Dennis Brinson and Pete Sinnott have a lot in common in regard to their ties to Carson City and Nevada, especially when it comes to playing active roles in the local sports community.
Both grew up in Carson City. Sinnott's father, William V. Sinnott, played for a Villanova basketball team that went to the first NCAA Final Four in 1939 and later worked for Governor and U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt. Brinson's grandfather, Cyril Bastian, was a state legislator from Caliente who served as Speaker of the House.
From a competitive standpoint, Sinnott was a record-setting middle distance runner at Carson High and at the University of Nevada in the 1960s and '70s. Brinson was a tennis standout for the Senators who pursued his sport to the University of Redlands in Southern California in the '70s.
These days, they're spending time together trying to pass along the enjoyment of competition to a new generation of Carson City athletes as coaches of the newly organized Sierra Flyers youth running club.
The Sierra Flyers program is open to youngsters 9 to 17 years of age, whether they want to prepare for national Junior Olympic cross country competition or whether they simply want to run for fun.
"We'll take anyone, boys or girls, even if they haven't run before," Sinnott said. "We're just trying to provide an environment for kids who care about conditioning and being in shape. It's mostly about fitness rather than about being a champion, but whatever your goal is, that's what we'll help people do. If you want to be a champion, we'll help you go to that level. If you just want to come out to run to get in shape and be with other people, that's part of what we want to do, too."
For example, the two coaches have coordinated weekly Wednesday evening runs at Spooner Summit through the summer.
"It's been a lot of fun," Sinnott said. "We go up there at sunset and it's just perfect, running through the forest at twilight, with the flowers and ferns and everything. Everybody goes at their own level for 30, 40 minutes, and it's 15 degrees cooler than it is down here in the desert."
Sinnott, now 54 and owner of Western Environment Landscaping in Carson City, knows a thing or two about running. He was a state champion in the mile and 880 as a senior in 1967 at Carson High, plus he set school records in the 880 (1:58.6) and mile (4:36). He went on to run school record times of 1:49.2 in the 880 and 4:02.8 in the mile at Nevada in 1972 and was part of a distance medley team that ran a school record of 2:54.1 that was never broken (along with Peter Duffy, Butch Johnson and Anthony Risby).
Brinson, now 46 and an Allstate Insurance agent, finished third at the Nevada state tennis tournament as a senior at Carson High in the fall of 1974.
"I went down there because they had a national championship (NAIA) tennis team and I played soccer there, too," Brinson said, "Then when I read Kenneth Cooper's book, Aerobics, I went out to the track to see what kind of shape I was in -- and I kind of got hooked."
Brinson was busy running around at Western Nevada Community College last Saturday as race director for the sixth annual Cross Country Cup. The event was held as a fund-raiser to help the Sierra Flyers with their travel expenses for Junior Olympic meets later this year. The Junior Olympic national championships will be held in Albuquerque, N.M., on Dec. 14.
Runners from Carson City, Carson Valley and South Lake Tahoe are involved with the Flyers' program. One goal is to attract enough runners to field complete teams in as many of the boys and girls age group divisions as possible, according to Brinson.
"The goal is nationals -- the serious kids want to be in the top 25 and become All Americans -- but really, the fun part about it is getting the kids together for training runs and the trips," Brinson said. "And the thing is, we've seen some great places. We've been to Chicago, Portland, South Carolina, last year we went to Omaha, and this year, Albuquerque," added Brinson, whose children, Spencer and Annie, are past qualifiers for the Junior Olympic nationals.
"I remember Annie's first race and how my eyes kind of welled up," he said. "It wasn't so much seeing her winning or losing, it was just seeing her giving her best."
Cross country is challenging, yet rewarding.
"It's good discipline for whatever you may want to do," Brinson said. "You get to understand that in the first couple of weeks, it may not feel very good, but then your body begins to adapt, and then something you thought was unattainable, all of a sudden you can do it."
Sinnott echoed that.
"It's really good to have a goal, no matter what it is, just to have something to motivate yourself to go out and be better at something," he said. "In running, there's a measurable goal you can achieve with the clock. You did something better today than you did the day before."
For information about the Sierra Flyers, call Brinson at 885-0100.
Dave Price is a sports writer for the Nevada Appeal