Keeping Kids On The Run -- Two Coaches Typify Spirit, Dedication That Makes Seattle's Track Program Work

Jim Neff is scrunched up in the bleachers at Nathan Hale High School before a track meet, battling the brisk, soppy weather that's turning his pile of name tags into mush.

Paul Chappell - his feet in Nike Air Maxes, his hands on a videocamera to tape a meet at West Seattle Stadium - is bombarded by much hollering and many tugs at his sleeves.

"Coach Chappell!," the 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds bellow. "Can I do the long jump?" "I don't have a T-shirt!" "Do you know where my mom is? "Am I supposed to be over there?"

For eight, sometimes 10 hours a week this month, Neff and Chappell have been corralling, coaxing and coaching dozens of youngsters in the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department's track-and-field program, whose popularity has been zooming.

In 1978, only 300 kids participated in the track league. Now nearly 3,000 are enrolled in a program growing by about 10 percent each year.

Track season officially ends this afternoon with an all-city championship meet, which begins at 5 at West Seattle Stadium.

Neff, a lawyer, coaches the Meadowbrook Community Center Roadrunners in North Seattle. Chappell, a physical-education teacher at Leschi Elementary School, coaches the Miller Community Center Jets, based in Capitol Hill. Each has been overseeing three practices and one track meet a week.

They are among the thousands of adults who volunteer each year to coach Seattle Parks' athletic teams. Neff and Chappell stand out because of their work with children - and for them it's been a year-round effort.

For 23 years, Chappell, 46, has coached basketball, football and baseball, along with track. In July, he will receive the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Miller Community Center.

Neff, 48, coaches cross country and oversees a North End running club. He also works with youngsters in the Yesler Terrace housing complex and has been a Big Brother for years. Recently, because he was selected as a "community hero," he helped carry the Olympic torch on its trip through Seattle.

Their reasons for coaching track are not complex: They know the sport. They like kids. And it's fun. "I get as much out of it as they do," Neff says.

"This is something positive for the kids to do instead of staring at the TV," Chappell says. "I don't get tired doing this. It's something that gets me excited."

They are gifted with the ability to get a bunch of squirmy youngsters calmed down and focused so they can move through a series of stretches, warm-up drills, then laps.

During meets, even the littlest ones, 5- and 6-year-olds with their braids flapping and their hands fisted and their T-shirts hanging below their knees, are able to run and stay within their designated lanes.

A hurdler and competitive runner since high school, Neff first volunteered with Meadowbrook because the "little brother" he was mentoring needed someone to drive him to track meets. That was seven years ago. Now he coaches about 60 kids at Meadowbrook.

Parents praise his patience. Children say he's a good motivator.

"He doesn't pressure us. Our best is our best," says Lauren Hubbard, 12. He individualizes practices, adds another girl, "when you're like hurt."

Chappell's runners come from Capitol Hill, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley and the Central Area. There are about 150 of them - the largest track team in the city - ranging in age from 5 to 17.

Chappell stresses technique, trying to get them to run with knees high, elbows up, eyes straight ahead.

He tells them: "This is like school. We're trying to improve as track students. We're going to do it over and over till it's right."

"He motivates you," says Danielle Allen, 13. "He says things like: `Try your best.' He doesn't talk down to us."