| Never a champion, Turner’s career was spectacular nonetheless BY MIKE UNGER
Before his senior season, Phil Turner was voted captain of the cross country team by his teammates. |
Phil Turner was done. Done with the 7 a.m. workouts, done with early morning weekend runs, done with the cross country team altogether. When he returned to American University from his Wisconsin home following winter break his freshman year, he sought out his coach, Matt Centrowitz, and told him that he was thinking about hanging up his running shoes for good. “There were days when I was just dragging myself around the track,” Turner recalled. “I was just getting demolished by everyone. I was one of the slowest kids on the team. I felt like I was 80 years old.” Take some time off, Centrowitz said. Get away from the track for a while, relax, come back to me in a month and we’ll talk. Fast forward four years. Turner, a cross country captain, has represented AU in conference and national meets. As he prepares to graduate May 14, Turner, like the majority of athletes at AU, is facing the reality that his competitive athletic career is ending. Like many other Eagles, Turner—who didn’t have a scholarship—competed simply for the love of sport, and he must come to terms with the fact that a significant chapter in his life is concluding. “It’s such a part of you,” Turner said. “I’m definitely going to miss the team. It’s strange because I never thought I would. There were times when you can get in the dumps with running, when you’re running bad. Most of the time in college I was running pretty bad. It’s just a journey of seeing the day-to-day improvement, month to month, year to year. It’s going to be a shock when it’s over. I just love to run, that’s really what it comes down to.” Successful teams require a blend of superstars and overachievers. It often is the effort exuded by the last man or woman on the depth chart that sets an example the rest of the team simply can’t ignore. “We always joke around that he’s a true sportsman,” said Pat MacAdie, Turner’s former teammate and current roommate. “He wasn’t always racing for first, but he was racing for every point he could get. The example he set of consistent hard work, diligence, and just sticking with it through the hard and good times is something every teammate needs no matter how good they are. Even the best guys need that example. You have to be committed and you have to be willing to work hard no matter what. Guys could count on him to be giving it his all, even if he’s not the fastest, it’s not always about that. You need guys like him.” When Turner joined AU’s track team, he frequently was the last man to cross the finish line. A standout runner in high school, he took up the sport in seventh grade to stay in shape for his first true athletic love: basketball. “I had dreams of being a big basketball player, but I never really grew,” Turner said. When he entered college in the fall of 2003, Turner stood five-feet-seven-inches tall. Over the next few months he began experiencing pain and sluggishness, and he couldn’t pinpoint the reason why. “I went home over Christmas vacation and I wanted to play basketball with my brothers,” he said. “I couldn’t move left or right, my knees hurt, my hips hurt.” That’s when he thought about quitting. It turns out Turner was in the midst of a massive growth spurt, shooting up three inches in a single month. When it was all over he had regained much of his speed and added five inches to his lanky frame. Turner learned something important during his month-long hiatus from track: he can’t live without running. “Every day I get to do it is a great day,” he said. “No matter what the weather is. If it’s raining out and I’m running through the trails, it’s like I’m a little kid playing around. I can always look at the day and say, ‘That was a good day.’ I get my thinking in. I like to pray when I run. It’s just a good time to clear my head. I feel like I’m blessed to be able to do it.” Throughout his collegiate career Turner showed consistent if unspectacular improvement. His sophomore year he made it to the conference meet, where he ran “bad.” Junior year he placed in the top 20 in the conference, and prior to this season, his teammates elected him captain. “That was one of the biggest honors of my life,” he said. “To represent my team and the university. We won the conference championship, we all ran really well, made it to nationals again. I didn’t do very well, but it was still a huge thrill.” Turner, like so many AU athletes who will receive their diplomas later this month, embodies the true spirit of athletic competition. He won’t be signing any million dollar contracts or endorsement deals, and you won’t see him in any professional arena. No, in the fall he’s headed to graduate school at Northwestern University to study journalism. His career was not focused on chasing the dollar, rather it was about pursuing his own expectations. His determination to push himself to his competitive limit was motivation enough. “What I’ve learned here in my senior year is that it’s always the best part of my day, seeing my teammates, going to the locker room, getting through a hard workout with your buddies. That’s what it always came down to, I couldn’t go a day without it. You learn to deal with adversity. You can’t take away the bond of going through tough practices. The bus rides, the van rides, the workouts, that’s something that will always be there.” |
