ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

SDA junior strives for excellence every time out

It’s safe to say that Christine Capetola is a coach’s dream. The St. Dominic Academy junior runner is about as dedicated of an athlete as you can find.

“As Pollyanna as it sounds, the kid works hard,” St. Dominic Academy track and field coach/athletic director John Nagel said. “She’s extremely self-motivated. All summer long, she’s out there working on improving. She works so hard that it sometimes angers the others. She doesn’t take a day off and is pushing herself every day. She runs everyone else to the ground.”

It would be easy for someone who is as talented as Capetola to put it on cruise control from time to time. You can’t always expect to be at peak performance level. There are days when you just don’t feel like it or days when the little aches and pains become too much to bear.

But Capetola never lets those days stop her.

“I just like to work hard,” Capetola said. “I have personal goals and I want to do whatever I can to achieve them.”

Capetola is also her toughest critic.

“She’s very focused, and is sometimes too hard on herself,” Nagel said.

When Capetola arrived at SDA three years ago, she wasn’t exactly a budding superstar. She was a product of the St. Anne’s [Jersey City] program that had sent many runners to SDA over the years. Nagel figures that total to be around 20 or so.

“St. Anne’s has been probably our biggest provider of track athletes over the years,” Nagel said. “Christine was a very raw runner at the grammar school level. She was very talented. I thought she would be good. She didn’t arrive as a world beater. She had to work to get where she is now.”

Capetola started off as a freshman, running strictly in freshmen events. But it didn’t take long for Nagel to realize that she was ready to make her mark on the varsity level.

“She did very well as a freshman right out of the gate,” Nagel said. “It’s our rule that all freshmen have to compete in freshman events for the first five weeks, but you could see that she was excelling doing that.”

But Capetola had no idea that she was ready to develop into a track star.

“I never thought it would get to this,” Capetola said. “I just wanted to be on the varsity and see what would happen. I never expected any of the success.”

For Christine Capetola, it’s been nothing but success since her career took off. She just completed her finest year as a cross country performer, collecting gold medals the way that most teenagers collect video games and CDs.

Capetola won the triple crown of local cross country races, taking the HCIAA, the Hudson County Track Coaches Association, and the Jersey City championships for the second straight year.

Capetola was also eighth in the Catholic Track Conference championships, placed ninth in the NJSIAA Parochial A championships, and earned a berth in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions that was held last Saturday at Holmdel. She finished 83rd among the 250 runners who participated in the state meet, which she competed in for the first time.

“We also did a lot as a team, which is more important to me,” Capetola said. “Winning the county championship as a team for the first time since I’ve been here is also very important to me. A lot of personal things happened as well. I guess it was a good year all around.”

For her efforts, Capetola has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week for the past week.

Capetola is just a very driven young lady. Not only does she work hard when she runs, but she’s also a diligent student, ranked among the top three in the junior class at SDA.

“School is always the first priority,” Capetola said. “It’s my first focus. It’s very important to me.”

While she still has another year of high school left, Capetola said that it’s not too early to think about college.

“I’ll start thinking about it soon,” said Capetola, who will compete in indoor track through the winter months this year, instead of playing basketball. “I think college is a work in progress. I have a number of different ideas that I’d like to do.”

Capetola said that she is considering pursuing either a business degree or possibly attend law school. She also has a keen interest in journalism.

“I like writing,” said Capetola, who used to be a member of the SDA student newspaper. “I like creative writing, but I wouldn’t mind something in journalism. I have to think about it more.”

For now, Capetola is happy with what the cross country season provided. She posted a personal best of 20:25 in one of the meets at Bayonne County Park, which is a solid time. But there is room for improvement. There always is.

“Now, that she’s going to have continuity from winter to spring, Christine should really have a nice track and field year,” Nagel said. “She’s been successful, but she can be really successful. It’s only going to help her that she’s going to run all year round. She works hard and she enjoys what she’s done. I think she’s going to be very good.”

It seems as if Capetola is already there – with only better things on the horizon. – Jim Hague