Bronco Talk: One-on-one with Michael Helms
By Josh Griffin
Senior Mike Helms returned to Santa Clara for a fifth year in the hopes of leading the men's cross country team to its first ever West Coast Conference championship. He has that opportunity this coming weekend when the team heads to Belmont, Calif., in an attempt to upset the heavily favored Portland Pilots. Helms took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down with sports editor Josh Griffin and discuss his current job, bananas and his predictions for the upcoming conference championship meet.
JG: Some people may not know this, but you work as a bartender at CandJ's Sports Bar. Do you have any good bar anecdotes?
MH: Other than the fact that the karaoke lady can never remember my name, nothing too crazy has ever happened there. I have seen my fair share of athletes come in and purchase a few too many rounds, as well as some newspaper writers. CandJ's is a fun place with a unique environment that is a change of pace from the regular running thing. It helps me pay for my bananas.
JG: What are the bananas all about?
MH: Bananas are for my personal use. If anyone really wants to know, they are welcome to swing by Trailer 1.
JG: Is that the name of your house?
MH: Yeah.
JG: What's that all about?
MH: The sign used to hang on our coach's office at the old athletic trailers, so we took it and used it to rename our house.
JG: What kinds of things do you do prior to your races?
MH: In a typical race day, I get up and grab a banana for breakfast. Leading up to the race, I listen to my headphones, where I am mostly listening to Thrice and AFI, or some kind of heavy punk like that. I then go through the warm-up with the team and do my stretching routine. Ten minutes before every race, I listen to a tape with the same song I've been listening to since my freshman year in high school - Pennywise "Pennywise" - while I lace up my shoes. Then I get down to my racing draws and do some strides until the race starts.
JG: You went to high school near San Diego. Which do you prefer more - San Diego or the Bay area?
MH: I really prefer San Diego, because I'm a beach bum, surfer bro. Here, the water is too cold, and I have to wear wetsuits all the time.
JG: What about the atmosphere?
MH: San Diego is more my style as far as atmosphere goes. Too many people wear Abercrombie up here, and that's not my scene. Nothing against Abercrombie, or people who wear it. I do like the Bay area though. The weather is similar to San Diego. The beaches and girls are the things I miss the most.
JG: You ever surf with Kellen Gilmore?
MH: I actually never have, but I'd like to surf with Kellen. Tell him to give me a call. Actually, he spent the night on our futon once the night before a game when he didn't think he could sleep at home. He is a friend of some of my girlfriend's friends from soccer.
JG: How has your fifth year been?
MH: The fifth year has been everything that I wanted. It was one of the best decisions that I have made at Santa Clara. I've advanced as a runner as much this year as I have in my whole time here. It was a good decision to sacrifice the extra bucks of a real job for a year to come back. I'm still working two jobs though, because my parents said part of the deal for coming back was that I had to pay for the year.
JG: Do you have any bold Joe Namath-style predictions for this weekend's WCC meet?
MH: I guess the bold prediction is that Thomas [Chapman] and I will both step up and run our best races to knock off some of the other top guys from Portland. Then the rest of the guys will run their asses off behind Thomas and I and we'll have a great overall meet. That is more than I could ask for.