(*Note A shorter version of this story appeared in another publication)
When he was a mere nine-year-old Sergey Sushchikh had already found himself in a transition period. One year removed from coming to this country from St. Petersburg Russia, his family was relocating to Goleta. Yet instead of struggling with the language, he thrived in many aspects thanks to some great teachers and friends who embraced him. Eight years later, another group of friends and teachers have brought him into the comfort zone once again. Only instead of the language barrier being conquered, it was a possible championship.
On Saturday, Sushchikh will try to lead the Dos Pueblos boys cross country team to its highest CIF Southern Section Division placing in 38 years. The seven-member team of Sushchikh, Jacob Bartholomew, Alfred Scott, Sam Sarmiento, Bryan Fernandez, Max Davis, and Ben York, along with alternates Dylan Zukin and Brendan Morrow-Jones will travel to Mt. San Antonio College to try and become the first team to qualify for the State Meet since the Chargers placed fifth in the State Meet among Division II schools in 1999. The top seven teams and top 20 individuals of non-qualifying teams in the division earn a berth to the State Meet at Woodward Park (Fresno) on November 27.
One person who is confident that the current team will be there is Gordon McClenathen, the longtime coach who headed the Dos Pueblos program from 1967 to ’97, and whose 1972 team was the runner-up to division champion Lompoc. McClenathen, along with Micks Purnell assists head coach Leslie Wiggins-Roth and Len Miller in coaching the Chargers.
“They have the talent and the desire to go to State,” McClenathen said. “But they also have the character to do well if they do.”
And the runner in front will be undoubtedly Sushchikh. After a junior year in which he placed 47th individually in the 2009 CIF-Southern Section Division II Finals, the senior started off solidly this fall. By the end of the season, he took off by running a league record 14 minutes and 31 seconds over a three-mile course to take top individual honors and lead the Chargers to a Channel League title. Last week he placed second in his division and fifth out of all runners by running 15:11 over 5k en route to pacing the Chargers to a third place in last week’s Division II Southern Section Preliminaries.
“We have been feeling really good these last few weeks, all of us,” the soft-spoken Sushchikh said.
While initially needing prodding to talk about his own running, the 17-year-old acknowledged that he was having a good year so far and expressed hope that it was a stepping stone to a running future that included competing for a Division I university. While taking college level calculus and English, he has maintained good enough grades to draw the interest of Syracuse University. That school, along with the University of Colorado and the hometown UCSB are among the schools he is considering.
He added that all of this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for his coaches, especially Miller, the man who guided former American record holder in the mile, Steve Scott. Sushchikh credited the longtime coach, who was inducted into the UC Irvine Hall of Fame in 2006 as well as headed up the Arizona State program, as the coach who helped put him on the path to success.
“During my sophomore year, Coach Miller came along and something clicked,” Sushchikh said. “I just have so much respect for him as a coach.”
Miller said that while he couldn’t compare the runner to anyone he has coached, but he did recognize a common bond.
“Every runner is unique,” Miller said. “The great runners that I’ve coached have common threads that are part of the whole fabric. From Steve Scott on down to the great half milers I had at Arizona State, Sergey has all the personal and emotional qualities that my greatest runners possessed. He handles setbacks really well and accepts that nobody is going to win all the time. As his career progresses and someone beats him, instead of being depressed, he’ll try and figure out what he has to do to be better prepared the next time. Plus he is not intimidated by anyone. That’s why I think he will succeed.”
The one thing that Miller and his teammates alike appreciated about Sushchikh is his humility said Bartholomew, who shares captaincy duties with his teammate.
“We all know he is the best guy on the team, but he never goes around telling people that he is,” Bartholomew said. “He’s an admirable guy who’s dedicated to running, but is not above having fun and sharing his humor.”
Yet he is afforded immediate respect by his peers because of the example he has set for the younger runners, according to Fernandez, one of the three sophomores on the team, was the second fastest of the Chargers while finishing fifth in the division in 15:34 had the second fastest time on the team last week.
“He has taught us younger guys to let stuff like bad races go,” Fernandez said. “He just brushes it off and kills it the next time. In workouts, he is great at challenging us, always trying to break us. What it does is push us to another level. He is a great talent that I think will go far.”
On Wednesday afternoon, as the group gathers for a photo, the banter was light and fun with Sushchikh’s teammates willingly giving up their leader when asked if he had a nickname (which incidentally is the Russian Rocket, which was bestowed upon him by his middle school coach John Sprague). Yet when it came time to actually take the shot, each member filed respectfully behind Sushchikh even though he hadn’t uttered a word.
And when it was time to talk about an ideal race on Saturday, he responded in perfect sounding Russian and then translated it into English.
“Saturday is going to be a great day,” Sushchikh translated. “We’re all going to run really fast. And we’re going to go to the State Meet.”
While the language needed translation, the message most certainly did not.
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