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Drawn by Admiration for His Runners, Poreda in 50th Season at Lawrenceville
By Bill Alden
At first, it seems like a strange notion – a high school cross country coach who sees the legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno as his benchmark.
But for Ed Poreda, the boys' cross country head coach at the Lawrenceville School, it makes perfect sense for him to keep an eye on Joe Paterno's fortunes.
Poreda, 76, is the same age as Paterno and like the venerable football coach, he has become a seemingly permanent part of his institution considering that he is currently in his 50th year at the helm of the Big Red program.
Striding into the athletic office at Lavino Field House before a recent practice, Poreda wore a Lawrenceville baseball cap, wrap-around Oakley sunglasses, and a smile that made it clear that he loves where he's at in this stage of his life.
"It's like therapy coming here," said Poreda, who noted that he put in an hour on the exercise bike and worked out on 12-14 weight machines before showing up for practice.
"It is a beautiful setting with the lake, trees. It's like a dream come true for me. I ran at meets here when I was at Trenton High School and I always thought that the place looked like a Hollywood set."
In fact, it was a high school connection that landed Poreda the coaching job at Lawrenceville in the first place. "I was teaching general science at a middle school in Trenton and my high school coach, who had moved on to Princeton, knew the athletic director at Lawrenceville," recalled Poreda. "He knew that they had an opening and I got the job."
When he took the afternoon job in 1954, he had no idea that he'd still be coaching at the school a half-century later. It was a year-to-year thing," said Poreda, who also guided the Big Red boys' track team for more than 30 years and continued to teach at middle school into the 1980s.
"It was an ideal situation, it just kept going on. It was an all-male school then and with all these boys I had to have terrific teams."
Poreda, who wryly notes that he is on his fifth headmaster and fourth athletic director in his tenure, can thank his longevity at the school in part to producing some terrific teams and runners through the years. The coach has lost count of how many state Prep A titles were won by his teams, estimating that they have taken about 15 championships.
Poreda, however, can identify his top team. "My best cross country team was in 1966," added Poreda, a widower who says he plans to keep coaching beyond this fall before ultimately retiring to his condo in North Fort Myers, Fla. "We had a team race against Princeton that year at Palmer Stadium and five guys went under 10 minutes at two miles."
Among the standout individuals he has coached, Poreda cites Merrill Noden, a star at the school in the early 1970s who ran a 9:07 for two miles and went on to have a successful track career at Princeton.
While he has enjoyed the titles won by his teams, his coaching philosophy is centered on deeper precepts than mere wins and losses.
"I've had some kids that started out as the lowest of the low and then ended up doing very well," said Poreda. "The thing is as long as a kid shows the willingness to work, I'm glad to have him. I've had kids that got better just by being persistent and sticking with it."
With his vast experience, Poreda believes he can instill such values in his runners. "I think I can really contribute to these kids," said Poreda, whose current squad competes in the state Prep A championship meet on October 29.
"I tell them you can achieve anything you want to achieve. The big thing is self-image, if you develop a healthy self-image you can accomplish anything."
And make no mistake about it, Poreda keeps coming back in order to be with his kids. "There is so much going on for these kids, the competition is fierce for athletes," said Poreda, whose grandson Daniel Poreda, a sophomore, is running on this year's team.
"The kids are great, I really admire them. They do so many things. Some days, I feel like saying instead of working out, why don't you take a nap. I tell them that for me, watching them run is like an art critic going into the Louvre. I get real joy out of this."
As busy as they may be, the runners certainly benefit from their time with a coaching old master like Poreda.
