Stupka and Beck put their newfound collaboration to the test during indoor track season over the winter.
Stupka medaled (top eight) in the 60, 200 and 400 meters in meets at Ohio State and at SPIRE Institute in Geneva. He returned to SPIRE for the Division II-III indoor state championships in early March, and was a medalist in all three sprint events.
Stupka gained a ton of confidence from his indoor success, not just because of the medals but also by holding his own against some of the state's top sprinters (Mason Louis of Bexley, Christian Anderson of Hawken and Jayden Douglas of Beechcroft).
Stupka knew his hard work was paying off. That includes his work with Beck's son, Ethan, who's his training partner and Clear Fork teammate.
"People only see the highs. The high of a high is not as bad as the low of a low, if that makes sense," said Stupka. "They don't see when you're grinding at practice, especially when no one is watching. We were out here preparing for indoor and it was just me and the coach's son just competing. That's all I had. No one else came out here. Coach Beck, Ethan and me. Those are the guys who saw it and no one else. That's when you really have to perform."
Transition over to the outdoor track season, and Stupka is tearing it up on the pavement and leaving the rest of the opposition in the dust.
Three times − so far − this season, Stupka has pulled off the 100-200-400 sweep at track meets/invitationals.
The first one came on his old stomping ground at the Madison Comprehensive Invitational on March 30 to open the season. He won the 100 (11.11), 200 (22.26) and 400 (51.32), breaking the meet record in each.
"I planned on that for a year," said Stukpa adamantly. "I don't think they know − they do now − what they lost and my point was to go out there and show them what they lost. It was a very emotional track meet for me, seeing my old coaches and old teammates. It was weird at first but I have had about a 100 practices here. I did my thing and it felt pretty good."
More multiple sprint wins have followed this month, including winning the 100 and 400 at the Marion Harding Invitational.
Stupka is not surprised by his 100-200-400 feats and takes pride exceling in all three.
"I like to take care of all three because it really shows your versatility and range to do all three, especially because I'll be doing that come championship season," he said.
Now for the big one: The Mansfield Mehock Relays.
The meet has been one of the most historic high school track meets throughout Ohio in its lengthy history, and a showcase event for many of the top athletes and schools to strut their stuff. If the Madison Invitational was Joe Stupka's coming-out party, then Mehock is where he confirmed to everyone: "I'm here and I ain't going nowhere."
At the 90th Mehock, Stupka was the star of the show, winning the 100 and 200 against some of the most noteworthy talents in the state of Ohio. That includes the 100-200-400 champion at last year's Mehock Relays in Mansfield Senior's Keontez Bradley (who finished runner-up to Stupka at Mehock and at the Madison Invite in both the 100 and 200), as well as Plymouth's Caiden Allen, Shelby's Issaiah Ramsey, Mansfield's Aaron Thornton, and Beechcroft's Jesufewa Adediran and Joel Owusu.
"Our training that whole week was all Mehock. A couple of my teammates went to the Ontario Relays but my focus was on Mehock that week," said Stupka, who dropped the 400 to focus more on the 100 and 200. "... You have to prepare yourself for that competition. I'm exactly there with those guys, if not better.
"You can't get nervous with that stuff. You start to view competition as an opportunity when you get to that level. Like that's an opportunity to show I'm not just a guy winning these small meets. I can win the big ones too. It was very satisfying to run that well on that big of a stage."
Balancing Events and Programming
Talk to Stupka long enough and you'll realize he is an athlete who's never satisfied. Grateful for what he's done so far this year but there's more to be accomplished.
"Don't ever let the complacency kick in. You get humbled as soon as you think you've arrived," he said. "Can't ever let that happen. Now you can have time to celebrate but my rule is you get one day and then it's done and onto the next one."
"He's really shown just a level of commitment that's unbelievable," Beck said. "He's just incredibly focused and disciplined. And it shows. He went from being a pretty fast guy to one of the fastest guys in the state of Ohio."
What's impressive about Stupka is the level of mental and physical preparation in which he attacks each sprint. Each differently at that.
"For the 100, before I get into the blocks I envision that last 10 meters of the race. I believe that race is won in the last 10 to 20 meters," said Stupka, who declares the 100 as his easiest event of the three sprints, partially because he doesn't get as nervous in it like he does in the 200 and 400. "Whoever can hit that gear and don't panic coming out of the blocks and be patient, will win. I usually catch a lot of my guys at 70 meters and just hold on and hit that gear."
How about the 200?
"It's similar with the 200," he said. "Get out just like a 100 and just hold on. I believe the 200 is my best race because it gives me a mix of that endurance that I have and my top-end speed."
Although when Stupka breaks down the 400, he looks at it having the right mental capacity. He calls it his most challenging event.
"A lot of the races are mental," explains Stupka. "Looking at how big a track is before you run the 400, it's like it's longer than you think. You can't think about that. I know exactly how to run the race. Your muscles don't know the difference between a duel meet and a state meet, only your mind does."
To go along with having the cerebral mindset to his sprints, Beck also points to "programming, timing and trusting" as three key elements he uses when preparing and instructing Stupka and his athletes.
"Part of what makes the development of athletes I'm working with special for me is it's based on earned mutual trust. Joe trusts me and I trust him to do what I teach him," said Beck. "When I tell him we have a scheduled day off, it's for a reason because you need recovery. During indoor season, I pulled him out of two finals because I could see that he was favoring his hamstring. One of the rules we live by is that we protect the gift.
"Joe was hesitant with that because I was a new coach. We didn't know each other real well. I kept telling him to trust your training. So he kept seeing the outcomes where he was expecting a PR at every meet."
Strategizing certain workouts accordingly and planning what races he will run at meets has played huge dividends in Stupka's form right now. And Beck has been carefully orchestrating his star sprinter's next move.
"It comes down to programming," said Beck. "When I say programming, the workout that we did today wasn't thought out today. It was thought out in January. I could've told you in the second week of January what we'll be doing on April 19. We choose the meets where we want to excel. Obviously, championship season is district, regionals and state. But there was one meet we obviously wanted to peak at and that was at the Mehock Relays.
"We pick dates. We reverse-engineer our workouts to put us at a peak on that date. That peak happens because of what we did three-to-four weeks out preparing for that completion date. It's not what we did that week. It's way to late. The programming is key to performing. Joe is able to perform at a high level because I know what he's going to run before he knows based on timing."
Not to mention the "lactate workouts" Stupka partakes in.
"The lactate workouts increases the burn in your legs," Stupka said. "The burn in your legs is basically lactate acid. We do workouts to increase the lactate threshold, like how much you can hold on. That comes in during the 200 and 400 meters. When you start getting a higher lactate threshold, that second half becomes a lot easier and you end of running a lot faster than you did earlier in the year."
Still, Stupka doesn't look at juggling all three sprints at meets as tiresome, he views at it as a psychological hurdle to climb.
"You feel it but its just mental," he said. "Mentally you just have to get through it. It's like a second in the race where you have to decide do you wanna fall back or get through this push. Honestly, I don't think it affects me."
Gunning for the top spot
Stupka has been in such a zone this year that he has hit his personal best times in the 100, 200 and 400, although he said he's aiming to get in the 10.6s in the 100, around the 21.5s in the 200 and wants to reach up to 48 seconds in the 400.
"For outdoors, I met my PRs. I didn't hit them until I faced that top-level competition," he said. "I think that's perfect because that is what is going to prepare me as the season continues. We have a really good division. Division II is stacked this year in the state. I'd argue it might be even better than Division I this year."
With postseason looming, Stupka is setting his goals high, while Beck focuses on managing his workload judiciously.
"I think we will selectively put him at meets where we think he will peak at the appropriate time we feel is most important," Beck said. "There will be meets where he will run all three and meets he will run two. If there is meets he will need volume, we'll let him do all three. If we feel like he's had too much volume, we might take something out. You have to constantly be reassessing where you're at in the plan and give yourself enough flexibility to pivot."
Stupka wants to sweep the three sprints at the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference and district meets next month, and from there, qualify for state in all three.
"At state, I want to podium (top-eight finish) in all three," he said. "You don't really see that often. It's fun to show off your range."
Press Stupka on the topic of what is his central motivation, and he'll echo something his mother regularly tells him.
"My mom says, 'It's the chip on your shoulder mentality,'" he says with pride. "Trying to prove everybody wrong. Nobody expects it. It's really proving to myself. I want to be able to run in college. This is my way of getting in. This is my thing. I enjoy it. I love what I do. That's my motivation. I like to show that I like to run fast."
We'll see where Joe Stupka's journey takes him next.
jsimpson@gannett.com
Twitter:@JamesSimpsonII
