By Rick Cassano
GAHANNA - The glory hasn't necessarily faded for Ernie Ziegler. He just can't believe three decades have passed.
The 1997 Harrison High School graduate made history as the Wildcats' only state cross country champion 30 seasons ago on Nov. 2, 1996, at Scioto Downs in Columbus.
Ziegler was a running force back then, winning the Division I title by more than 20 seconds. Now a social studies teacher at Gahanna Lincoln High School, he can recall most of the details pretty clearly.
"I didn't even realize it's the 30th anniversary of it," Ziegler said during a recent interview at Lincoln. "I did something really cool and it shaped my life and how I teach and how I challenge my students to dream big. All of that started 30 years ago this year.
"It never goes away no matter how much you can't do it now. It doesn't matter how old I get and out of shape I get. When you go to a state meet and open up the program, I'm going to be in there."
Ziegler, 48, was a four-time state champion during his Harrison days, winning 3,200-meter titles in 1996 and 1997 in outdoor track and the 3,000-meter crown in indoor track in 1997.
But the cross country accomplishment stands alone in Wildcat history. Ziegler couldn't have imagined it several years earlier, but a painful experience sent him in a new athletic direction.
THE DEEPEST CUT ... AND A NEW PATH
Ziegler's early days were spent in Colerain Township and then Lincoln Heights. He recalls moving to Harrison when he was in fourth grade.
He was not a runner as a youngster. Ziegler saw himself as a basketball player. He tried out as a freshman at Harrison, but he got cut at the end of the very first day of tryouts.
And he was the only one that got cut that day. Ziegler couldn't comprehend how that could even happen. He admits that he pondered racism as a possible reason.
Ziegler is biracial and light-skinned -- his father Jerry is black, his mother Kathy is white. Ernie believes the Zieglers were the first minority family in Harrison.
He remembers hitting his first 3-pointer at that basketball tryout and not being very good after that, so getting cut may have been legit simply based on his performance. But being the only kid to get cut on Day 1 was something that hit him hard.
"I was just traumatized by it," Ziegler said. "I'm not black black, but I was black to them. I don't know if there was racism behind that, and my memory could be clouded. But I've always wondered internally if there was more there than what I got."
He never tried out for basketball again. Instead, Ziegler decided to give track a try as a freshman.
"I went to the front office and asked what sport you can't get cut from and they said track," Ziegler said. "I was thinking about why I didn't get the chance to get to the next day in basketball. I wanted to prove that I could be a good athlete.
"Being biracial, I thought I'd be a sprinter, but I got moved to distance on the first day. I was watching other guys and started doing what they were doing."
Ziegler said he doesn't want to make it sound like the basketball coaches were bad people. He was a kid who found himself in a situation he didn't understand and tried to make sense of it. But he said that experience was a springboard for him into the world of running.
"It was probably the best thing that happened to me," Ziegler said. "It's what lit the fire for all the other stuff.
"It was a pretty lonely road from fourth grade until I started running. Running gave me the confidence. It's really why I became a teacher. I wanted to help people who may not have high self-esteem or who may struggle in school because I struggled in school for a long time. I wanted to help people push for their dreams and dream bigger."
Ziegler said he did OK in track that first season. He recalls cross country coach Paul Nolan "hounding" him about running in the fall. So as a sophomore, Ziegler added cross country to his life.
It was the start of something special.
THE RUN OF STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ziegler's first season of cross country proved to be filled with Harrison history. He quickly became a runner that had to be reckoned with.
The Wildcats made it all the way to the state meet with a group that included Ziegler, Todd Issler, Rob Tracy, Matt Motsinger, Kevin Sweetman, Dan Dominic, Jeremy Mullins and Adam Miller. It was the first Harrison boys squad to qualify for state in the big-school division (Harrison's boys advanced to state in Class AA in 1982 and 1983).
Ziegler said the lineup didn't come together until after the Harrison Invitational that year because Coach Nolan had a rule that no first-year or freshman runner could become a varsity regular until after running in that event.
The Wildcats were overmatched in the state race Nov. 5, 1994, at Scioto Downs and finished 14th among 17 teams. Ziegler doesn't remember where he placed, but said Issler was the leader. The Ohio High School Athletic Association only lists the Top 25 finishers on its website.
"I was like 79th, 89th ... I don't really remember, but I know it wasn't good," Ziegler said. "I remember we had a sendoff at the high school and went up the night before, and for me personally, I had never seen anything like that. We knew we accomplished something."
He said it didn't matter that Harrison finished far down in the team standings. It was one of those instances where a team was simply happy to be there.
"It was icing on the cake," Ziegler said. "A funny story was that Dan Dominic finished last. The golf cart beat him, and we laughed about it because there was no pressure. There were no expectations. Getting out of our region - the Region of Death - was insanely difficult. That solidified and validated who we were."
Ziegler said Issler was his mentor and role model in those early days.
"He was a senior my sophomore year," Ziegler said. "He always carried himself well in practice. Everything Todd did, I tried to mimic."
Ziegler advanced to the regional level in track as a sophomore under the direction of head coach Steve Barnes. He didn't make it to state, but the stage was set for two big-time years of accomplishments.
Harrison failed to get to state as a team in Ziegler's junior year, but he got there as an individual. The championship race was tight at Scioto Downs on Nov. 4, 1995, but Ziegler ultimately finished third with a time of 15:59 behind Patrick Kelley of Cleveland St. Ignatius (15:50.4) and Jeff Godsey of Lakota (15:53).
"It wasn't like I went in there and laid a goose egg and ran poorly," Ziegler said. "I wasn't a favorite, but I did believe that I could win that race. I ran well and was definitely happy with what I did. I was proud of myself that day. I found out later that Coach Nolan had scaffolded the schedule to make sure I was seeing the best runners during the season."
That spring in outdoor track, Ziegler was a state qualifier in the 3,200. It was his time to become a state champion.
Ziegler ran a time of 9:21.69 to finish just ahead of Godsey (9:22.13) and Chris Paisley of Washington Court House Miami Trace (9:23.49) at the old Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus.
"That was special," Ziegler said. "My mom and sister (Latoshia) had always come to see me run, but that was the first race where my father - who was a truck driver - had come. All my teammates were there. A few that graduated came back.
"That was one of my favorite races of all time just because of the way it happened. Me and Jeff and Chris were back and forth the last three or four laps. I didn't have a good kick and I knew those guys did, but my kick is what won the race in the last 200 meters. I still have the video clip and I've watched it a few times, and it was cool to see things happening and see how tough I was and how far I had come from just two years before that."
He said winning in his father's presence was a huge deal to him. Their relationship was a tough-love kind of thing.
"I know my dad loves me and I know he always wants the best for me, but his motivation sometimes would not be the way I would motivate my child," Ziegler said. "He gave me a pump-up speech before that race and said, 'You're running against the big boys today.' It was just a vibe of, 'You're not ready for this.' In my mind, I didn't need to hear that from him. I knew I had all the weapons I needed. I knew I had the endurance. I knew I had the coach. I knew I had the mind.
"I'll never forget Greg Zuleger, our shot and disc coach. He was my U.S. history teacher my sophomore year. He said, 'What do you want to do?' I said, 'I want to win state.' So he gave me a piece of paper and said, 'Write down 3,200-meter state champion 1996 and go put it in your sock drawer and go read it every morning and every night.' That's what I did."
His senior-year experience at the state cross country meet wasn't anything like an underdog situation. Ziegler headed to Scioto Downs as the favorite. The only time he lost all season was at East Central (Ind.) when he accidentally went off course and got sent back during the race to do it correctly.
"Coach always had us walking the course, and I was always in front with him going over the strategies," Ziegler said. "This time, I was in the back with my girlfriend. Coach Nolan saw a cone and said, 'You've got to go around that to the right.' I was winning and I go on the left side of it and they send me around. I went from first to like 70th.
"My teammates thought I was just showing off taking another lap around. I was so mad I sprinted the rest of it trying to win. I still got third, but I threw a big temper tantrum. I threw my shoes. I was yelling at the coach. That was one of the only times Coach Nolan ever let me have it. He said, 'If you want to be the best, you can't take a day off.' My goal was to win the national meet. We went to Troy the next week and I killed everybody there. I was all business from there."
The state meet produced Ziegler's personal-best time (15:27.4) on the 5,000-meter course. Paisley (15:49) and Fairfield's Adam Thomas (15:56) followed. A dominating season had left Ziegler alone at the top of the podium.
"It was gratifying, it was exciting, but I would've been shocked if I didn't win that race," Ziegler said. "Coach Nolan and I had become so close. He was so laid-back and humble, but he was like, 'Leave no doubt.'
"It was validation for me from being a freshman and getting cut from basketball because I wasn't a natural runner. It felt really good to say I did this. It was cool having people look up to me. There were a lot of people that were in awe of me. A lot of things came with that in terms of popularity. It was cool to attach your wagon to a state champion."
Ziegler won his indoor state crown that winter, though it wasn't as big a deal as outdoor track because the OHSAA didn't run the indoor meet. It was conducted by the Ohio Association of Track & Cross Country Coaches.
Around Christmas time, Ziegler competed at the national level in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships at Balboa Park in San Diego. He advanced out of the regional in Kenosha, Wis., and said he placed 16th at the national meet after holding the lead in the first 1.5 miles.
Ziegler admitted he didn't train very hard between the state meet and the national event.
"That's one of my biggest regrets," Ziegler said. "Coach Nolan would send me the workouts and tell me to go do the workouts, but I hadn't had a break and I was so burned out and I was still a kid, so I didn't actually do the workouts. If I had stayed true to my conditioning, I feel I could've won it or at least finished in the Top 5."
In the spring, Ziegler was back to defend his 3,200 outdoor track title. But he had a bigger goal in mind. He wanted to be a state champion in the 1,600 and 3,200 runs, a rare feat.
"Adding the mile and trying to double was a challenge," Ziegler said. "I got sick going into the regional, and if I'm being honest, I also don't think I was in great shape. I still trained. In cross country, my engine was so strong I could run forever, but that year in track - especially those last two meets - I knew I wasn't that much better than everybody. Even in the two-mile."
The 1,600 was first and Ziegler had a 200-meter lead with a lap to go, then completely faded and didn't even finish in the Top 10 as Fairfield's Thomas won the race in 4:15.76 at Jesse Owens Stadium.
"Adam Thomas was the only runner that got in my head," Ziegler said. "My college coach Warren Mandrell was there scouting me for the two-mile. I'll never forget when I got to Miami he said, 'You were going to break the four-minute mile,' because I was on pace to do that. I got out hard. I was just going to go for it. Then it all fell apart.
"I've never watched that race since that day. I didn't even place. I was just head down trotting down the straightaway. I never moved out of Lane 1. I was so embarrassed."
He recalls Barnes and Nolan taking him underneath the stadium to regroup. There was not much time between the mile and two-mile.
"We changed the whole strategy in the two-mile, but for me it was mental, not physical," Ziegler said. "I always recovered real fast. Once the race started happening, I felt confident. Coach Nolan didn't coach track, but they both had to do some work to help me because I was a little bit of a freshman that day. My psyche was broken after the mile, but they snapped me out of it. And that's how my Harrison career ended."
Ziegler won in a personal-best time of 9:19.03 to best runner-up Chris Camfield of Fairborn (9:23.20).
A ROLLER-COASTER COLLEGE CAREER
Ziegler said he was recruited by collegiate programs all over the country. He committed to attend Ohio University, but switched to Miami, where he competed in cross country and track under Mandrell. He earned a bachelor's degree in education.
"My family wasn't rich," Ziegler said. "We didn't have the money to go to college. I hadn't even thought about college until running came around. I remember Stanford offered me a full ride ... I would've never made it at Stanford.
"My dad kind of pushed me into going to Miami. That was my last visit, and I fell in love with Miami. It was No. 1 in the nation for education, which was very important to me.
His running career at Miami was an uneven road. Ziegler was an All-MAC performer in cross country in his first three seasons before injuries and a declining commitment took over.
He placed second at the MAC cross country meet as a freshman behind Eastern Michigan's Ben Reese, a national qualifier. Ziegler said Miami was ranked as high as seventh in the country in 1997 with a lineup dubbed as the "Fab Five" - Ziegler, Doug Bockenstette, Jason Hussel, Bryan Hawkins and Sam Bell.
"Our top five were interchangeable," Ziegler said. "We beat everybody that year and just fed off each other. We didn't go to nationals - we kind of got hosed the way the seedings worked out - but that was the first time the team had won the MAC in years."
Miami ruled the MAC again in 1998, and Ziegler said he finished fourth at the conference meet that season. The RedHawks advanced to nationals.
"I did lead the way for the team," Ziegler said. "I was starting to dream big about going higher on the national stage. But I also started to realize I was good, but I wasn't anywhere near talking about winning nationals or anything like that.
"I was still Top 10 in the MAC as a junior and we were second as a team, but I pulled my groin playing basketball after cross country and didn't go to rehab the way I should have. It was a slow death after that. My junior year of track was terrible because I was hurt. That was the end of being good.
"It started to shift in my mind that running wasn't as important. I didn't really have anything driving me. I wasn't mature enough to do what I needed to do. My high school coaches drove me, but Coach Mandrell - who I loved -- felt we were adults and just expected us to do the work. I don't think I lifted at all junior and senior year. After I got hurt, it was probably pretty obvious I was checked out."
Ziegler was healthy as a senior captain for cross country and wanted to be a four-year All-MAC runner. He said he ran well at the MAC meet, "but I didn't finish anywhere near the Top 10. I was the fourth runner for Miami at that point."
He had a little bit of success in track as a junior, but said his senior track season "sucked."
"They left me off the travel squad for the postseason," Ziegler said. "They took me out of the 10K and tried me at steeplechase. I was excited about something new, but I think I only did it one time and didn't run at the MAC meet.
"At the time, I was focused on teaching and being an adult, but now it's kind of sad to see that end to the story. I was lazy and didn't train and didn't take care of myself. My self-motivation was just gone because I didn't care enough. I regret that. But it was time to move on."
STILL RUNNING AND TEACHING
Ziegler didn't stop running after he graduated from Miami. He competed in numerous road races, ran in the Columbus Marathon and qualified for the Boston Marathon, though he never did go to Boston.
"It's just harder as my body gets older," Ziegler said. "I try to run three times a week, and when I'm really going well, I try to run three, four, five miles when I can. I always say I can run three miles."
Ziegler taught math at Harrison for one year and also spent a year as a long-term sub there. He was an assistant cross country coach for the Wildcats for one season.
Other teaching stops included Christ The King Middle School for one year and the Vision Into Action Charter School for half a year in Columbus. He's been teaching world history at Gahanna Lincoln since the 2005-06 school year.
Ziegler was the head girls cross country coach at Lincoln from 2005-20 and built the program into a state contender. He took the Lions to the state meet in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2020, then decided to step down.
"When I took over, we were terrible. I couldn't give away a varsity spot," Ziegler said. "We built them into what they are. Our mentality was let's go big, and slowly but surely the girls bought into that. We won the first league championship in girls history, and I think we won six of them.
"When I got out, it was time for a new voice. If you coach long enough you get complaints and drama, and I didn't need that. We built it up and left it in a really good place. Last year they won the (Division I) state title as a team. It was a little bittersweet because a lot of what they did was on the foundation that we built. I'm proud of what we accomplished, but I always wanted to coach a state champion."
Ziegler and his ex-wife Heidi, a former standout runner at Otterbein University, have three children. Their son Carson is a junior at Lincoln who was a track thrower for two years before giving it up. Their daughters, twins Alexa and Hannah, are in the seventh grade at Middle School West in Gahanna. Both are running cross country.
Ziegler, who earned a master's degree in special education from Otterbein, tries to be a hands-off dad when it comes to giving his daughters running direction because he understands that success requires an inner drive.
"In running, you're by yourself," Ziegler said. "You don't have a team to say you didn't block for me or you didn't throw me the ball right. If you go out there and lay a goose egg and stink, it's just you. That's what I loved about it, and that's what I didn't like too. I always wanted to make sure I was ready. I didn't want to go out and get embarrassed."
His parents live in Amelia. His dad is 85 and his mom is 69. Ziegler continues to keep an eye on Harrison and what goes on there.
He knows nothing is perfect, but he has fond memories of his Wildcat running days. Ziegler really wishes he could've competed with his cross country teammates at state more than once.
"It was just a fun time to run cross country at Harrison," Ziegler said. "I loved those teams. We knew we were good. We had a really good coach. Getting to state with the team was always my first goal until we didn't get there."
He said Barnes, now Harrison's cross country coach, and Nolan were father figures to him. Nolan died in 2024 at the age of 61.
"He changed my whole life and not just running," Ziegler said. "He taught me about resilience and dealing with hardships."
He said people like Barnes and Nolan helped him grow into a man. Running success was wonderful, but Ziegler said he didn't come close to doing it alone.
"I want to make it clear how appreciative I was of all those people big and small," he said. "I don't take that stuff for granted at all. And if I can be a mentor to someone else, I'm happy to do it."
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