Rolando ramps up Raiders

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Track and field practices at Huntley were longer and much more difficult this spring. And nobody was complaining.

“We were a young team and had almost everybody coming back,” junior Casey Popenfoose said. “We sort of knew what we had to do.”

Huntley entered the season as a program without much tradition. It ended the year, its second under coach Jim Rolando, as one of the top area boys teams, one which threatened to bring Jacobs’ string of four consecutive Fox Valley Conference championships to a halt.

Eventually, Jacobs won its fifth straight FVC title, but the Red Raiders made their presence known. They were the most improved boys team in the area, moving from eighth to second in the FVC, and Rolando is the Northwest Herald Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year, selected by the sports staff with input from local coaches.

“We had a good group of guys that work hard and they bought into the working together thing,” Rolando said. “It’s a close-knit group, they’re a good group of friends on and off the track. My role was to keep things moving. We had a lot of fun. I tried to spend a lot of time really paying attention to details.”

Two years ago, Huntley finished 10th in both the FVC and McHenry County meets. Last year, the Raiders were sixth in the county and eighth in the FVC, with 34 and 24 points respectively.

This year they were a solid third in the county meet with 79 points – behind Cary-Grove (99) and Jacobs (96) – and took second in the FVC with 97 points. Jacobs won with 106 1/2.

Rolando shares the credit with his assistants Jack Towne, Joel Popenfoose and Chris Maxedon, who allow him to concentrate on sprints and other details. A high school runner at Carlinville, Rolando loves to talk the sport with people like former Oregon (Ill.) coach Art Carlson (with whom Rolando worked) and current Dundee-Crown coach Tom Smith.

Rolando also scours the Internet looking for training techniques and other ways to help his athletes.

“He really just kept us all together and we kept training hard for the end of the season,” junior Todd Farbiak said. “It started paying off. We’re hoping to keep practicing hard for next year and hopefully move up even more.”

That will be a strong possibility. Huntley has caught up to other FVC schools with enrollment and will return most of its major scorers – with the exception of thrower Jim Theologes – next season.

“I think it’s a mixture of [Rolando] recruiting and all the individuals recruiting too,” Casey Popenfoose said. “It was big when [sprinter] Nick Oates came out. Hopefully we can get more guys out like that next year.”

Huntley has reached the point where recruiting should no longer be a chore.

“For two years in a row, the day before the conference meet, I had one of our varsity guys say, ‘I can’t believe the season’s over,’ ” Rolando said. “I liked to hear that. These kids have bought into the aspect of working hard and paying attention to details. They really did that and they were awesome.”