Seiss Makes It 4 For 4

Warsaw track and field coach Troy Akers flashed a smile as wide as a Greg Seiss stride in an 800-meter run.

"Greg doesn't know it yet," Akers said last Thursday, "but he's walking away with every major award at the senior sports banquet."

The banquet came and went, and as Akers predicted, Seiss won four awards.

The Warsaw senior athlete earned the Fisher Award, given to the most outstanding football player; the Max Truex Award, given to the top track/cross country athlete; the Marjorie M. Moore Award, a basketball mental attitude award he shared with Chris Rhodes and Jon Walmer; and finally, the Pete Thorn Award, an award he shared with Zach Nelson and Gabe Koser for being a three-sport athlete.

"Greg is the best male athlete I have ever coached," Akers said. "He puts his heart and soul into what he's doing."

Seiss hopes to add to his trophy case this weekend. Warsaw competes in Saturday's track and field state finals in Indianapolis in two events, and Seiss is in both of them.

Seiss, who won the 800-meter run at the Fort Wayne Wayne Regional, enters as the No. 1 seed in the race at the state finals. He is also a member of Warsaw's 3200 relay team, which enters as a No. 12 seed. Joining Seiss in the relay are senior Jason Sibray and juniors Jon Dock and Rob Peters.

Trips to the state finals are nothing new to Seiss; he has advanced that far all four years of high school.

As a freshman on Warsaw's 3200 relay team, the Tigers placed 10th. As a sophomore, he placed 13th in the 800 and was a member of the fourth-place 3200 relay team. As a junior, he placed sixth in the 800 and was a member of the fifth-place 3200 relay team.

His success can be traced to his father, Stan.

Like Stan, Greg is tall, a lean 6-feet-4.

Like Stan, Greg has thrived on the track.

At one time Stan held DeKalb High School's mile record. From DeKalb, he went to Indiana State, where he once held the indoor 1200 record. He used to coach Warsaw's track team.

"A lot of it," Akers says of Greg's success, "is in the genes."

Said Seiss: "When I was in grade school, my dad was the high school coach. He helped me work on technique. He never pressured me, never overcoached me."

Seiss has the finest running form on Warsaw's team. His quiet head and long strides make it seem as if he lopes around the track.

"Being 6-4 and having that stride ... he runs effortlessly," Akers said. "He glides along. Strength training has made him faster, and we ran him in the 200 and 400 early in the season. As far as training for the race, (assistant) coach (Jim) Mills has helped him develop his strength."

Does Seiss know how long his stride is?

"On sidewalks, I know I can go the length between cracks," he said.

The state finals are what Seiss knows, as he has proven after earning All-State honors his sophomore and junior years. But during this regular season, even Akers wondered what was wrong with his prized athlete. Seiss entered the Fort Wayne Wayne Regional as the No. 5 seed in the 800.

"He had a good season," Akers said, "but he didn't have a dominating season."

Reasons were offered: He played basketball, and because the basketball team advanced to the semistate championship, this forced him behind in track season; and a virus that spread through the team nagged at him for more than a week.

Playing three sports for four years, Seiss never got a break, mentally or physically. Football season is in the fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring. The one time each year the grind would get to Seiss, although he says he was "never stressed out," was after the basketball season ended.

"(Akers) would ask me if anything was wrong," Seiss said. "I would tell him I was fine."

Akers concurred. "He's a young man who looks you in the eye and tells you how it is."

Seiss knows about being in peak form, and he did not want to peak during the regular season. He wanted to peak for the state finals, and after a No. 5 seed at the regional and a No. 1 seed at the state finals, he achieved that goal.

"I cared about the conference and everything," Seiss explained, "but I put it down hard the last couple weeks before sectional. I watched my diet more and ate the right foods."

As good as Seiss has been, he has not been able to claim Warsaw's 800 record. That belongs to Darrin Wilcoxson, who set it in 1989 with a state finals second-place time of 1:52.57. The 3200 relay team he competed on during his sophomore year holds the school record in that event with a time of 7:53.43.

Yes, he's seeded No. 1 in the 800. No, he doesn't feel the pressure. He has been a three-sport athlete for four years, he set Warsaw quarterback records, and he is advancing to the state finals for the fourth time in track.

"He's seeded No. 1, but the great thing about Greg, pressure is nothing to him," Akers said. "He's always on an even keel."

At the state finals, fewer than two seconds will separate Seiss from the last seed in his heat. But Seiss knows the point in the race whether he will be a player for first place.

"At the end of the first lap, as long as I am within the top three and feel under control, I think I'll win," he said. "That's when I put down the hammer and go. The first lap I have to be relaxed. I have to get out in front and stay out of traffic."

Seiss had Division I schools, including Central Michigan, Ball State, Purdue and Indiana State, trying to lure him with track offers.

"I had the University of Kentucky coach tell me," Akers said, "what they like about Greg is, number one, his size. Number two, he was running college times his junior year of high school. Number three, and this is the thing they like the most, they see him as a diamond in the rough. Here you have a three-sport athlete who trains for track for three months and is still one of the fastest kids in the state. Most Division I track athletes train year around.

"He will probably still get phone calls from schools wanting him for track after the state meet."

Seiss will continue a sports career at St. Francis (Fort Wayne), where he will major in business. But it will be football, not track.

"I enjoy football the most," he said. "That's why I chose to play football in college."

The future is football, but the present is track. On a cloudy but warm Wednesday afternoon he and Dock, Peters and Sibray jog around the track then do sprints under the watchful eye of Mills.

Then practice, which is short this time of the season, is done.

Seiss gets ready to climb into his pickup. As he does, Mills rolls down his pickup window and says, "Chow down man. Eat a lot of carbs. Build muscles."

Seiss nods his head.

Last week he earned four awards at the senior sports banquet.

He hopes to add to another award Saturday.