![Daley Cline, left, Bree Salcedo, Megan Giovanniello, and Megan Slater were on last year’s state winning relay team and are still working to cope with the death of coach Jeff Sommer.]()
Daley Cline, left, Bree Salcedo, Megan Giovanniello, and Megan Slater were on last year’s state winning relay team and are still working to cope with the death of coach Jeff Sommer.
![Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone performs push-ups with members of the boys team on Wednesday.]()
Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone performs push-ups with members of the boys team on Wednesday.
![Daley Cline, right, warms up with members of her track team before an early morning practice at the school on Wednesday. Cline was a member of the 4X800 meter championship team. Coach Jeff Sommer collapsed and died from a heart attack while cheering the team on.]()
Daley Cline, right, warms up with members of her track team before an early morning practice at the school on Wednesday. Cline was a member of the 4X800 meter championship team. Coach Jeff Sommer collapsed and died from a heart attack while cheering the team on.
![Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone, center, coaches Daley Cline, far left, and Megan Giovanniello during an early morning practice on Wednesday. Both girls were members of the 4x800 meter state champion team last year.]()
Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone, center, coaches Daley Cline, far left, and Megan Giovanniello during an early morning practice on Wednesday. Both girls were members of the 4×800 meter state champion team last year.
![Megan Slater, left, Megan Giovanniello, Bree Salcedo, and Daley Cline, hold the baton they used to win last year’s state relay title and wear the rings they received after their victory.]()
Megan Slater, left, Megan Giovanniello, Bree Salcedo, and Daley Cline, hold the baton they used to win last year’s state relay title and wear the rings they received after their victory.
Gone but Never Forgotten
![Late Estero cross country coach Jeff Sommer was voted into the FACA Hall of Fame.]()
Late Estero cross country coach Jeff Sommer was voted into the FACA Hall of Fame.
Jeff Sommer is gone, and yet he remains with every athlete he ever coached. They hear his voice and see his face and feel his presence in the darkness of their morning runs. His shadow continues to chase them.
It’s been a year since the 58-year-old’s death at the state track and field championships in Jacksonville, yet for those at Estero High School who competed and learned life lessons from the former athletic director, it’s as if he never left. His image is everywhere they turn — in pictures, in places, in memories.
READ MORE: Impact of Jeff Sommer’s death reached all levels
They remember that he died coaching until the very end, that he earned one last state championship when his girls 3,200-meter relay team crossed the finish line. But when those four girls turned to find an embrace from the man who led them there, to the legendary cross country coach who helped his program reach magical heights, they would never find one.
In the year to come, that moment would change them.
It’s tough to wrap your mind around what these girls are going through.
Christopher Stanley, associate professor of psychology at FGCU
The girls running in that state title relay still can’t explain the way their lives have veered since then. Daley Cline stumbles to find the right words at the kitchen table. Megan Slater pauses in a quiet moment at her desk at the University of South Florida.
Breeana Salcedo pieces through the year that was lost. Megan Giovanniello touches on finding success through turmoil.
For all four girls, it remains impossible to erase the events of May 2, 2015.
“It’s tough to wrap your mind around what these girls are going through,” said Christopher Stanley, an associate professor of psychology for Florida Gulf Coast University who’s based in Tallahassee and specializes in sports psychology. “The event should be the highlight of their athletic career and adolescence. It turns into something more complicated.”
Daley Cline
Coping with the trauma of loss
There is no individual moment Cline can pinpoint in a year of setbacks. Moments blur together, like faded dreams. But over the last year, for the first time in her career, she faced the struggle of inadequacy. All things considered, she didn’t have a great race this spring — her 800- and 1,600-meter run times were slower than they had ever been.
![Daley Cline, a member of the Estero High School track team runs 200 meter repeats while practicing with teammates early Wednesday morning. She was a member of the state winning 4x800m relay team in 2015.]()
Daley Cline, a member of the Estero High School track team runs 200 meter repeats while practicing with teammates early Wednesday morning. She was a member of the state winning 4x800m relay team in 2015.
Compared to her freshman, sophomore and junior campaigns, when she pushed for sub 5-minute mile times and 2:20 half miles, won two state titles in cross country and then another two in the 3,200-meter relay, she faced, as an athlete, maybe the toughest challenge yet: the angst of plateau amid the trauma of loss.
“People who aren’t usually beating me are beating me,” she said. “People start rumors: she’s slow now, because she does this and this. It’s annoying. I just want to make everyone proud.”
I put a lot of pressure on myself to run well for coach. So when I didn’t, that’s mostly what I’m upset about. I don’t want to let him down.
Daley Cline
By season’s end, it made an impact. She didn’t run well in the regional meet in either race, which meant she didn’t qualify for the state championships this weekend in Bradenton. This is especially peculiar because she had been there three years previously. While the spring season began on a high after she signed with Alabama in January, it ended with a thud when she performed below the standards the Crimson Tide may have expected for an incoming Division-I runner.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to run well for coach,” said Cline, who did not run the 3,200 relay this spring out of respect for Sommer. “So when I didn’t, that’s mostly what I’m upset about. I don’t want to let him down.”
A year earlier, during that fateful state championship relay, she ran the best race of her career. There was no doubt. Only one half-mile over her entire career had come close to the 2:17 she ran that day, and it set the tone for the Wildcats’ best race of the season.
“I remember asking myself, ‘Daley, if you can just hang on with that first leg…’ ” she said.
![Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone, center, talks to members of his girls team after a hard workout on Wednesday.]()
Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone, center, talks to members of his girls team after a hard workout on Wednesday.
She remembers bumping fists with Sommer only moments before the starting gun, then surging off, finding one last kick in the final 200 meters, her long peaceful stride setting the Wildcats up for their momentous victory. That interaction would turn out to be the last she had with her coach. Euphoria would soon wash away in grief.
And while Cline remained positive through tragedy, trying to lead by example through practice and competition, in the months that followed she faced new fears.
As an athlete, who am I without my former coach?
Some days, she was the competitor she always had been, the runner coach called “Smiles.” Other days, she wasn’t. An injury before the spring season was crushing. She entered the track season unprepared. Soon enough, she faced the riddle of knowing where she stood competitively.
Over 700 say final goodbye to beloved Estero coach Jeff Sommer
“They’re forced to cope with this death alongside practicing and performing,” said psychology professor Stanley. “And they have to deal with a shift in coaching and team dynamics, which is difficult when you combine each together.”
Some days, she’s still left wondering where she fits in, whether it will ever be the same. When she arrives at Alabama this fall, all those questions may resurface again. Can she get back to what she used to be?
“Coach Sommer was the one always motivating me,” she said. “And now it’s about self-motivating. But it gets tiring after a while. To motivate myself and reassure myself? Now there’s no one there to help me through that.”
![Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone, right, times members of the girls team in 200 meter repeats during an early morning practice on Wednesday. Pignatone took over as the track and cross country coach after Jeff Sommer collapsed and died while cheering on the girls during the state winning 4x800 meter championships. Daley Cline, second from right, and Megan Giovanniello, far right, were on the state winning team.]()
Estero High School track coach, Ben Pignatone, right, times members of the girls team in 200 meter repeats during an early morning practice on Wednesday. Pignatone took over as the track and cross country coach after Jeff Sommer collapsed and died while cheering on the girls during the state winning 4×800 meter championships. Daley Cline, second from right, and Megan Giovanniello, far right, were on the state winning team.
Breeana Salcedo
Illness adds to challenge of returning to form
Salcedo’s struggles were more difficult to pin down. Only she knew the pain she was enduring.
Why did one of Estero’s most promising runners from a season ago sit out an entire year? What happened? Did she quit?
It was tough to explain. And much bigger than mononucleosis, the diagnosis she was given near the start of the fall cross country season.
“Teammates did ask, ‘Why aren’t you coming to practice?'” she said. “And I had to tell them I couldn’t do anything. But I did keep stuff to myself. I’m not going to say things.”
Tragedy mars relay victory for Estero girls
It happened in the summer, maybe from a water bottle, she thinks. Then it lingered, plunging her body into lethargy that at times saw her sleep hours at a time. Did it combine with grief? Did the event of losing someone so close erase her desire to get back on the track? Maybe. But to know Salcedo, you must also understand she’s a perfectionist. Her own will power, at times, is her biggest weakness.
She had gained the nickname “Bully” two seasons ago from Sommer following a practice where she refused to take it easy. Standing 5-foot-8 with long brown hair and lean but muscular arms, she had once carried two girls during a tire pull. She performed double workouts routinely, going from the pool to the track, despite the fact that she had exercise-induced asthma.
Like anything else, she tried to beat mono head on. And then she relapsed over and over again, taking three steps back for every step forward. She didn’t run a competitive race as a senior.
![Easter High School track members Megan Giovalliello, front, and Daley Cline run 200m repeats with teammates during an early morning practice at the school on Wednesday. Both were members of the 4x800m 2015 state championship team.]()
Easter High School track members Megan Giovalliello, front, and Daley Cline run 200m repeats with teammates during an early morning practice at the school on Wednesday. Both were members of the 4x800m 2015 state championship team.
“It was extremely hard,” she said. “Because not only did I not have him anywhere, but I couldn’t do what I love. I couldn’t run anymore. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
For a long time, any issue could be cured by running. But when it was taken away, those outlets didn’t exist anymore. She rarely spoke about the effects Sommer’s death had on her morale.
“There were times when she wouldn’t really feel like talking,” her mother Tammy said. “And there were times when she wanted a lot of privacy. We respected that.”
It came after such a promising junior season. Before arriving at Estero as a junior, Sommer had promised her a state ring, if only she worked for it.
And then, after taking the baton from Cline during the race last May, Salcedo seized it. She charged ahead aggressively, taking the lead after one lap. While she gave it up late, it was her courage, going toe-to-toe with her Miami Northwestern counterpart, that largely sparked a rally that day. She finished her split in 2:18, just a few meters behind the lead.
“All I remember is I tried to surge,” she said, “and then it was all a blur.”
She showed courage after Sommer’s death, which came early in the day-long meet. She suggested the team honor his memory by continuing to race. It’s what he would have wanted, she thought. She spoke with her mother about the desire to do so. Later that day, she became just one of two Estero athletes to medal with her seventh-place finish in the 800.
A year later, losing a season was almost unthinkable. But when it was finally realized, it changed her perspective. From a young age, she had overcome a hearing disorder, which forces her to work twice as hard as other students. As an athlete, she had overcome numerous injuries, like a knee problem as a junior. It was bad enough that her mother thought it would keep her from even running.
If she just has a little faith, she continued to believe, maybe this year of pain would turn into something good. And if it didn’t? Maybe it was all part of some greater plan.
“I’m slowly trying to conquer the little things,” she said, “And building myself back up.”
Megan Giovanniello
‘I wanted to run every single race for him.’
Giovanniello had lost an entire year once arriving at Estero for a Florida High School Athletic Association violation that was deemed “follow-the-coach.” Simple mistakes added up, like riding the Estero bus prior to a meet while she was still enrolled at Ida Baker. It was a trail of consequence. There was nothing she, or her parents, could do about it.
But while that ban was handed to her in the spring of her freshman year following the transfer, Sommer gave her hope. He handed her a piece of granite. He wrote on both sides, the first half with the words “Come back untouchable,” giving her a sense of invincibility, and then the next with “Free Fry,” a nickname he had bestowed upon her.
Village of Estero to create “Jeff Sommer Day”
Over the course of his 30 years of coaching, Sommer had an innate ability to connect with athletes. Even during times of difficulty, it was his biggest strength. And even then, it proved to Giovanniello that Estero was the right place to be.
![Megan Giovanniello, a member of the Estero High School track team runs 200 meter repeats while practicing with teammates early Wednesday morning. She was a member of the state winning 4x800m relay team in 2015.]()
Megan Giovanniello, a member of the Estero High School track team runs 200 meter repeats while practicing with teammates early Wednesday morning. She was a member of the state winning 4x800m relay team in 2015.
So when she finished the third leg in the state relay last May, timing in at 2:21 and bringing the Wildcats a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, she looked for him. Where was he? Did he see me run?
“I couldn’t see him,” she said. “I’m not sure, but he may have gone down then.”
How do you cope with a feeling of loss? That you could do nothing to stop it? Giovanniello felt as if she just needed to run through it. Never quit, Sommer told her. How could she now?
“Winning a relay at states is such an intense emotional experience,” psychology professor Stanley said. “Now it’s very strongly paired with a death event. I can see rather clearly how it can be a strong trigger”.
Winning a relay at states is such an intense emotional experience. Now it’s very strongly paired with a death event. I can see rather clearly how it can be a strong trigger.
Christopher Stanley, associate professor of psychology at FGCU
Losing a year of competition taught Giovanniello about patience. But what did death teach her?
For three months, she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it. She tried watching the state championship race. Her brother, Mike, recorded it from the stands. But she could not do that, either. Instead, she was numb. She ran with teammates, by herself and competed. Run through it, she told herself. Anything to make her faster.
“I wanted to give it my all,” she said. “I wanted to run every single race for him.”
Anguish followed in cross country. She struggled. She couldn’t break under 20 minutes in a 3.1-mile race until September.
“People don’t realize how hard it was for these girls to run,” her mother, Madeline, said of Sommer’s death. “It’s difficult. It’s emotional. It might be long forgotten for them, but it’s not long forgotten for these kids.”
EDITORIAL: Jeff Sommer was influential, inspirational
Giovanniello did break through in October. She finished fourth at the LCAC Championships, then placed second at the district meet with a time of 19:47.
Was it persistence? Faith?
Come back untouchable, he said.
In the spring, the junior had her best season yet, winning the district 1,600-meter run in 5:18. She qualified for the state championships in the mile and 800, looking the most confident she’s ever been.
“I just thought to myself, ‘I owe it to coach, I want to do it for him,’ ” she said. “I wouldn’t be the runner I am if it weren’t for him.”
![Bree Salcedo, left, Megan Slater, Megan Giovanniello, and Daley Cline, were on last year’s state winning relay team and are still working to cope with the death of coach Jeff Sommer.]()
Bree Salcedo, left, Megan Slater, Megan Giovanniello, and Daley Cline, were on last year’s state winning relay team and are still working to cope with the death of coach Jeff Sommer.
Megan Slater
Losing the love for competition
Slater was the only member of the relay team to graduate and move on, faced dealing with Sommer’s death in her own way. She enrolled at the University of South Florida where she joined the cross country team.
But midway through her first season, she knew her heart wasn’t in it. It hadn’t been there since Sommer died.
“After the state meet, I was done running,” she said. “I knew I wouldn’t be the same, but I gave it some thought and tried to push myself.”
It didn’t work. She had lost her love for competition.
“Coach Sommer was just special,” she said. “He called you out if you were slacking. He cared. He connected with you on a personal level. He put athletes before himself.”
She had to ask herself a vital question, too. Just why am I running?
Coach Sommer was just special. He called you out if you were slacking. He cared. He connected with you on a personal level. He put athletes before himself.
Megan Slater
For so long, it was a part of her DNA. Her brother Christian was a runner, as was her sister, Katie, a sophomore who is a member of the Florida State cross country and track teams. The runner Sommer nicknamed “Flash” never questioned it.
“Coach really helped me,” she said. “He made me into my own runner.”
Her senior year, she started working as an aide in Sommer’s athletic director’s office. Many days they found themselves talking about running.
When May hit, she was the team’s most important piece: the anchor. Against Miami Northwestern, she never wavered in confidence, cruising to a time of 2:19 as Estero won the state championship in 9:15.16, which also became a school record in a race the Wildcats were always known for.
“It was probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever had,” she said.
But that soon was replaced with a paralyzing feeling. Her coach was gone. Later, when she returned to run the 800, her tank was empty.
“It was terrible,” she said. “I thought I could suck it up, but as soon as I went to the line, I broke down in tears. My head wasn’t in it at all.”
![Megan Slater, left, Megan Giovanniello, Daley Cline, and Bree Salcedo were on last year’s state winning relay team and are still working to cope with the death of coach Jeff Sommer.]()
Megan Slater, left, Megan Giovanniello, Daley Cline, and Bree Salcedo were on last year’s state winning relay team and are still working to cope with the death of coach Jeff Sommer.
She finished 16th, last in the field, a full 10 seconds behind the next closest runner. That feeling followed over the summer. She was motionless.
She left the program at USF after the fall season.
And while she has picked up running on her own over the spring, she still doesn’t know what it means. Will she compete again some day?
“I do think about that a lot, whether I’ll ever run competitively again,” she said. “I miss it, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to it.”
One More Time
Capturing a reunion
A week before the anniversary of their state championship relay, Cline, Salcedo, Giovanniello and Slater met one more time on the Estero track Sommer helped build.
A photographer was there to capture the reunion, their first meeting as a group in nearly a year.
The four teenagers brought their state championships rings. They wore orange, the color of Sommer’s run club, 3Ds.
They laughed again. They shared memories. They jogged on the track and practiced hand-offs … badly.
“It was sad,” Cline said. “We missed this.”
Was it fleeting, this moment of unencumbered joy between four girls whose lives were linked by one life-changing experience? Would their lives soon head in different directions again?
When the photographer left, they remained. They sat in the stadium and took more pictures. They kept that moment, a journey back to a more innocent time, alive for another hour.
Jeff Sommer File
-
Jeff Sommer died on May 2, 2015 at the FHSAA track and field championships in Jacksonville. He was 58.
-
Hired by Estero High in 1987, he was a high school cross country and track and field coach for 30 years and served as Estero’s athletic director for nine.
-
Led the Wildcats to four boys and four girls state cross country team titles.
-
Will be inducted into the FHSAA Hall of Fame this fall. Was inducted into the FACA Hall of Fame in January.
