Jasinski’s trip through decathlon

By Tom Haley
Rutland Herald Correspondent
Jerry Jasinski arose Tuesday morning at his home on Springfield’s Orchard Lane excited for a little road trip — actually two trips, the one to the University of Vermont and the other a long, winding nostalgic excursion through the world of the decathlon.

Jasinski was going to UVM to present trophies to the state champions for an event that bears his name — the Jerry P. Jasinski 44th annual Vermont State Decathlon.

Jasinski started it all with help from his friend, the late Steve Zemianek.

Jasinski competed in the New Hampshire Decathlon in 1958 as a senior at Towle High School, now Newport High School.

He finished second to Lou Kirouac, a tremendous athlete who would go on to an NFL career, playing with the Giants, Colts and Falcons as a lineman and kicker.

Jasinski also became a giant — a giant in the world of Vermont track and field.

He was coaching the Springfield High School track and field team when Zemianek was heading up the Mount Anthony program. They were close friends and began a tradition where the coach of the losing team of the Springfield-Mount Anthony track meet had to present the winner with a kielbasa at next year’s meet.

Kielbasa is a food at the center of many of Jasinski’s stories. He would frequently tell the one about officiating football games with the late Bo Birsky, who would throw kielbasa on his carburetor before the game to keep it warm for a post-game meal.

Zemianek had also competed in that 1958 New Hampshire decathlon meet. One day, they asked themselves why New Hampshire had the event and Vermont did not.

The answer was to start one in Vermont and so in 1976 at Springfield High School, the Vermont State Decathlon Championships were born. The girls were included and competed in the pentathlon that year.

Rutland’s Bruce Tobin was the first decathlon winner and South Burlington’s Janet Dewar captured the honors in the pentathlon that day. Most importantly, a tradition was born that endures today.

Nobody should be surprised. Longevity is Jasinski’s middle name. He turns 79 next month and is finally retiring from his job as a chemistry professor at Keene State College.

The stories that are sprinkled through the 44-year history of the meet are amazing and Jasinski no doubt thought about a good many of them on his trip to and from Burlington on Tuesday.

One of the funniest came out of that first year. Rutland coach Greg McCallen was under the assumption that Tobin had a ride back to Rutland and the decathlete was left stranded in Springfield after the meet.

Then came the long run of Lamoille’s David Gomez. He won three straight decathlon titles, 1978-1980.

The women’s competition went through a few changes. It switched from the pentathlon to the heptathlon in 1982, and in 2008 became the decathlon with the women competing in the same 10 events as the men.

Oxbow’s Karin Dwyer had the distinction of being both a pentathlon champion and a heptathlon state champion. She won the pentathlon in 1980 and became the first heptathlon winner in 1982. She went to a Hall of Fame career in women’s basketball at Cornell University, scoring 1,256 points.

Perhaps the best story of the heptathlon belongs to Brattleboro’s Heather Pancake, who won the event in 1996 and went on to become a national champion in college.

“You talk about someone who is focused,” said Jasinski as he prepared to get in the car for his trip on Tuesday. “She was just so intense.”

That intensity took Pancake places. She was a four-time NCAA Division III All-American at Wheaton College in Illinois and a two-time national heptathlon champion. She was captain of basketball teams and track and field teams at Wheaton and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame.

Today, Heather Pancake Fincher is an international tax attorney in Washington, D.C.

There is the tragic story of Windsor’s Rhett Morse. He won the decathlon championship in 1990 and earned an athletic scholarship to Maine but died of cancer in 1995 at age 23.

His story of winning the decathlon is one of the most amazing in the event’s history.

Morse spiked himself, went to the hospital for stitches and returned to claim the trophy despite having to pole vault with one hand.

“I told him he needed stitches badly and needed to go to the hospital,” Jasinski said. “He said, ‘But I have to compete.’ I told him that he could compete if he got back in time and if he could not, that’s just the way it was.”

Tracy Guilford’s heptathlon championship in 1991 has to be close to Jasinski’s heart because Guilford wore the Green & White of the Springfield Cosmos in the community where the Father of the Decathlon has lived for so many years.

She scored more than 100 goals for the Springfield Cosmos in soccer before going on to an outstanding career in soccer at Connecticut.

The next year it was Zemianek beaming with pride. Mount Anthony’s Ryan LaCasse stunned everyone in 1992 by winning the decathlon as a freshman.

Burlington’s Steve Yates provided Jasinski with one of his favorite memories in 1985. He did not win the event that year — Bellows Falls’ Fred Waryas won the first of his two straight decathlon championships that year.

But Yates did win the shot put event with a decathlon record throw of 15.78 meters.

“He came down here saying that he was going to set the record. He did and it still stands today,” Jasinski said.

Windsor’s Lee McGranaghan set the decathlon scoring record with 6,626 points in 1983 and it has stood the test of time.

“He was an incredible athlete,” Jasinski said.

When Michael Heitkamp was born at about two pounds, doctors told his parents not to expect him to ever play sports.

Wearing the slate blue uniform of Fair Haven, he won the decathlon state championship in 1999.

He is one of three Heitkamp siblings to raise the largest trophy at the event. Thomas Heitkamp was the 2002 decathlon champion and sister Mary topped the heptathlon field in 2004.

The Heitkamp family is only a slice of the rich Fair Haven history in the event: Manual Richards wore the decathlon crown in 2007, Melissa Purdy won back-to-back heptathlon titles in 1997 and 1998 and then Shannon Corliss made it three straight heptathlon championships by a Slater in 1999.

Jasinski played in the 1958 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl football game for New Hampshire in an 18-0 win over Vermont.

He celebrated the 50th anniversary of playing in the all-star game by officiating the 2008 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.

There have been other success stories of decathlon champions who stood out in the Maple Sugar Bowl.

LaCasse caught three touchdown passes in the Shrine Game and St. Johnsbury’s Mike Middleton made a highlight-reel TD grab after winning the decathlon in 1993. Bellows Falls’ DJ Snide, a two-time decathlon winner in 2016 and 2017, also played in the Shrine Game.

It was amazing to watch Jasinski and Zemianek tabulate the results on the big chart spread over a table using simply a pencil to add numbers.

The meet has undergone many changes including electronic timing and sophisticated use of technology.

It has moved from Springfield to Bellows Falls to Green Mountain Union High School before finding its home in Burlington.

Jasinski relinquished the reins in 2010 but still savors the time spent at the meet, catching up and reminiscing with old coaches.

Memories flowed like wine in Napa Valley on Tuesday for Jerry Jasinski. Hopefully, there was some kielbasa to go with it all.