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Joe Newton

When a running camp is already 27 years old, it’s hard to outdo oneself. But Five-Star has been fortunate enough to do just that for 2008 with the addition of Coach Joe Newton to our list of guest speakers.

Newton, cross country and track coach at York High School in Elmhurst, IL, is one of the two best known scholastic coaches in the country, along with DeMatha High School of Hyattsville, MD, basketball coach Morgan Wootten, who has won over 2,000 games and lost less than 220 and is a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Newton has done even better. He has won 26 very difficult Illinois State Cross Country Championships – there are more than 700 high schools in the state – in his 51 years of coaching at York. In 1988 he served on the staff of the U.S. Olympic Track team in Seoul, Korea, the only high school coach ever to have achieved that distinction.

His State championship team of 2005 had a roster of 221 boys. Since only seven get to run at States, everybody is always asking how to motivate the other 214 guys who don’t get to run the Illinois Championship. This is where Newton excels. He is a master motivator and leader of people and perhaps the finest and surely the most entertaining speaker in all of cross country and distance running.

Coach Newton, a member of the Track & Field Hall of Fame, is also known as the founder and director of the Keebler International Prep track meet, of the first of the post-season meets for high school track and field athletes.

Coach Newton has used the sport of cross country running to teach simple but important lessons to high school boys for the last 51 years. “Always do your best”, “be on time” and “it’s nice to be great but far greater to be nice” are mantras, which have turned the cross country team at York into the most winning high school team in any sport in America. Along with mastery of their sport, Newton turns boys into men, who carry his teaching and his love for each of them throughout their lives.


	is most famous for a race he lost, the 1982 Boston Marathon. The memorable “Duel in the Sun” was recreated in a Runner's World cover story last year. Battling Alberto Salazar and for a brief period a motorcycle, Dick was beaten by two seconds, running 2:08.53, the second fastest time ever by an American. Only two other Americans have topped that mark since. He won the first-ever London Marathon in 1981 (2:11.48), the same year he set the course record at Minnesota's Grandma's Marathon with at 2:09.37, the fastest marathon ever run in June. In 2004 at age 47 he ran 2:43.58 at the Napa Valley Marathon. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having run personal bests in 13 consecutive marathons. This year he won the On the Road for Education Marathon in Mason City, IA, his third marathon in three weeks and his first win in 17 years. He won the Robert E. DeCelle Award in 1982 as the outstanding US distance runner.
	Joe Newton When a running camp is already 27 years old, it’s hard to outdo oneself. But Five-Star has been fortunate enough to do just that for 2008 with the addition of Coach Joe Newton to our list of guest speakers. Newton, cross country and track coach at York High School in Elmhurst, IL, is one of the two best known scholastic coaches in the country, along with DeMatha High School of Hyattsville, MD, basketball coach Morgan Wootten, who has won over 2,000 games and lost less than 220 and is a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Newton has done even better. He has won 26 very difficult Illinois State Cross Country Championships – there are more than 700 high schools in the state – in his 51 years of coaching at York. In 1988 he served on the staff of the U.S. Olympic Track team in Seoul, Korea, the only high school coach ever to have achieved that distinction. His State championship team of 2005 had a roster of 221 boys. Since only seven get to run at States, everybody is always asking how to motivate the other 214 guys who don’t get to run the Illinois Championship. This is where Newton excels. He is a master motivator and leader of people and perhaps the finest and surely the most entertaining speaker in all of cross country and distance running. Coach Newton, a member of the Track & Field Hall of Fame, is also known as the founder and director of the Keebler International Prep track meet, of the first of the post-season meets for high school track and field athletes. Coach Newton has used the sport of cross country running to teach simple but important lessons to high school boys for the last 51 years. “Always do your best”, “be on time” and “it’s nice to be great but far greater to be nice” are mantras, which have turned the cross country team at York into the most winning high school team in any sport in America. Along with mastery of their sport, Newton turns boys into men, who carry his teaching and his love for each of them throughout their lives.
	Kristi Rieger Kristi Rieger and track and field/cross country are synonymous in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. And high school running fans nationally are quickly learning who she is. After spending three years teaching and coaching in Watertown, SD, Kristi became a teacher-coach at Roosevelt High School in her home town of Sioux Falls. And her Rough Riders have been making things rough for the opposition ever since. She is currently head girls and boys head cross country and track and field coach. In the fall of 2007, Kristi was one of the meet directors of the inaugural Nike Team Nationals Heartland Regional cross country qualifying meet. She and Sioux Falls were proud hosts of the meet. It's appropriate she serves in that capacity as the Roosvelt girls placed 14th in the initial NTN meet in 2004 and moved up three spots in 2006. Only 20 teams nationally qualified for those meets. In 2006 her girls cross country team won the Gold Division at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis for the first time. In 2004 her girls 4 x 800-meter relay team ran a nationally-ranked time of 9:08.61 and placed second in the Nike Indoor National Championships. The same quarter placed third in the distance medley. Kristi's girls were the Greater Dakota Conference Track Champions in 2005 and 2006 and captured the GDC Cross Country Championship in 2005. From 2004-2007 the girls were runners-up at the AA State Track Meet and the State Cross Country Meet. The boys placed third at the 2007 State Track Meet and were runners-up at the 2006 and 2007 State Cross Country Meets. All totaled, her boys and girls teams, in cross country and track, have been state runners-up nine times. Forty-seven of her athletes have gone on to compete in track and/or cross country at the collegiate level. Kristi enjoyed outstanding athletic success at Washington High School and at Augustana College, both located in Sioux Falls. In college she was a four year qualifier for the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 800 meters. She won the North Central Conference 800-meter outdoor championship and broke the school record as a freshman in 1988. She was a two-time Indoor Track All-American in the 800 meters. She was the NCC champion in the Indoor 800 meters in 1991 and the Indoor 1000 meters in 1992. She was also a member of numerous record-breaking relay teams. She has been inducted into the athletic hall of fame at both alma maters.
	, D.P.M., FACFAS, graduated from American University in Washington, DC, and the Dr. W.M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago, IL. He completed his residency training at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and Affiliated Hospitals and Institutions in New York City. He underwent fellowship training in the Chicago area sponsored by the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine. While at American University he ran varsity cross county and track (3:51/1500 meters) and later represented the prestigious University of Chicago Track Club. Dr. Braver has also interned with the physical therapists at the New York City Ballet and the Department of Biomechanics of the United States Olympic Committee Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. Dr. Braver has been a consultant/wear tester for several major athletic shoe companies. Currently he is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Runner’s World Magazine and has served on the Board of Editorial Advisors for Podiatry Today Magazine. He is on the staff at Hackensack University Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital Medical Center, both in Northern New Jersey. He is Board Certified in Foot and Ankle Surgery by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and is also Board Certified in Foot Orthopedics by the American Board of Podiatric Orthopedics and Primary Podiatric Medicine. He frequently lectures on subjects including sport injuries, running analysis, orthotics as well as foot and ankle surgery. At present he is the team podiatric physician for the NJ Jackals professional baseball team, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Montclair State University sports teams and clinical instructor for the William Paterson University Athletic Trainers curriculum. In the past he has served as team podiatrist for the NJ Gladiators Professional Arena Football team, the Imperials Professional Soccer team and Seton Hall University sports teams. Currently he is President Division 12 of the American College of Foot & Ankle Surgeons. Dr. Braver maintains his private practice in Englewood, Fair Lawn and Riverdale, New Jersey. Dr. Braver can be reached at (201) 569-7672 or by e-mail DRRUN@AOL.COM.
	Dr. Matt Moran is that rare coach who has experienced a lifetime of success, all in less than three years. The former University of Houston and William & Mary runner has coached five cross country All Americans and eight track & field All Americans in his brief tenure at State University of New York at Cortland. That's all happened in three cross country seasons and two indoor and outdoor track seasons. And he's also coached two NCAA Division III national champions -- Fred Joslyn in the 5,000 and Fawn Dorr in the 400IH. Moran led the Red Dragons to a third-place national finish in 2007, their best ever, moving up from fourth place the previous year. Those teams were State University of New York Athletic Conference titles, and he was selected SUNYAC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year both seasons. His women's cross country team placed second in the SUNYAC and fifth regionally in 2007. As interim head track & field coach during 2006-06, Moran led the Cortland men to second place in the outdoor NCAAs after finishing fifth indoors, both school-bests. His women were eighth nationally outdoors and tied for 22nd indoors. He was SUNYAC men's and women's Coach of the Year both indoors and outdoors and was women's outdoor Atlantic Region Coach of the Year as well. Moran earned a bachelor of science on kinesiology from William & Mary in 1998, won honors as coach at St. Anthony's HS in Huntington, NY, from 1998 to 2000, and earned his master's degree in 2002 and his doctorate in 2005 in kinesiology from Penn State. A highly accomplished runner, Moran was on the William & Mary cross country team that placed ninth at the 1997 NCAA Division I championships. He was a member of the IC4A All-East Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field team in the 4 x 800-meter relay in 1996 and set a meet record of 9:00.3 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 1998 Colonial Athletic Association championships. He was also the top American finisher in the 2002 Athens Marathon, taking 10th in 2:25.46 and was 15th American finisher in the 2004 New York City Marathon. He has had a lifetime of success, indeed, in his short years.
	has advanced from being a young first-year camper in 1995, trying to find his way among all the new and strange -- to him -- people at Five-Star. And he's come all the way to being the opening day speaker in 2008. It's been an interesting journey. Kovalsky's determination helped him improve from 5:52 in the mile as a freshman at Ridgefield (CT) High School to a 3:51 in the 1500m by the end of college, at the University of Pennsylvania. Kovalsky was the Ivy League champion in the 10,000-meters in 2001. After college, he adopted the goal of life-long running and turned his attention to the marathon, completing seven since graduating. Kovalsky teaches English at his old high school in Ridgefield. He is now the assistant coach of the team he once led. He also enjoyed volunteering as a Cross Country coach for the 2007 Nike Team Nationals 5th-place team, Danbury High School. He currently resides in Peekskill, NY, with his wife, Rita. They are expecting their first child in May of 2008. When given the chance to speak to camp for this coming year, Kovalsky responded: "My life would be completely different without Five-Star. The people I have met, the experiences I have gained, and the inspiration I have received are a part of me forever. I am grateful for this opportunity and hope that I can communicate the value of running and a week at camp to this audience of special people."