Commentary: Medina coach Milt Place was legendary but humble -- and treated everyone as a friend

There's isn't a person in the local cross country community, or around the state for that matter, that didn't know of Milt Place. And there's a good chance he also knew you. I met the Medina boys cross country coach, who passed away suddenly Sunday, more than two decades ago. For some reason, the first meeting has always been branded in my head. I recall sitting at a desk in The Gazette newsroom when the bell to the side door rang. This wasn't unusual, but I distinctly remember former Gazette sportswriter Lisa Gayle Grayson quickly turning to me to ask if I would get up to answer it. "It's Milt Place," she said. I walked to the door and opened it to see a man wearing an old, beat-up Medina Festival T-shirt and shorts. He had a handful of papers in his hands, which looked like he had been playing in the dirt for hours. He introduced himself and, just as I was about to say my name, he responded with "You must be Dan." That was just Place's style. He knew almost everyone and, even if he didn't, he wasn't afraid to strike up a conversation and chat. It could have been an opposing runner or a young sportswriter like me. After I led him back to the sports department, he quickly started talking about his team, running down updated times for his runners to Grayson from the crumbled piece of paper in his hands and talking how they stacked up against the other top runners and teams in the area. Little did I know that he had spent the past couple hours doing everything humanly possible to make sure that the course at Ella Canavan Elementary School was in tip-top shape for the annual Medina Festival, which Place created back in 1992. It blossomed into one of the premier late-season events in the area, just like the Tiffin Carnival he had started years earlier while coaching the girls team at his alma mater, Tiffin Columbian. The other thing I didn't know at the time was that I would be talking to him a lot more in the future after taking over the cross country beat. Place could talk for hours about the sport he loved and the program he helped build into a powerhouse, but he never wanted to take credit for that. That was his style. He never said "I" or referred to Medina's boys cross country program as "his" program. He talked about his runners, past and present, with pride and enjoyed every moment, whether it was an important, stress-packed meet late in the season or just a mid-week training run. A couple weeks ago, he emailed me about how excited he was for the upcoming season. The program made its 15th state appearance in the last 17 seasons last fall, but he admitted that this year's squad has a chance at a top-10 finish. Who was I to doubt Milt? He was a walking encyclopedia of cross country and could tell you, without hesitation, which teams were going to be good and their best runner, from Hudson and Solon in the North to St. Xavier and Mason in the South. He knew what it took to be successful at the state level, having guided the Bees to a Division I state title in 2007 and a runner-up finish in 2010. He always had a story, too, or a corny joke. He could tell you the best time of every runner that ever ran for one of his teams; even what they ran in middle school. I'll miss that. He always made an effort to go out of his way to talk to me at a meet. I can still remember one event where we hadn't had a chance to chat and he jogged over, as I was walking out, to say hello. Above all, Place had an enduring love for the sport. It was a passion he developed over his own racing career at Tiffin Columbian and Adams State, and then turned into a successful coaching career that began at Columbian, where he started the girls program in 1980, and ended in Medina. It's something that was infectious and something his athletes have carried on to successful collegiate careers, both on the course and in the classroom. That was one of many reasons why he was still coaching after retiring from teaching several years ago. He wanted to give back, help and, above all, give all the runners that he worked with a piece of that same feeling he got every day he came to the track or cross country course. It will be strange not having those friendly conversations anymore, or hearing that joke, but, like the life lessons he taught so many athletes through the years, they won't be forgotten. Contact Dan Brown at sports@medina-gazette.com.