Union Catholic's McCabe has Vikings on Track to the Top

After being a force at the conference and county level in both the winter and the spring seasons for several years now the Union Catholic Vikings winter track team were ready to set their sights even higher. 

Under ninth-year head coach Mike McCabe, who coaches cross-country, winter track and track and field, the team has taken in an impressive amount of hardware. The list includes: five boys cross country conference titles, four winter track and field conference titles, five winter track union county titles, one winter catholic conference championship, three spring track and field championships and one spring union county championship. 

Not bad for a team who struggled to field a full roster before McCabe arrived just under a decade ago. 

This past winter, the Vikings’ boys took the next step and turned in an impressive season that was capped off with a non-public B championship. The team was selected as the Star Ledger’s Union County team of the year. In one set of rankings, ESPN had the Vikings listed as the No. 6 squad in the nation at the conclusion of the winter season.

Senior Allen Eke was also chosen as winter track athlete of the year in a season that culminated in him posting a Meet of Champions record time in the 800. After graduating this spring, Eke will continue his career as a student-athlete for the Oklahoma Sooners.

“Allen is a hard worker and someone who just really loves the sport,” said McCabe. “He never wants to take a day off and is always willing to put in the work. He is a special kid.”

While the Vikings have been a team on the radar for several years now, this past winter proved to be the season in which the Vikings made the jump to a state group champion.  

“I think our success this winter was based on the fact that we were very good everywhere,” said McCabe. “Three or four years ago we didn’t have the hurdlers and had a decent thrower here and there.”

“Now, we have depth all over the place.” 

A realignment to the non-public B bracket for the winter season gave the Union Catholic boys squad the opportunity they were seeking to finally capture a championship at the state level. While the squad certainly could compete in non-public A, McCabe’s squad was the clear-cut favorite in their group this winter.

“Us getting placed into non-pubic B really worked out into our favor,” said McCabe. “So we set out to prove that we were top dog in the group and that we were one of the best squads in the state.”

McCabe’s team did just that, exploding for a state group championship record 127 points on the way to capturing the first championship in the school’s history.

Despite the recent success, the Vikings haven’t always been a powerhouse in the New Jersey track scene and often struggled to get more than 20 athletes on the roster. 

“I think when I started there were 15-20 kids on the spring team and this is now my ninth year and there are 110 kids on the team,” McCabe said. “Getting kids to come out was definitely a part of it, but so was teaching them how to train and helping the athletes set high but attainable goals.” 

“I’m also fortunate that I have had some really quality kids come through in my time, some athletes who played other sports and came out for cross country or track and it really worked for them.” 

Things started to turn around for McCabe’s squad in 2005 when the team began to  compete in a much broader spectrum of events. As McCabe’s tenure with the team grew longer, the team began to build towards the strong and balanced roster that they have featured over the last several years.

“We just started being more competitive without me really even realizing it,” McCabe said. “At the beginning it was just pick a few events that we could score in and it blossomed from there.”

With the weather turning, the team looks to snowball their winter into some more success this spring.The squad once again has set their sights high and hopes to take both the county relay and championship meet as well as the state sectional and group championships. They also have the famed Penn Relays in their sights in either the distance medley or the 4x800.

One challenge for McCabe comes in the way of keeping his team motivated, something he takes a different approach towards then earlier in his career when the Vikings were merely an upstart.  

“I used to be a big ‘give a speech guy’,” McCabe said. “As we have become more talented over the years expectations have changed and getting the team worked up, for the most part, doesn’t really help.”

Instead, McCabe opts to remind his team to stay loose, enjoy the competition and trust the hard work they have put in. This approach has allowed his team to relax amidst whatever nervousness may come along with the pressure of being one of the area’s top squads. 

McCabe also faces the task of keeping his athletes fresh as many of them plan on competing well into the summer. While the team is always shooting to win their collective events, the coach knows that he must keep some guys as fresh as possible well into June.

“Finding the balance can be challenging and it is a fine line for sure,” said McCabe. “We want to win our events because it is a team sport but there are guys like Allen who want to race three or four weeks into the summer so we have to be careful with that.” 

For those clamoring for up to the minute information of the Vikings’ runners, jumpers and throwers, the team offers coverage of all three seasons as well as a Twitter account for the team that provides regular updates. The impressive coverage at uctrack.com is fitting for an equally impressive Vikings’ team who continues to show that the best may have yet to come.

“I used to coach hoops and I loved it but you could get away with having five or six good athletes there,” said McCabe. “Here I need 20-22 athletes to get after it and it’s a special thing.”

“I try to enjoy it. We may not see another group like this for 10-15 years.”