By John Nepolitan

On Sunday, October 25th, while the rest of the New York Metropolitan area was starting its prep for Hurricane Sandy, as she worked her way up the East Coast, I woke up to check my e-mail. I soon read a message that indicated that a major part of my life since 2006 was about to come to an end. Once I confirmed this was happening, I had to change gears and get ready for the second major hit I was due for within the next 24 hours.

After Sandy had ripped through the region, I had come through better than most, with no damage or loss of power. Now that I have time to sit back and think back over the last six years with DyeStat.com, all I can think about is the joy that working with and for John and Donna Dye has brought me and the lifetime friends I have made in people like Steve Underwood, Dave Devine, Rich Gonzalez and Doug Binder, to name just a few.

My own journey to the DyeStat team started when I was coaching at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. As John loves to tell, the World Cross Country Championships were to be held in Dublin in 2001. After talking to my principal, we came up with a plan to take 12 seniors from my team to Dublin to watch the race and spend a day or two playing tourist, in and around the city. At the last minute, the meet was moved to Belgium due to a fear of Hoof and Mouth Disease outbreak in Europe coming into Ireland.

Prior to us leaving, I had contacted John if he wanted some photos and maybe even a story about our trip. With the meet moved, we still went to Dublin, met some local high school runners for a workout and watched the races on TV (most will recall a pair of youngsters named Dathan Ritzenhein andMatt Tegenkamp taking third and fifth for Team USA’s juniors).

Six years later, I had decided to give up coaching and find a new direction within the sport. So I figured I would simply pick up a camera and see if I could combine a childhood interest with my passion: Track and XC. Once again, I contacted John to see if he could use any photos from the USATF Cross Country Championships that were going to take place in New York that February (see the Nicole Blood photo above). John gave me the go ahead and I guess he was happy with what I sent in (I kind of surprised myself of what I was able to do). He hired me for the National Scholastic Championships to be held in New York within a month. Later that spring, I was hired to take photos at the Penn Relays and at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina. In North Carolina, John and I sat down for a talk after breakfast and he asked if I would like to join the DyeStat team.

Since that morning in Greensboro when I officially joined the DyeStat team, it has been nothing but a blast. Come on, I got to travel to all the major track events in the USA! The Foot Locker Nationals, all but one of the NXN Championships, Arcadia, the Mobile Meet of Champs,

Nepo “in action” at the 2009 Penn Relays. Photo by Pat Davey.

Penn, USATF Championships, and the Olympic Trials come to mind fast. I got the best seat in the house and got paid for it. Sure, it took lots of hours, but I would not have changed one thing.

In fact, I’ll never forget when Aisling Cuffe, truly one of the all-time great high schoolers I ever got to photograph, said at one meet that she wanted to be me when she grew up. She said that I get to go to all these great meets, be trackside and on the infield, and get all these great t-shirts from the meets. I had to laugh. Here she was, headed to Stanford and on to a great life that the school would set her up in, and she wanted to be me. Got a kick out of that.

Besides traveling in the USA for DyeStat, I was able to venture to Canada, France, Scotland and Spain. And besides making some lifetime friends with those who were part of the DyeStat team, I was able to get to know others in the track and field world I would never had had the chance to meet without DyeStat.

Besides the great people I worked with, one thing I will never forget is seeing those that we covered over the years move onto the next level, and being able to say at least to myself, “I knew them back when.” A few of those who rose to the highest level of our sport that come to mind are Matt Tegenkamp, Donn Cabral, and Jenny Barringer. It was so much fun seeing the smiling faces of Team USA members at the World Juniors or World Youth Championships when they saw a familiar USA face (okay, behind a camera) in the middle of a place where the first language may not be English. I will carry with me nothing but great memories from my years at Dyestat and owe John and Donna a big thank you, since I was at a point in my life where I was not really sure where I was going. They took me into the DyeStat family and I did and always will look upon them as my second family.

The last photo John Nepolitan ever took for DyeStat: The winning Tatnall girls team at Eastern States this fall — another Van Cortlandt shot.

The New York area has to rebuild and start anew. So will I. The sport of track and field will move forward, but there is no doubt that DyeStat made a major impact on the sport and the lives of many young people. I am proud to have been part of that in some small way.