51-year Northwestern girls track coach Sue Fargo is 'one of the pioneers across the area'
More than a half-century into her career, Northwestern girls track and field coach Sue Fargo does not know the day of her final meet.
Fargo, 73, has even joked with a colleague that her last day might be spent at the track.
"I told him, 'If I go down at the meet, just move me back a little so I don't get spiked and make sure those kids finish the races,'" she said while reading out split times during the Wildcats' visit to the Harbor Creek Invitational on Saturday.
As long as she can physically handle it, Fargo is hopeful she has at least five more years in her. She retired after 35 years of teaching but continued coaching for the next 17. She is in her 51st season. If she does get those five years she's planning on, she would be only two years away from coaching at the age of 80.
"I just really like working with kids and seeing them accomplish something," she said. "I've said for the last 20 years, I'll be done when I can't function anymore. I'm going to go until I can't do it anymore physically."
Fargo's teaching and coaching career began in the fall of 1970. She had graduated that spring from Slippery Rock University, where she played one season of intercollegiate volleyball.
Fargo was 21 years old when she began her career as a health and physical education teacher.
"The only organized sport for girls was volleyball," she said. "No basketball or track and field."
Fargo was the first coach of the Northwestern girls track and field program, beginning in the spring of 1971. She was also the school's first girls basketball coach.
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"Coaching was a big deal because I love to compete," she said. "I wanted to help kids. Slippery Rock didn't have a women's team, but because of my major, I had to learn how to teach every event. I can throw javelin, I can hurdle, but I never got a chance to do it in college, so I wanted to make sure every single girl had their chance."
Fargo has coached two state champions on the Wildcats girls track and field team. Alane Keefer won the 3,200-meter run in 1982, and Amanda Seigworth was state champ twice in the 300 hurdles (2005 and 2006).
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Two of Fargo's athletes earned full-ride scholarships: Keefer, who attended Ashland, and 3,200 runner Katie Donahue, who placed runner-up at states, and went to Rhode Island on a full ride.
"The most important thing for me was to get kids to do their very best, qualify for district and ultimately get to state," Fargo said. "We've had two girls that got full rides to college for big-time money, every cent paid."
Northwestern will honor Fargo and its senior class when the Wildcats host Girard on May 10. Pre-meet festivities will take place at 3:30 p.m.
Tradition lives through athletes, past and present
In her 51 years of coaching, there has been only one season Fargo has not had at least one Northwestern grad helping her with the team.
"Everybody who's been my assistant coach was somebody that I coached or was on the boys team," she said.
One of those former athletes is Nick Copeland, an assistant with the Wildcats and also the new football coach at Iroquois. He ran distance events for Fargo when he attended Northwestern.
"She's one of the pioneers across the area," he said. "She's one of the most hard-working, dedicated and positive people around. She's always very honest when communicating with athletes."
When Fargo joined the athlete department, she was able to work alongside another legendary Northwestern coach, Joe Lisek, who is a member of the Erie County Hall of Fame (1996).
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"Some of the lessons she learned from Coach Lisek, she is passing them down to all of our athletes and coaches," Copeland said. "There's lessons that go back decades that we'll be able to pass down for decades. It's one of those things about a small town and small community."
She has teamed up with at least seven Northwestern boys head coaches during her career.
Andy Canfield has been an assistant for Fargo for 14 seasons and has always been impressed with Fargo.
"I always think of her as the Jedi master," he said. "She is a true professional She has incredible attention to detail in terms of running a practice or running a meet. She checks in with every student and assesses where they're at. She shows the kids that she's there and she cares."
Senior sprinter Angie Thomas, who has also run cross country for Fargo, said that even graduation may not keep her away from her soon-to-be former coach.
"I may come back next year and volunteer," she said. "I really like the sport because of her. She gets to know you personally as well. It's nice to have a female coach. We can talk to her about anything."
Canfield said that Fargo educates her female athletes about the days of her youth. They learn that times have been tougher in the past for girls who want to compete.
"They did not have uniforms in the beginning," Canfield said. "She fought for everything they did for years. She provided opportunities and was at the front end of doing good for Northwestern girls. She reminds kids, "Don't forget, we had to fight.'"
Fargo said most of her early years of coaching revolved around small meets around Erie County. She also scheduled meets with Corry and its longtime track and field coach, Hy Daley.
"They had a nice track for those days, of course cinder like ours," she said. "When we started, the girls didn't go with the boys. It was totally different. We didn't go to the same place. We had little tri-meets. I drove my own car and paid the refs out of my own pocket. The girls wore gymsuits to the meets until '74."
The first year that the Northwestern school district provided its girls track and field team uniforms was 1974, Fargo's fourth year.
"The principal said, 'We have to get you uniforms,'" she recalled. "They were putrid pink T-shirts with red letters or something like that. We went and bought black shorts."
Though the pink may have been "putrid," it was still a win for Fargo. When describing the old Northwestern uniforms on Saturday, Fargo pointed out the sharp red-and-black attire of her current student-athletes.
"We came from nothing to everything," she said.
OId lessons remain
Seigworth, whose married name is Amanda Quigley, went from being a state champion hurdler at Northwestern to an All-America hurdler with Division II Slippery Rock University.
She remembers Fargo's willingness to the extra mile for her athletes.
"She was always such a diehard track and field coach," Seigworth said. "She was all over the place. You'd see her down at the throws one minute and suddenly she's out by the finish line.
"You could tell how much she truly cared, not just about the sport. She would always go out of her way for us. She's a staple for that sport and the athletics program."
Fargo has bestowed her wisdom on three different generations of Northwestern students. She remembers when some of her athletes and coaches were born.
Northwestern boys distance runner Colin Asmondy's relationship with Fargo goes back before he was around. His father has helped Fargo as an assistant for more than 20 years.
"She's one of the main reasons we keep people coming back for track and field every year," Asmondy said. "I still remember she coached me on how to take a baton. I still use that method today and probably will be forever."
Reagan Pettis, a senior who will run at Slippery Rock, is one of many runners that has been coached by Fargo since middle school. Pettis competes in both cross country and track and field.
"She taught me my splits were a big thing," Pettis said. "Every lap, she tells us our splits. It really helps me get to my time goal. She definitely has a lot of wisdom over all the years she has coached. Everyone in the community loves her."
Lex Keith, a distance runner, is yet another athlete that has run for Fargo over the past six years.
"She really made Northwestern track what it is today," Keith said. "It would not be the same without her. She's always helping people and having fun and exciting practices. It keeps people upbeat."
Contact Josh Reilly at jreilly@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNreilly.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Northwestern track coach Sue Fargo has no plans to stop after 51 years
