Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? last event of the meet. There was Steve Dzibias' record-setting 500-meter race in 1983 on a 200-meter flat track that stood for another 30 years. And Liz Groh, who placed in both the 200 and 400 sprint events at the NCAA Cham- pionships despite running with only a few minutes break between them. The moment that stands out the most, though, was the first time Piane watched one of his athletes break four minutes in the mile. Chuck Aragon was a highly coveted half-miler com- ing out of high school. It took Piane al- most the entire four years that Aragon was at Notre Dame to convince him his best event would be in the mile. A few months later, Aragon clocked in at 3:59 at a meet at the University of Illinois. "That was a kick in the pants," Piane said. "I think it was validating. Chuck took a big chance on coming to Notre Dame. He took a chance on me." The two remain close friends now because of that moment. Piane is the godfather of Aragon's oldest daughter, Alexa. She finished her Notre Dame track career this June as a two-time All-American. A third Aragon, Dani- elle, will be one of the top seniors on the Irish cross country team this fall. While coaching his second gen- eration of the Aragon family, Piane started making plans to pass his pro- gram to someone new. Two years ago, he promoted Alan Turner, his sprints coach, to associate head coach and started handing him more responsi- bilities. Turner 's sprinters have been the program's top performers during the last few seasons. He said he plans to lean on the massive vault of experi- ence Piane provides as he gets started. No college sports teams have as many athletes on the roster doing as wide a variety of jobs as a track team. Turner said he was impressed with how well Piane knew all of his athletes and understood when to push them and when to nurture them. He remembered one day in partic- ular when Piane, a lifelong distance coach, spotted one of Turner's sprint- ers laboring through a long workout. He told Turner that particular runner was tough enough to run a strong race and he didn't need to wear her down at practice. "It's the little subtle things like that he's taught me," Turner said. "He's taught me when to be firm with the kids and when to be understanding and sympathetic." Turner said he plans to continue to talk to the veteran coach as a re- source as he tries to put his own spin on a program covered in Piane's fin- gerprints. Piane plans to oblige, but knows it won't be long before those conversations become less about how to do things and more about how things are going. "I don't think you ever want to cut ties, but I should probably stay away for a while and let the new staff do what they need to do," he said. "I'm always here if I need to help." Piane has been a constant source of help for generations of Notre Dame track athletes that have passed through his program and onto big- ger things. It doesn't appear that will change with his retirement. ✦