The Why: Plainfield Pack And The Pack Expansion

CLUB INFORMATION

I never talk about myself on this platform as this has always been made to advance the sports of Cross Country and Track & Field in our state. While this article will contain me using the words "I" and "We", this is not meant to benefit myself, the goal of this article is to benefit athletes across the state with educating them about an amazing service.

As im sure many people have seen already, Palatine Pack TFCC, a youth club based out of Palatine, IL ran by ITCCCA Hall Of Famer Chris Quick and Alex Soto has rebranded themselves to The Pack TFCC in order to expand themselves into more areas of the state. With that expansion developed two new clubs in the Chicagoland Area. One of those clubs is based in Deerfield called North Shore Pack TFCC which is hosted on by Jeff Beaumont and a club in Plainfield called Plainfield Pack that is hosted by myself. Palatine Pack TFCC is still a thing and is the founding club of this new Track & Field League. Think of The Pack TFCC as the NBA and Plainfield Pack, Palatine Pack, and North Shore Pack as the Bulls, Celtics, Lakers, etc.

Ever since the announcement of the club, I have been asked by many people... Why start the club? The answer is simple. Palatine Pack has done an amazing job developing athletes in their area to love the sports of Cross Country and Track & Field in their area. They do this based off these three core values, Build community - Sharing a common passion enriches the athlete’s experience, Teach fundamentals - Learning the basics enriches the athlete’s knowledge, and Have fun - Centering joy in the daily process enriches the athlete’s spirit. Those things at the end of the day are what fosters love for the sport and when you foster that love for the sport in an athlete, the results will come. I wanted to do the same in our area with our youth and high school athletes. The goals of Plainfield Pack will be making this a team and building culture within that team that hopefully bleeds into other programs in our area making things better for everyone. Who wouldn't want athletes in their program are conditioned to what it takes to be a successful leader and know how important a teams culture is to the teams success as they enter the high school ranks or are currently in them?

I have been extremely lucky over the last two years to walk up on the stage at Detweiller Park and physically get to put medals around the necks of Plainfield South athletes that have earned Third Place State XC Trophies along with Ryan Thompsen. That is a truly special moment and those are my fondest memories coaching is that feeling being on the awards stand in Peoria. Seeing your athletes achieve their goals and dreams is something truly magical. It is a situation that many athletes and coaches dream to be in that position. Jason Crowe, Ryan Thompsen, and myself get asked whats the secret? How do you guys have this success? The reason? The culture that has been built by the athletes on the team and has been carried on throughout the years. Thats what causes the success that we have had over the past few years in my opinion. There is no such thing as magical workouts, if you build your culture up to be so great, your athletes will believe whatever they are doing is getting them better. There is 1000+ ways to cook a steak they say. This goes back to the building a community and having fun parts of the clubs mission statement.

Another reason why we have been so good over the last few years is the fact that us and Plainfield North have a great healthy friendly rivalry, where we are consistently pushing each other to be the best versions of ourselves. What is unique is the bonds that are established between the two squads. While we battle it out on the cross country course, on the track, and in the field and are bitter rivals in that setting. After the competition has concluded there is an emmense respect for individuals of both sides. The Plainfield North kids know the Plainfield South kids and the Plainfield South kids know the Plainfield North kids. There are friendships that exist in those two groups. When you see someone that you know in a race on a personal level, there is a certain heighted level of competition that is produced from both parties which leads to great performances. In the club we can do that exact thing by bringing athletes together from Plainfield, Minooka, Yorkville, Joliet, Naperville, Aurora, Oswego, Lisle, Lockport, Lemont, and other towns, make friendships between those athletes that will last a lifetime and that will also make them even more competitive with one another.

Plainfield Pack is open to any athletes that are entering 5th through 12th grade that are sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers and open to distance runners that are entering 5th grade through entering 8th grade. The reason behind only accepting middle school distance athletes is due to the majority of programs in the area having summer running programs established for their high school athletes, so we want athletes to do that and build those relationships with their teammates. For sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers, there are many coaches that would just like to see them stay involved in the sport anyway possible. This is an outlet for them to continue their training to be hopefully be doing something year round.

Our mission statement is simple: The Pack TFCC offers affordable cross country/track and field training and competition for youth, middle school, and high school athletes. We welcome kids of all abilities in hopes of enhancing athlete well-being and fostering a love for cross country/track and field. Our goals are to build community, teach fundamentals, and have fun. Our training is tailored to the needs of the individual. We teach basic fitness activities and the fundamentals of cross country/track and field to our newest athletes while also providing elite training programs for more experienced athletes. All athletes will be challenged to get better each day while having fun through gameplay and teamwork.

Plainfield Pack is not a feeder club for any school and we are big into developing a collaborative approach to training athletes that take part in our club. Plainfield Pack Coaches will never coach athletes beyond the boundaries of our published camps. Camp sessions will never conflict with middle school and high school seasons, we will allow registrants to attend camp sessions and competitions as they please. No attendance is taken nor is attendance required. We will never talk negatively about area coaches or programs, and never steer athletes to middle schools or high schools. We will also reach out to both middle school and high school coaches if a kid is registered with Plainfield Pack to discuss what they want to see from their athletes training. So things like peak mileage for distance runners, amount of volume for sprinters, types of workouts, etc we have constant communication between Plainfield Pack coaches and High School and Middle School Coaches. We will also email our weekly workout plans to coaches that have kids in our program.

In our program our mission in terms of training is to teach athletes the fundamentals of their event group. For distance runners they will be taught how a tempo properly feels, pacing themselves on a run or race, what race pace intensity is, and more. Our sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers will learn improved running mechanics, force application, and more. 

Weekly our distance runners will complete a Long Run, a Tempo/Race Pace effort (This will alternate every other week or if a coach wants their athletes to do no race pace workouts in the summer then tempos every week), and a progression type of run/running game day. Our distance runners will also implement sprinting in our training for some speed dosage and improved mechanics. 

Weekly our sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers will have a day focused on speed (flys, accelerations, etc)/hurdles technique, a day focused on High Jump technique/pylos/speed endurance, and a day focused on Long and Triple Jump/block work/speed. 

Again we will discuss any volume or alternatives with High School and Middle School Coaches. 

Our coaching staff consists of myself (Carson Vittorio) who is the club director and head distance coach. Marcus Norment who is our lead coach and 19 year coach at Plainfield South, he will be the head jumps and hurdles coach for Plainfield Pack as well. Anthony Woods has coached at Plainfield South for 7 years and will be Plainfield Pack’s head sprints coach. Emily Brodko who coaches at Plainfield Central and has experience coaching both distance and sprints. She has coached at Plainfield Central since 2017. Taylor McCormick is an assistant distance coach with the club and also coaches both cross country and track at Old Quarry in Lemont. Her girls took 5th in 2024. Shelley Christensen has coached at both the high school and college level. She has coached at Plainfield Central and Plainfield South and served as the throws coach at the University of St Francis for 7 years. At USF, Shelley had 4 national qualifiers and 1 All-American. We are looking for more coaches as well to help the club. As of now we currently have volunteer opportunities! Please let me know if you would like to help out!

The cost of our club is $350 for any first time athletes with us (which will be everyone season 1) and then after that it will be $250 dollars. The extra $100 for first time athletes pays for their Plainfield Pack Jersey and Plainfield Pack Backpack. This price is a great value compared to other club sports (basketball, 7 on 7 football, hockey, etc) which charge sometimes around $600 to $700 for a 8 week session. We will never turn down any kids due to financial situations as well. Everyone will be welcomed to join the Plainfield Pack. This total is per session. We will host 3-4 sessions a year. 

We also plan to host a bunch of summer meets at Plainfield South or other facilities in our area that are at a reduced cost compared to other summer meets. These meets will be around 3 to 4 hours in length and have creative themes for each meet to bring the excitement to them (kids dressing up in costumes, fun meet T-Shirts, etc). I dislike the AAU and USATF model especially when it comes to having athletes young that are new to the sport around it. I have never understood why are we taking a bunch of kids that are scientifically proven to have shorter attention spans and sit them down at a 3 day, 12 hour per day, meet and be like “hey guys here is Track & Field, hope you enjoy it”. These meets will be free to any Plainfield Pack athletes and a small charge for any outside athletes that want to compete. These meets will be a fun way for athletes to get competitions during the summer if they wish. 

We would love for you to spread the word to any of your athletes about the club and really encourage them to be part of this. I promise you will not regret it. If you have any questions about the club or would like to schedule a call or a sitdown conversation I would be more than happy to do so. Also if you would like, I'd be more than happy to come talk with your athletes as well about this amazing opportunity. 

Hope to hear from you guys and thank you for taking your time to read this novel lol. I'm extremely passionate about aiding the sport which is why I have done my media work for so long and want to find as many ways that I can help the sport as I can. I am a firm believer that competition is a tide that lifts all boats.