TOP: The Harrison boys’ cross country team competed at the Shore Conference
Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park Saturday for the first time. Front row,
from l., are Joshua Vinanzaca, Jorge Moreno, Luis Vivaldo and Nestor Guzman.
Back row, from l., are head coach Paul Kartanowicz, Alexis Vinanzaca, Michael
Mendez, Russell Kennedy, Brandon Alves and assistant coach Carlee Sobotka.
BOTTOM: The Harrison girls’ cross country team gets together after finishing
the course at Holmdel Park. Kneeling, from l., Yeisy Rojas, Ashley Cisneros and
Salma Mohamed. Standing, from l., are head coach Paul Kartanowicz, Kimberly
Merino, Andrea DeOliveira, Olivia Bredamus, Ashley Otoya and assistant coach
Carlee Sobotka.
Although he’s an accomplished musician and drummer for a jazz band that played all sorts of venues in Manhattan, Paul Kartanowicz always envisioned himself as being a cross country coach.
“I still race competitively, but I wanted to be able to coach kids,” said Kartanowicz, who still gives private music lessons as well. “It’s what I wanted to do.”
Kartanowicz grew up in Lyndhurst and went to Queen of Peace High School, where he was a member of the cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams for four years, eventually becoming the Golden Griffins’ team captain as a senior in 1998.
He then headed across the Passaic River to Newark and attended Rutgers-Newark, where he was also a member of the cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams and where he majored in music.
Upon graduation from Rutgers-Newark, Kartanowicz continued to run on his own, completing 11 marathons, including the Boston Marathon a few times.
Kartanowicz’s wife Amanda is a teacher in the Harrison school district, working at the middle school. She told Paul about the opening for an assistant coach with the fledgling Harrison cross country program.
Kartanowicz was an assistant for one season and was elevated to the position of head coach to begin this season.
“We had a meeting in May and a good amount of kids came to the meeting to show interest,” Kartanowicz said. “I said that there were going to be tryouts, that kids weren’t automatically going to be on the team. That might have scared away some kids, but I ended up with a bunch of seriously dedicated kids, hard working kids who want to learn and want to get better.”
Kartanowicz was excited by the kids’ willingness to learn and take on the tough challenge of becoming a decent distance runner.
“I was impressed with the way they showed up,” Kartanowicz said. “I told them that we were not there to clown around, that they were going to have to work.”
So Kartanowicz had the team taking to the streets in the summer heat in August, which isn’t exactly an easy task to ask teenagers to do.
“These kids were putting in some serious mileage,” said Kartanowicz, who must have run 30-to-40 miles a day alongside the aspiring harriers. “They didn’t complain once. They just put their noses to the grindstone. I told them that they needed to enjoy the sport in order to give 100%.”
Right away, Kartanowicz knew he had the makings of a team. He didn’t know how competitive the Blue Tide would be.
“It just showed me the type of kid that we had,” Kartanowicz said. “We come from a small school that has repeated state champions in soccer. Over and over again, our soccer teams put their blood, sweat and tears into it. Well, why can’t we do the same in cross country? We just needed to gain some momentum for the future.”
It also helps that when the kids train, Kartanowicz is right there with them every step of the way.
“They know I’m a runner,” Kartanowicz said. “We took buses to go run at Garret Mountain (in Woodland Park) and I was right there next to them and encouraging them. I’m also training at the same time, but I’m also trying to motivate them.”
When Kartanowicz was younger, he aspired to be a hockey player or a wrestler.
“Run track? Never,” Kartanowicz said.”I found the sport by accident. Almost all do. I went to practice and said, ‘I’ll try it.’ I’ve been running ever since.”
It’s been 20 years since Kartanowicz first gave running a try.
“Eleven marathons later, I’m still at it,” said Kartanowicz, who once finished the Boston Marathon in 2:56.
But it helps to have a guy who knows so much about the sport.
“I was just like them once,” Kartanowicz said. “I was just learning.”
The Harrison cross country program makes its way toward respectability and took a huge step Saturday when both the boys’ team and the girls’ team competed at the prestigious Shore Conference Coaches Invitational at the famed Holmdel Park with the dreaded “Bowl” portion of the race.
“I’d be shortchanging the kids if I didn’t take them to Holmdel,” Kartanowicz said. “I told them that this was the one course that they should want to know, because the Group championships are held here. I had no delusions that we were going to win. But maybe next year or the year after, we’ll be able to do something.”
Last Friday, the Harrison harriers all got together for a team meeting. There, they saw on YouTube some firsthand encounters with “The Bowl.”
“I didn’t want them to be scared by it,” Kartanowicz said. “Now, they’ll have fond memories of it. When I first ran there, I hated it, but it really is an amazing place.”
Among the boys, sophomore Luis Vivaldo was 73rd in the Varsity Boys E race, crossing the line in 19:29. Alexis Vinanzaca was 84th in 19:44.
“They’re both sophomores and they’re developing a little rivalry, which is good,” Kartanowicz said. “Luis finally finished ahead of Alexis. I think they’re both really talented kids with bright futures.”
In the girls’ race, Yeisy Rojas was 67th in a little over 26 minutes.
“One of the seniors, Talissa Torres, never ran before,” Kartanowicz said. “But she finished. She had a tough time finishing in time trials. Freshman Olivia Bredamus doesn’t even know how good she can be. We’ve really made strides in everything. I’m hoping that two years, five years, 10 years from now, we can look back and say, ‘Wow, look how far we’ve come.’ There’s so much potential here.”
Sounds like Kartanowicz is in it for the long haul.
“It doesn’t feel like work, being with the kids,” Kartanowicz said. “It makes me excited to come home to my wife and my son.”
Kartanowicz’s son’s name? It’s so fitting. He’s Miles – as in the distance a runner runs and as in Miles Davis, the jazz legend.
“I said to my wife that this is what I was born to be doing,” Kartanowicz said. “It’s what I always wanted to do. It’s coming along quite nicely.”
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Jim Hague | Observer Sports Writer
Sports Writer Jim Hague was with The Observer for 20+ years — and his name is one of the most recognizable in all of sports journalism. The St. Peter’s Prep and Marquette alum kicked off his journalism career post Marquette at the Daily Record, where he remained until 1985. Following shorts stints at two other newspapers, in September 1986, he joined the now-closed Hudson Dispatch, where he remained until 1991, when its doors were finally shut.
It was during his tenure at The Dispatch that Hague’s name and reputation as one of country’s hardest-working sports reporters grew. He won several New Jersey Press Association and North Jersey Press Club Awards in that timeframe.
In 1991, he became a columnist for The Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers — and he remains with them to this day.
In addition to his work at The Observer and The Hudson Reporter, Hague is also an Associated Press stringer, where he covers Seton Hall University men’s basketball, New York Red Bulls soccer and occasionally, New Jersey Devils hockey.
He’s also doing work at The Morristown Daily Record, the very newspaper where his journalism career began.
During his career, he also worked for Dorf Feature Services, which provided material for the Star-Ledger. While there, he covered the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets.
Hague is also known for his announcing work — and he’s done PA work for Rutgers Newark and NJIT.
Hague is the author of the book “Braddock: The Rise of the Cinderella Man.”