For six months now Sherald James' nights have all been the same. He wakes in the wee hours, between 2 and 3 a.m., and stares at the ceiling until the sun rises.
"I'm struggling with this retirement real bad," he explains.
For 38 1/2 years he has coached distance runners at BYU in what was really a labor of love, and now he's giving it up, at the age of 67. He lies awake half the night, coming to grips with life without a team and watching the memories parade through his brain. The pain is the realization that there will be no more making such memories; there will only be the replay button.
"There's a time when you have to let go," he says sadly.
Another of the old guard is saying good-bye. LaVell Edwards retired this year. So did Willard Hirschi, a track coach for 36 years. Glen Tuckett retired years ago, as did Clarence Robison, the head track coach for 40 years, and trainer Marv Roberson. Trainer Ollie Julkunen and former basketball coaches Stan Watts and Floyd Millet died this year. Floyd Johnson, the school's beloved equipment longtime manager, has retired, although he still shows up and works for nothing but the friendships, at the age of 82, pacemaker and all. These men were the originals, the people who made athletics what it is today at BYU.
Now it's James' turn to leave. He was the lone holdover of the staff that coached track together for decades. "I'm the last one. I'm the last," he says wistfully. He has been replaced by one of his former athletes, Ed Eyestone.
For nearly four decades, James coached BYU's distance runners. In all, they collected more than 150 All-American certificates. Remarkably, James' former athletes swept the three distance races at the 1984 Olympic trials in Los Angeles — Doug Padilla in the 5,000, Henry Marsh in the steeplechase and Paul Cummings in the 10,000 — just weeks after Eyestone won the 10,000-meter run at the NCAA championships.
"The thing I remember the most is that he never over-trained his athletes," says Marsh. "He brought you along gradually. Look how many of his runners continued to improve for years after they left BYU."
That group would include Marsh, who went on to race in four Olympics, rank No. 1 in the world three times and set a still-standing American record; Eyestone, a two-time Olympic marathoner; Jason Pyrah, a two-time Olympic 1,500-meter runner; Cummings, a top road racer for years; Padilla, a two-time Olympic 5,000-meter runner who ranked as high as No. 2 in the world.
James had a unique training philosophy; he eschewed the high-mileage regimen of most coaches for a low-mileage, high-quality program. His runners rarely suffered from burnout or fatigue, which allowed them to have long careers. He could tell by looking in a runner's eyes, or watching his posture, or the way he walked, if he was fatigued and then adapted his training accordingly.
Says Marsh, "I'd walk into his office, and he'd say, 'You didn't get enough sleep last night. We're going to back off (your training) today.' He was really good at that. He would not over-train you. He was the right coach at the right time for me."
James had his own personal experience as a runner. He won state titles for Spanish Fork High and conference titles for BYU. He joined the coaching staff in 1961 and has been there ever since. He has no idea how it got to be the year 2000.
"You wake up one morning and you don't know where the time has gone, but you're old," he says. "There it is."
So the memories come in the night. Memories of his travels and many of the world's great stadiums — Berlin, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Japan. Memories of two Olympics he attended. Memories of national championships via Padilla, Marsh, Cummings, Eyestone and Pyrah. But mostly there are the memories of all the young men he coached. Compassionate, devout and philosophical, James cared deeply about his runners beyond their athletic endeavors. By the time an athlete redshirted, served a mission and completed his schooling, an athlete had shared seven years of his life with James, and he relished every moment.
"I loved every one of them," he says. "I hope I don't cry."
If James failed to notice the passing years, it was because he was too busy. For nearly four decades, he was a full-time coach for cross country, indoor track and outdoor track while also teaching health classes. He started counting the students he had taught the other day; he's up to 10,000, with still 11 years to account for. And yet, between two jobs, he found time to earn five bachelor degrees — in horticulture, agronomy, animal science, physical education, health education (with a minor in driver ed) — "and I've used every one of them."
He used horticulture to grow a large garden, sometimes rising at 4:30 to get the weeding done before work. He used agronomy to run a farm and a ranch. He used animal science to raise prize-winning cattle. He used physical education and health science to teach students and coach athletes.
James is an extraordinary ordinary man who was content to work quietly in his corner of the world, harvesting "good young men" along with the cattle and crops. On Friday night Marsh, Padilla and more than 150 of James' former runners gathered in Provo to honor the coach on the occasion of his retirement. According to one friend, the thought of the ceremony "terrified" James for months. For once, after all those years of standing on the sideline cheering for others, he was in the spotlight being cheered for a job well done.
E-mail: drob@desnews.com