These races were about four times bigger than a normal junior Olympic qualifier. The competition was much higher than our typical races, with between 60 and 90 competitors in each age division.

Look, everybody is always telling us how good the city schools are getting and how tough we're going to have it and how the odds are against it, ... I want them to think of Tommy Lee Jones in that scene and say, 'We don't care. We have to do our job.' .

Brian Tate

We have a lot of kids who have jobs, who are out for other sports or have little brothers and sisters to take care of and they just can't stay at school until six o'clock every night. What the seventh-period PE program allows us to do is work with them until the final bell of the day - and maybe a half-hour more.

Brian Tate