Rich Tradition Paves Way For Salesianum DE Cross Country

By Brian Towey of DyeStat

Saturday's Delaware state cross country championships means another chance for the boys from Salesianum to lace up and for for another Division 1 cross country title. 

Salesianum, an all-boys Catholic school of 1,000 students, occupies a unique space in East coast running culture. 

The Sallies have won 46 of the 52 Delaware Division 1 titles since 1966. 

 "It's right off Route 95," coach Mike LoSapio said. "I'm from (the New York Metropolitan area). "I ran at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Delaware was a place you passed on your way to Maryland."

 The location of Salesianum makes is part of what makes it interesting. Students come from four states. 

"It's just where the school is," said Lo Sapio, who has coached the Sallies for 15 years. "We can pull from four states. We're 18 miles from New Jersey. Twelve miles from Pennsylvania. Twenty-five miles from Maryland. Some kids have a longer commute to their public school than this private school."

Coming from Morristown, N.J. and running at La Salle with two Salesianum teammates, LoSapio had an inkling of what running in Delaware meant. But it wasn't until he took a job teaching religion at the DeSalesian-themed school in Wilmington that he understood it.

"It's kind of fun because we're from Delaware," Lo Sapio said. "We kind of fly under the radar. The schools in New York and New Jersey everyone knows. Some people ask, 'Where's your state?' A lot of people don't know how to say Salesianum."

With 101 runners at the Manhattan College Invitational in October, Salesianum's passion bled through. 

But for harriers who take the school's colors (10 percent of students run cross country), it takes on a different element.

"This is a family," Lo Sapio said. "They call it a brotherhood. At our school, it's unbelievable. We have freshman and senior buddies. Mike Keehan (our top runner) does it. It's a social thing. It's the second day. So right away our freshmen feel like, 'I'm part of the family.'"

Salesianum put two runners in the top 10 at the Eastern States Championship at Manhattan, Keehan (fourth, 12:30.5)  and fellow senior Sean Banko (ninth, 12:42.0). Following an eighth place finish at NXR Southeast last fall, the Sallies hope to be in the mix again. 

It's a tradition grounded in humility. With a diverse base of students culled from many different backgrounds, Salesianum draws students, and runners, from all walks.

"It's a really low price tag," Lo Sapio said. "The priests, they raise a lot of money to help kids go there. You'll see a parking lot with a BMW and then a truck with ladders on it, because (that dad) is an electrician."

It's also a draw for brainy students. Banko, a senior, will study Aeronautical Space Engineering, or rocket science, at Georgia Tech or Texas A&M.

"Salesianum cross country is a special team, in part because we have 103 students on our roster out of around 1,000 students at Salesianum," Banko said. "The size of our team serves as a constant reminder that we are running for something bigger than ourselves, and the resulting atmosphere is unlike any other cross country team.  We do our best to use that size to our advantage in races and work together as a pack."

The team hasn't lost a dual meet since 1993.

The school's soccer and lacrosse teams are nationally ranked. It's a cachet that, again, falls back on location.

"For cross country, we train in Chester County (Penn.) at Ramsey Farms (4.5 miles away)," Lo Sapio said. "It's horse country. You've heard of West Chester-Henderson High School? They're really good.

"For NXR, we'll be called Ramsey Road. That's where we run. It's 25 miles worth of bridal paths. It's country. Horse farms. It's like, 'This place is awesome.'"

For a program that aspires to national recognition, Salesianum, a regular in the Penn Relays 4x800 and distance medley relays, will continue going to Cary, N.C.. Last season's eighth place finish was promising (Sallies has finished as high as seventh), and with Keehan, a 9:05 3,200-meter talent, Banko, and a program wreathed in pride, Sallies are gearing up for their next step.

It begins with another state meet on Saturday.