Running coach stresses books

Jimmy Chai

Thursday, October 22, 1998

In a recent episode of "Friends," Joey said everyone is selfish. Even do-gooders who perform selfless acts are selfish because they produce a good feeling in return.

In a Daily Forty-Niner exclusive, a contrasting example to Joey's comment has been found.

Long Beach State's men's and women's cross country head coach, Andy Sythe, would give Joey a run for his money. Sythe's dedication as both cross country and track and field coach provides Long Beach State with an excellent program with little visible rewards.

Although making many individual improvements, this year's cross-country team had a roller-coaster ride of a season. After coming off a strong home meet two weeks ago, last Saturday's UC San Diego meet - where the women finished sixth out of 16 teams and the men finished ninth out of 18 teams - showed the unpredictability of the sport.

As a whole, this season was mediocre, giving no reason to hold

one's hand up in triumph.

Yet Sythe seems to sacrifice his time and energy to better the

team. Of course, the argument could be made that he is being paid to

do this.

But along with his training for meets, Sythe requires athletes to maintain a 3.0 GPA, which is not required by any institutional policy, creating if anything more problems for Sythe if the grades are not on par with his levels.

The academic performance of athletes are just as important as the sport, Sythe said.

This policy could be seen as a selfless act with no personal gain.

As a result, over his 10 years at Long Beach State, Sythe has produced 74 Academic All-Conference Athletes and seven National All-Academic Teams, creating a well-rounded program.

Jimmy Chai is a film and electronic arts major at CSULB.