Big River Feature Interview: Eric Fernandez

Big River Running Company co-owner Ben Rosario is now writing cross country and track articles for St. Louis Scoop Magazine. You can read his articles in the magazine as well. Ben caught up with Eric bright before the start of his senior cross country season where Fernandez will try to add a cross country title to the State track title he won this past spring.

The indelible image of Tiger Woods hugging his father after his first victory at The Masters is one etched in the laurels of American sport. Seeing that special bond between father and son, forged through a common passion and captured live in front of millions gave hope to the notion that sports, kids and parents can co-exist. Not always is it the negative stereotype of the over-bearing dad yelling at the umpire in a little league baseball game. Sometimes it is something much greater, something that maybe only that dad and that son that have that in their lives can understand.

Parkway West senior Eric Fernandez is an amazing athlete. He is already a State Champion, having won the Class 4 3200 meter run last spring. His training regimen is difficult and his searing workout pace has been known to drop many a college runner over the summer. Not everyone can even comprehend how fast Fernandez can go. They just can not relate. His dad can though.

Juan Fernandez, a schoolboy track star who grew up in New York City , knows what it feels like to run fast. He will jokingly tell you that he still has a faster personal best in the mile and in the 800 than his son. He will also admit that Eric will probably beat those times next spring.

Fernandez said his son first caught the bug for running as an eleven-year-old at his first ever track meet.

“It was an 800 and he was racing a kid who was a junior olympic champion,” Fernandez said. “The kid whipped his tail and after that Eric went up to the coaches and told them he wanted to start training hard.”

The younger Fernandez must have listened to whatever his coaches told him that day because he has trained hard ever since. As a high schooler he wasted no time establishing himself. He made it to the State Cross Country Meet as a freshman, a difficult feat, where he finished a disappointing 76th . Disappointing for him that is.

Last year, as a junior, Fernandez finished ninth at State, but he was not at full strength due to a hamstring injury he had suffered with only a few weeks left in the season. Fernandez said that race has him looking forward to this year's State Meet.

“I've been thinking about this State Meet since last year's State Meet,” Fernandez said. “I felt like my lungs were there but my legs just couldn't do it. That's really been eating me up.”

Even though he went on to win a State Championship on the track it is the cross country title he covets most.

“Cross country is my thing and I feel like I have to come back with a vengeance,” Fernandez said.

If and when he does you can bet that his dad will be there cheering him on.

“From the beginning I've been to 95% of all his competitions,” Fernandez said.

According to the younger Fernandez it was running that brought the two together. He said that for much of his younger years his dad had to travel a lot for business and did not spend much time at home.

“When he came home for good I started going on runs with him to spend time together,” Fernandez said. “He was out of shape then too.”

Of course, Juan Fernandez might have to get back in to the shape he was in back in the glory days if he wants to chase Eric around cross country courses this fall. Fernandez will be one of the favorites in every race he enters this season and if all things go to form should run some amazing times.

Last spring, not only did Fernandez win the State Track Meet but he also ran a national level time of 9:13 for 3200 meters all by himself in a small meet at Parkway South. Already this year he has posted a time of 15:40 on a five kilometer cross country course at the St. Louis Track Club's cross country kickoff, an end-of-the summer race for all-comers. The State Meet record is 15:26, set by Matt Tegenkamp of Lee's Summit who has gone on to become one of the nation's best 5k runners of all-time.

The fact that Fernandez may be approaching that sort of time means colleges will be bidding for his services all season long. Of course, where he goes to school depends on its proximity to home. After all, Dad is going to want to see his meets.

Fernandez said he would like to go somewhere in the Midwest and admitted that his dad would like it too.

“I think he just wants me to go somewhere that competes at Oregon so he has an excuse to go back there,” Fernandez said.

Father and Son traveled to the running mecca that is Eugene , Oregon this summer to watch the Prefontaine Classic, one of the best professional track meets in the country. The meet is named after the American distance runner Steve Prefontaine, who once held every American record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters on the track before dying at the age of 24 in a car crash.

Fernandez said the trip, a birthday present from his dad, was amazing.

“Our hotel was like a minute jog from Pre's trail which was pretty cool,” Fernandez said. “Then you'd go over to the track and you'd see people like Alan Webb doing strides on the track.

He even had a somewhat personal encounter with one of the best five-thousand meter runners of all time.

“Running out on the trail the day after the Pre Classic I was just running along and Craig Mottram ran right by me,” Fernandez said. “I started freaking out and I had to stop running just so I could catch my breath.”

It is that enthusiasm for the sport that leads one to believe that the young Fernandez might just be blazing a few trails of his own one day. Either way he will have a proud papa pulling for him every step of the way.

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