By Michael Blouse
In August and into September, John Koons of Notre Dame-Green Pond was worried that his knee tendinitis would keep him from reaching his senior-season goals.
“If you’d have asked me before the season if I’d win districts again,” Koons said, “I’d have told you probably not.”
A bulky knee kept Koons out of action for six weeks, from June through the end of July – an important stretch for building a strong distance base. Accordingly, he started the season slowly and routinely finished behind several of his Colonial League rivals.
Koons was at his absolute best, though, by the PIAA Cross Country Championships in November.
He first repeated as the District 11 Class 2A champion, then finished 12th in the state in the 2A race, recording the fastest time – 17 minutes, 5 seconds on Hershey’s challenging Parkview course – among all Colonial League and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference runners.
Koons, who medaled at states for the third consecutive season, is The Morning Call’s boys cross country runner of the year.
“My older brother Mike,” Koons said, “told me before my last race at states to make the most of it because you’ll miss it when you’re done. So that was my mentality. I wasn’t worried about place or time. I left everything I had out there and that’s the most satisfying thing.”
If Koons sounds wise beyond his years, well, he is an old soul.
Dr. Gene Decker, Koons’ coach from kindergarten through high school, called him the model student-athlete and an outstanding leader.
“John’s an amazing young man,” said Decker, an assistant to Art Corrigan on the Notre Dame-GP staff, as well as the coach at St. Jane School in Easton. “His pedigree comes from his family and he’s a young man of tremendous faith. He leads by example. He’s team-first and is always concerned with the younger kids. And he’s a very smart, talented runner.”
This year, Koons learned the importance of patience.
He admits he was frustrated in the early parts of the season, not producing the types of results and times that he was accustomed to. Even though he was beaten at the Colonial League championships by Southern Lehigh’s Alex Kane, Koons, who placed second, thought it was a turning point.
“Of course I wanted to win but Alex Kane ran a great race that day,” Koons said. “I was really happy with that race. I think it gave me confidence.”
Koons went on to win the district title, then run his best race of the season at states.
Both of Koons’ parents, Michael and Elizabeth, were outstanding distance runners. (Michael Koons ran on Corrigan’s first team at Notre Dame.) John is the third of four siblings. His two older brothers, Mike (a 2015 graduate) and Tom (2017), were key contributors on Crusaders teams. And his younger sister, Katie, runs for Decker as a seventh-grader at St. Jane.
Also, his cousin is Frances Koons, a Central Catholic alum who is one of the most accomplished distance runners the Lehigh Valley has ever produced.
“Yeah, she’s the biggest name,” John Koons said with a smile. “I don’t think any of us are close behind, either.”
Modesty is one of Koons’ most endearing qualities, according to Decker. But he has a competitive streak, too.
“We’re a running family and my parents got us all started at a young age,” said Koons, who expects to attend the Air Force Academy. “It’s special that we’ve all ran at Notre Dame. But having bragging rights over my brothers, that’s a cool thing.”