Shorthanded Kewps set for season

The Hickman track and field team’s first meet without former coach Steve Luetjen will also be without a lot of key runners. This weekend’s Missouri Relays coincides with spring break and vacation time for many of the competing high schools.

Hickman runners remaining in Columbia showed up for morning practice Wednesday and Thursday during their school break. Standing in 60 degree sunshine wearing shorts and sun glasses, Luetjen’s replacement, coach Steve Kissane, looked around a near-empty track.

“We don’t have a full squad this week,” Kissane said. “But we knew that’d be the situation when the meet fell on spring break.”

Hickman’s first scheduled meet at Rock Bridge was cancelled March 21 because of bad weather. Kissane said the runners still in town would benefit from the extra week of practice.

“It’s nice to have an additional week,” he said. “We’ll have some holes in the lineup, but we’re a young group to begin with so a lot of (the runners) could probably use a little more time.”

Junior runner Elizabeth Hughes said the Kewpies lost a lot of experience to graduation and the roster now consists of mostly underclassmen. She said she didn’t think this would be a problem at the Missouri Relays, however.

“We’re young but we’ve tried really hard this week,” Hughes said. “We all seem to be really hard workers.”

The runners Hickman will miss most this season include Tim Cornell, the 1600-meter state champion two years in a row, and Stewart Denson, who was seventh in the long jump at last year’s state meet.

Of the experienced runners Hickman did return, not all will be able to help the Kewpies in the Missouri Relays. Among the missing are seniors Hannah Hassemer, who is vacationing in Belize, and JaBarbara Jennings, who is visiting relatives out of town. Missing athletes also left holes in the boys’ 4x100- and 4x200-meter relays.

Kissane said that though the meet wouldn’t be an accurate preview of the rest of the season, he didn’t think the absent players would handicap Hickman’s performance.

“It’s nothing that other schools don’t have to go through also, so it’s not a unique situation,” he said. “(In every meet) you’re bound to have areas where you’re stronger and not as strong. We’re a young team now and we’re going to be a young team in May. That’s just one of the things that we’re faced with.”

Something else the team is faced with is the recent coaching transition. Luetjen stepped down from his position at the end of last season after 15 years as head coach. Kissane, Hickman’s cross country coach of 22 years and the track and field coach before Luetjen, reclaimed the position at the beginning of the year. Kissane said the departure of Luetjen might be the biggest battle the team will contend with all season.

“We’re saddened by it, but change is inevitable in sports and life,” he said. “The kids and the staff, we all miss Steve. That’s been the biggest adjustment that the returning athletes have had to get used to.”

Kissane, who assisted Luetjen for 12 years, said it will be an adjustment for him as much as anyone else.

“Coach Luetjen was so great to work for,” he said. “What I got from Steve is his great perspective that I might have not had when I first entered coaching. (He is) a great steadying presence.”

Kissane said he is eager for the new season, but he will also miss his sharing the experience with Luetjen.

“What I guess I’ll miss most are those times where it’s late in the meet, we’ve been up since five o’clock that morning, it’s been a long bus ride, out in the sun all day and we’re down to the last two or three events before we load up, and we’re tired, we’re hungry, and we’re getting a little giddy. Those are the times that we’ll probably think of the first road meet that we go on where it’s two or three more events to go and we load up and head for home because those were probably the most enjoyable moments with him.”

Hughes remembered the pressure Luetjen would put on his runners to succeed. Although she said she misses him, she doesn’t miss his tough workouts, especailly the “stadiums” which involves running up and down the bleachers surrounding the Hickman football field.

“He was harsh, but he means well,” Hughes said. “Tough love, that’s what he gave us.”

Kissane said that though they all miss Luetjen, the season is what they should focus on.

“I told the squad at the first of the year,” Kissane said, “that the best way we can honor coach Luetjen is with our best effort this year and build on everything that we’ve learned from him.”