Novi -- Come one, come all.
That’s Tony Magni’s formula for stunning success he has achieved in cross country and track at Novi Detroit Catholic Central.
“If you’re cut from one sport, I’ll take you,” he says. “‘Try running,’ I tell them. ‘You’ll like it.’ Soccer players, golfers, why, I’ve even had a football player come over, and at CC, that’s pretty amazing.”
Of course, that’s how Magni was introduced to track. A football player at Detroit St. Anthony in the mid-1960s under Coach Lou Miramonti, he converted to track in his senior year when “they couldn’t find room for me in baseball.”
“I was the distance kid. I didn’t know what that was.”
That one small step became a giant leap into a coaching career that begins its 46th year this fall with no end in sight. “I don’t want to retire. That means I’m old,” says Magni, 65, now eligible to check the mail for his monthly Social Security check.
While Magni was at the University of Detroit earning a degree in education, he heard about a coaching vacancy at Grosse Pointe St. Paul High School.
“Should I try for it?” he asked Miramonti, who advised: “Why not? All they can say is no.”
He was hired by the Athletic Director, Ed Lauer. In 2003, when Magni received the Catholic League’s Ed Lauer Person of the Year Award, “that was special for me.”
Magni remained at St. Paul for three years until the school was closed in 1968. He coached at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s for the next five seasons until 1973 when he arrived at CC. Ten years later, CC won the state cross country championship, the first of six, including back-to-back titles in 2009-2010, making Magni the winningest Class A/Division 1 coach.
In 1982, CC won the first of 20 Catholic League cross country championships under Magni’s tutelage, including the last four years.
Magni’s track and field squads have won 13 Catholic League titles.
Magni says he hasn’t changed his fundamental coaching philosophy for the past 40 years. “I’ve mellowed some, but they know my rules.”
Promoting camaraderie and team unity is vital. During the summer, Magni invites about two dozen of his top runners to a two-week camp in “The Pinery,” near London, Ontario, Canada, an idea he and Miramonti conceived 46 years ago. The kids run eight miles in the morning, six miles in the evening, and 18-20 miles on the last day.
“We live in tents, we use flashlights, we clean up in the lake. It’s a blast.”
At the end of the school year, Magni spends about a month in his native Italy (he came to the USA when he was 8 years old), visiting property he owns “that’s been in the family for over a hundred years.”
From there, he sends his runners a postcard with the message, “Champions are made in the summer.”
“That’s all. The kids know I’m thinking of them.”
Monthly during the school year, a voluntary team breakfast is held at 6:30 in the morning at a nearby coney island restaurant. “About 40 kids show up, and a dozen or so faculty members, including 4 or 5 Basilian priests. They all pay for their breakfasts.”
Magni is the only remaining faculty member (he teaches history, phys ed and health) who has been at CC when it was located on Outer Drive in Detroit, on Breakfast Drive in Redford, and now at its 60-acre location on Wixom Road in Novi. When CC moved to Novi in 2005, the track was named in his honor. “That is a highlight. I’m glad they did it while I’m alive.”
What about this fall and the defense of its league and state championships?
“I don’t know,” Magni says. “I’ve lost my top four runners from last year, and my number 1 and 3 runners are injured.”
Thinking about running? Magni would like to talk to you.
