Track captain Mark Valentino honors coach felled by cancer
At the Smithtown High School West track, extraordinary senior Mark Valentino. (June 7, 2011) Credit: Daniel Goodrich
For Smithtown High School West's Mark Valentino, the death of a favorite running coach taught some valuable lessons beyond the track.
Valentino was already accustomed to helping others, such as spending the past five years making peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for the homeless with St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Smithtown, and he was a top scholar-athlete -- Valentino has a 4.01 weighted average and was a two-time captain of his high school track teams. But he said he knew he had to do something in honor of his coach Pat Harmon, who died of brain cancer last July.
A few days after the wake, Valentino, 17, told his mother he wanted to put on a 5K run/walk in honor of Harmon.
"He said, 'Mom, I want to do something,' " Louise Valentino said. "I told him it would be a lot of work, and he said, 'I need to have Coach Harmon remembered.' "
So, on his own, Valentino spent the next few months getting town permits, sponsorships from local businesses and enlisting volunteers to run. He even got the school's brass quartet to play "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Oct. 10 event.
In all, 672 people participated in the run/walk and it raised more than $20,000 for the American Cancer Society. A schoolmate will continue the run/walk while Valentino is at Marist College, but Valentino will help coordinate it.
All through his treatments, the coach never missed a meet, even when they traveled upstate, Valentino said, and he was always there for his athletes.
"It made me think of the little difficulties in my life," he said. "I remember what he went through, and realize that I should be able to push through my hardships, too."
