Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
Elías Cruz, 30, followed in the footsteps of his former middle school track coach Shawanda Weems, an English teacher at the Institute for Environmental Learning, or PS/MS 15, in University Heights. Now also an English teacher, Cruz started a middle school track team of his own at The New School for Leadership and the Arts, or MS 244, in Kingsbridge.
Both of the coaches run their teams through the Rising New York Road Runners (NYRR) program, which provides educational resources for coaches like instructional videos and lesson plans, as well as races and bussing to those races. Participants at Title 1 schools — like Cruz’s and Weems’ schools, where at least 40% of students are from low-income families — also get a free pair of New Balance sneakers.
“Road Runners is like a mustard seed, and the resources they were able to supply me as a coach allowed me to water,” Weems said. “Water a bunch of students into these amazing plants that are standing on their own.”
While Cruz’s and Weems’ NYRR sites function as school track teams, the program also provides training to physical education teachers for gym classes, classroom teachers for fitness breaks and counselors for community centers and after-school programs, a NYRR spokesperson told the Bronx Times. There are 800 sites across the country serving more than 112,000 young people from pre-school through 12th grade, and about 50,000 of the program’s participants are based in New York City.
There are 77 NYRR sites in the Bronx, 66 of which are at public schools. The rest are run through charter schools, private schools, community centers, learning centers and after-school programs, a NYRR spokesperson said.
Weems, 47, started her middle school’s NYRR team with another teacher in 2002, at which point the school only offered boys’ basketball for athletics, she said. She has coached the team since, and seen the impact track has had on her students’ lives, including Cruz, who joined her team as a quiet seventh grader in 2007.
Weems recalled some of her colleagues suggesting that Cruz would open up, and as he got more comfortable with the sport, he did. As a high school student, he became a “high school coach” for his former middle school team, and after becoming a teacher in 2018, he started a NYRR program at MS244 in 2021, which previously didn’t have a track program.
Weems didn’t just teach Cruz about running; he also learned lessons about healthy living, teamwork and communication, which he now passes down to his runners.
“You think about sports and you just think about meets and winning and all these things, but you don’t think about the intrinsic and intangible values that you get throughout from valuable lessons about teamwork and camaraderie and leadership and preparation,” he said. ” … and then there’s the things outside of that like how do I eat, what is available to my community and how am I impacted by the choices that are around me?”
Weems and her athletes recently met Cruz’s team at the Run the Bronx race earlier this month.
“You can’t ask for a better moment as a teacher, to have your former assistant, former track student, bring their team to meet your team in the borough that we both run in,” she said. “So that’s pretty cool, and an honor.”
Now — just like Weems saw with Cruz — the young coach has seen his own students blossom.
One student who was quiet and struggling to learn English when he first joined the team is now a top runner with a leadership role. He is also excelling academically and researching how to be on track (no pun intended) to become a college athlete now that he found his voice both in practice and in class, Cruz said.
Weems said she can list off names all day of former students who have excelled in other parts of their lives because of their experiences being part of a track team.
And as much as the runners’ high can help people of all ages de–stress, there is an important requirement: being able to access a pair of running shoes.
The NYRR New Balance sneaker program is helping students whose parents can’t afford a new pair of sneakers safely run who may otherwise have squeezed into or flopped around in the wrong size that was passed down from an older sibling.
In his first year coaching, many students ran with sneakers that either weren’t meant for running or weren’t the correct size, Cruz said. In one example, a top runner told him he couldn’t come to practice anymore because it hurt too much to run.
Prior to the pandemic, Weems had about 45 students on her team, a number that has now shrunk to 23. As her school’s administration changed, her team technically functions as a Good Sheperd Services after-school program, as of this semester. But the transition was seamless, as Weems already leads another NYRR program at Good Sheperd Services for kindergarteners through fifth graders, which serves 163 kids.
While Cruz’s team — which has about 45 students — is hosted through his school, counselors at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center help athletes with academic support and leadership skills, and even join on runs, Cruz said.
The Public Schools Athletic League, (PSAL) which is the city Department of Education (DOE) high school sports program, has 51 high school outdoor track and field teams in the Bronx, none of which partner with NYRR, a DOE spokesperson told the Bronx Times. With PSAL, students at schools without a team can try out at a nearby school.
Meanwhile, there are just six middle schools with running programs in the Bronx this season through the city’s elementary and middle school sports program called CHAMPS, the spokesperson said. But NYRR brings running programs to 25 more Bronx schools, she said.
“While our story may be unique, it is indicative of what happens when you have a program that’s based in just not getting students to do academic excellence but that they are empowered to embrace physical fitness and healthy lifestyles and healthy choices,” Weems said.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
