Sports
The Running Men
In Houston, the state's track powerhouse, two coaches are testing the mettle — and medal-winning potential — of tomorrow's speedsters.
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Coincidentally, Tellez was about to retire from U of H. Although Burrell had no coaching experience, his mentor thought his notoriety made him a good successor. "I felt that the way track is going and the way recruiting is going — you have to go out and raise money, and people have to know you — he had all the right qualities," Tellez says. "Because of his world records, I thought he could help the school. Because of his intelligence, I knew he could do the job." That faith has been rewarded so far: In Burrell's first year U of H won the Conference USA track and field championship, and his students speak of him with the same high regard that he speaks of Tellez. "If I'm having any kind of anxiety problems, I can go to him, because he's been there," says Jenny Adams, a senior from Tomball who is training for the Olympic trials in the hurdles. "When you're practicing with the best, it gives you a lot of confidence," adds Anthony Authorlee, a junior sprinter from Houston. "You think, 'I'm practicing with Coach, world record holder.'"
For his part, Burrell is just happy to exist in the world of track, and he's busier than ever. Before, he only had to worry about running. Now he has scheduling, recruiting, paperwork, and fundraising to worry about, not to mention trying to fill Tellez's shoes. "There can be pressure in the responsibility, but I minimize that because I realize that I'm not Tom," he says. "Maybe I'm selling myself short, but if I can have half the success that he did, I'll be successful."
Lopez would say the same, even though he has excelled as a coach — much more so than he ever did as an athlete. A champion high school sprinter in Puerto Rico, he received numerous scholarship offers, ultimately deciding to attend U of H under Tellez's predecessor, Johnny Morris. His education was disrupted, however, by the Vietnam War; he was drafted and set to go in 1967, but the Puerto Rican government petitioned the Department of Defense in Washington to post Lopez at Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico, where he could train for the Olympics and coach runners at Turabo University. By the time he came back to Houston in 1970 to finish his degree, he had fallen in love with coaching.
Lopez began work on a master's degree at U of H but got sidetracked with another stint coaching Puerto Rico's Olympians. It was during this period, from 1973 to 1979, that he honed his method of training. Like Tellez, he became interested in the science of running. "I read every book I could get my hands on," he says, "anything about training and running and biomechanics." Lopez came to believe that the muscles used for running could be more effectively strengthened by breaking down the individual motions. To train them in specific ways, he devised a regimen of jumping, bounding, and skipping. The results were undeniable. "My runners were starting to shave significant amounts off their times in a relatively short stretch of training," he says. "I knew I was on to something."
Lopez came back to the U.S. in 1979 and continued work on his graduate degree. At the same time, he was offered a job as the part-time coach of Rice's women's team. He took it, but the pay wasn't good; so to make ends meet, he worked the graveyard shift at a hotel and played percussion in a Latin band on weekends. "I would study at night and sleep a little at the hotel job," he says, "and then go to class in the morning, coach at Rice in the afternoon, and go to class again in the evenings." Fortunately, he had to moonlight for only a year: Under his guidance, the Rice team rapidly began to show signs of improvement, and soon enough, the job became full-time. Lopez has reveled in his life as a college coach ever since. "I have offers every year from foreign countries, from other universities," he says. "I could make more money somewhere else, but I'm happy here. This is the perfect job. I don't know that I could have the same kind of atmosphere and the love and care that they have here."
Despite a prodigious knowledge of the technical end of track, Lopez presides over his team in a fatherly manner. He's proud of the individual relationships he fosters with his young protégées and says that he ends up coaching them in life as well as sports. Out on Rice's track one October afternoon, as his assistant ran the girls through their drills, he stood to the side talking to me, but his eyes were trained on the most-minute aspects of their form. "Excuse me," he said in his accented English. Turning away, he gestured to a tall, thin first-year student from Jamaica. "Al-ee-son, Al-ee-son, get your foot up a little higher." He then asked another girl about a recent injury; she replied that she was more worried about a test the next day. "All the students who come to Rice have to be very intelligent," Lopez told me. "I like to deal with intelligent people; it's a challenge. And Rice has been able to attract good student athletes with Olympic potential but who are at the same time simple people — humble and good and intellectual." Lopez's students like dealing with him for much the same reason. "You can't spend thirty minutes with Victor Lopez without feeling good about life," says Andrea Blackett, a native of Barbados who trained under him at Rice and now competes professionally as a hurdler. "He has taught us so much, and from every standpoint, about how to be happy."
Lopez expects this year to be especially hectic, as does Burrell. Not long after the college season ends, in June, Lopez will be in the Caribbean for a meet, while Burrell will head for the Olympic trials in Sacramento. A couple of months later, the two men will head to Sydney, Australia, for the Olympics. Neither will get much TV time — the glamour is reserved for the stars, not the coaches — but that sort of business-as-usual is fine with them. "It's a lot of work when you're there, a lot of coordinating," says Lopez "but it's my job, and I try to make it fun. And if my athletes do well, then I feel real good."
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