe Porcari's favorite things...

FAVORITE MEAL: Pasta

FAVORITE BRAND OF RUNNING SHOES: For training, I prefer ASICS, but I like Nike spikes better for competition.

HOW MANY PAIR OF RUNNING SHOES DO YOU OWN: Six

FAVORITE MOVIE: "Shawshank Redemption"

FAVORITE TV SHOW: "Chuck"

FAVORITE CLASS: AP Government last year with Mrs. Bennett.

ROLE MODEL: My dad (Joseph)