The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Wildcat runs into stop light
Mayfield hurdler processes complicated effect of lost season
Josie Conti might be able to relate to Gus Frerotte in a sense.
As the Redskins’ quarterback in 1997, Frerotte unexpectedly barreled head-first into a padded wall celebrating a touchdown.
That’s pretty much what happened to Conti, Mayfield’s outstanding and affable junior hurdler.
She had a head of steam as outdoor season loomed, justifiable reason to be going full speed into it — and unfortunately, a wall arrived in the form of the novel coronavirus pandemic that ended the spring season before it commenced.
“I’m not going to fake: When they first announced it, I found out they were going to be shutting down schools in track practice,” Conti said. “And they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re probably going to be getting back running.’ But I knew kind of like right then and there that we probably weren’t going to go back.
“But I kind of held on to hope until they released information in April, kind of when they finalized that we weren’t going back. It was devastating, and I had to come to terms with it and say, ‘You know what? I had a great indoor season.’ And I guess I’ve just got to get prepared for my senior season.”
Few News-Herald coverage area track and field standouts had as much justification to anticipate the spring as Conti.
Last spring, she had a breakout performance as a sophomore, earning Division I state runner-up honors in 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.48 seconds.
In the process, Conti became the first girls hurdler to crack the top four at state in school history and the first hurdler overall for the Wildcats since 1956.
The 2019 first-team News-Herald girls track and field all-star followed that up with a sterling indoor season, punctuated by winning the D-I 60 hurdles crown in March at SPIRE.
“Josie Conti was really ready to break through,” Mayfield boys coach Steve Canfield said. “We all thought she was going to be state champion (outdoors).”
Conti was thinking along the same lines.
“Last year, I surprised myself,” Conti said. “I came in second, and that wasn’t really the plan. So obviously, coming off a season like that and winning indoor, I was really excited to see what I could do and all that I could achieve, now that I knew it was possible.
“It’s really unfortunate, because it would have been cool if I could’ve won this year and come back and defend my title my senior year. I kind of feel cheated, honestly. But I know that I’m just going to have to come back stronger to kind of get the title I’ve been wanting since my freshman year and be a state champion.”
Similar to many of her counterparts, the aftermath of no junior season is complicated.
Toward the top of the list, this is usually the year during which getting the attention of college coaches begins to take shape.
“I am really concerned,” Conti said. “You hear a lot of things, and I’m so sorry for these senior athletes, but especially for spring sports. A senior athlete should probably not be choosing where to go to college by their senior season. That’s something you want to have before then. “And because I’m a spring athlete, losing this monumental, ‘Hey, let me put my name out there’ and show colleges what I have, especially if I wanted to go to college, which is something I’m interested in. It’s something that I’m kind of losing. I’m losing that opportunity to put my name out there, because there’s no way by my senior season next year, I’m going to be like, ‘Hey, I want to go here.’ It’s too late. So I feel like, in a way, it is kind of hurting that process.” At the same time, though, she knows it’s not just her.
“I did have a very good sophomore season and a decent freshman season to where I already have season stats, so maybe the colleges and coaches will be kind of lenient,” Conti said. “This is everyone. It’s not just affecting me. It’s affecting the entire country.
“I feel like it won’t hurt too bad in the long run, because it’s affecting so many people. I definitely feel like it’s impacting my personal track career, because I didn’t have my turning point — I’m finally an upperclassman, let me show you what I can do.”
Conti has shown a great deal already, with hopes of channeling what could have been a memorable junior season into a high note of a senior campaign.
She admits her focus turned more primarily to academics once the glimmer of hope for an outdoor track and field season faded, wanting to ensure her AP exams went well.
But Conti has gotten back to jogging and some weight training. Her parents are understandably concerned about going to a public gym to work out for the time being. Ideally, should it come to fruition, she would like to participate in summer track and field at SPIRE.
Through no fault of her own, Conti encountered a wall with a head of steam like Frerotte.
But she eagerly awaits embracing the challenge of pursuing an outdoor state title head on in 2021 — and prior to that, something to which we all aspire.
“I think what I really want to do is — I like the environment where, if you want to go work out with some people and go and work out with a friend, you can,” Conti said. “But the thing is, I want that to be an option. Now everything is going be like, you have to have social distancing. You have to be in certain places. You have to wear certain things.
“My major goal is to bring some normal back. I want the normalcy of going out for a run with some friends, of going to the gym. Right now, it’s so regimented and it’s carefully restricted. It kind of just doesn’t make working out or even practicing for things as glamorous. So I think the biggest thing is to return to a little bit of a sense of normalcy.”