Sports
Mepham to Host 4th Annual Paul Limmer Track & Field Invitational Tomorrow
More than 50 teams with over 2,500 athletes are expected to attend this event that honors a longtime Mepham coach and teacher.
Teams from all three area high schools will be competing in the 4th Annual Paul Limmer Pirate Track & Field Invitational tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Mepham High School.
Paul Limmer was a Mepham teacher and coach from 1963 to 2000. Anyone who has run cross country or been on the track team at Mepham in the last 20 years has had their lives touched in some way by Limmer.
It was a suprised to me the first year that they had it," Limmer said. "I am gratified and honored that they would name a meet in my honor."
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Larry Mancini a former athlete of Paul Limmer's expressed nothing but gratitude toward his former coach.
"For some of us, it was the first time we knew what it was like to have someone believe in us," he said. "He made us better than we ever dreamed of being. I was not a natural athlete. But I have a stack of medals from track and cross country meets that came to me because of Paul Limmer."
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Paul Limmer's 36-year high school coaching career spanned five decades. During that time Mepham High School won numerous titles ranging from local to National: Footlocker Champions, National Champions men and women, three Penn Relay, Championships of America (two Boys DMR, one girls 4 x 800), NYS Champions, Sectional Champions galore. Mepham's Girls DMR held the National Record for 20 years. During his tenure Mepham's Girls XC squad compiled an enviable 153 wins with only two losses.
"I worked 36 years in Bellmore, but I never worked a day in my life," Limmer said. "I never saw it as a job. I enjoyed the kids and I enjoyed myself every single day."
When Limmer retired in 2000, he retired as the winningest combined boys and girls track coach in state history with over 700 wins. Mepham still holds the venerable Van Cortland Park 5 man 5k average, 16:12 per man set in 1980.
He was National High School XC Coach of the Year in 1990 and NYS Coach of the Year numerous times. In 1993 he was the Honorary Referee of the Penn Relays. Perhaps his finest achievement is the legions of former athletes who currently coach all over the US. He returns to CSI for a third time.
All of the proceeds from this event will directly support the Mepham High School Track and Field team. More than 50 teams are expected to be in attendance with over 2,500 athletes.
(Jaime Sumersille contributed to this article.)
