VALPARAISO | Winning a state championship in cross country wasn't necessarily on the agenda of Valparaiso's six seniors early in the 1983 season.

After all, the school wasn't quite in the habit of producing state champions back then. The only other time the Vikings won a state cross country title was in 1966, the year the seniors on the 1983 team were born.

But then assistant coach Mike Polite spoke up, giving the team confidence and a lofty goal.

"He coached us in track that spring, and he said he knew we could be pretty good if we worked hard," said Scott Sienkowski, a senior on that team along with Todd Etzler, Leo Frey, Craig McFarland, John Reggie and Scott Schroer.

Polite's prediction was accurate. Hard workouts designed by head coach Skip Collins, guided on the roads with Polite running along, and a close team unity resulted in a state championship on Nov. 5, 1983.

On that day at South Grove Golf Course in Indianapolis, the Vikings won the title with 83 points. Lake Central was second with 119 while powerful Portage, which had beaten Valpo in the semistate, placed third.

And for the first time in 25 years, the top nine runners on the squad were reunited Wednesday night. Collins, back in Valpo after retiring from a teaching position near Boca Raton, Fla., organized the reunion, which included everyone being recognized during halftime of the boys basketball game against Boone Grove.

"The unity of this team shows in that they all returned for this celebration," Collins told the crowd Wednesday, when all the runners received a plaque that included a photo of the team holding the state championship trophy after the race.

Four of the runners still live in town.

Sienkowski is an elementary physical education teacher, after spending several years in a similar position at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, where he coached cross country, track and basketball.

Etzler is an attorney, and until a couple years ago competed in running races and triathlons.

Brett Polizotto, a freshman on the title-winning team who ran a 15:47 at state and won the regional, is a science teacher and the head track coach at Valpo High School.

Polizotto drew the loudest applause from the crowd at the basketball game. He also was a key runner on state championship teams in 1985 and 1986, squads coached by current athletic director Sam Rasmussen.

Frey went on to run for Valparaiso University. He still runs competitively, regularly winning the 40-45 age group at local races in times that aren't far off from his high school and college days.

"It was awesome to see everyone again," Frey said. "As soon as you start talking to them, it's the same as it was 25 years ago.

"You don't realize how much everybody took away from their experience, because at the time you don't talk about that kind of stuff when you're 18."

Schroer, now an engineering manager in Dunlap, Ill., was the Duneland Athletic Conference MVP. He led the Vikings with a sixth-place finish at state, and received the IHSAA Mental Attitude award.

McFarland was a first-year cross country runner after having a strong track season running the 800 in the spring. Now a surveyor in Brownsburg, McFarland ran an outstanding 15:36 at state.

Reggie, the son of VHS teacher and former football assistant coach Sid Reggie, came back to town from his home in Belmont, Calif. He ran a 15:51 at state.

"It was the culmination of six years of hard running," Reggie said, going back to his junior high days at TJ. "The coaches pushed us hard and taught us the value of hard work."

Others attending the reunion were Erik Chilian, a junior on the team who traveled from the state of Washington, where he works in sales for Frito-Lay, David Ziegert and team manager Kim (Carrell) Stento.

Ziegert traveled from Boulder, Colo., to attend the reunion. He still runs competitively and has finished six marathons with a personal-best time of 3:10.

Stento still lives in the area and teaches physical education at Immanuel Lutheran. She was an athletic trainer for several years at Chesterton.

"It was great to see everyone," Stento said. "I've been around a lot of championship-caliber teams, and the one thing in common is that they're all like a family.

"This team was a family, and that's why they were successful."