Brannigans enjoy a happy moment after Millrose Games

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

In the hours after the buzz and energy had leaked out of The Armory on 168th Street and into the cold air, the milers, the announcers, and the Millrose Games hangers-on crammed into Coogan's to keep the party going. 

"These athletes, they're my rock stars!" blared Coogan's owner and host Peter Walsh as he made his way through his restaurant and bar. "If Mick Jagger walked in right now I wouldn't give s---."

It didn't take any arm-twisting to convince Kevin and Edie Brannigan, and their youngest of three boys, Mikey, and Mikey's coach Jason Strom (of Northport) to go to Coogan's. 

It had been a big night. Mikey had been honored earlier in the evening by Sports Illustrated, with a special recognition of his being the magazine's Athlete of the Month. He posed for photos with Bernard Lagat and Eamonn Coghlan.

Then, Mikey set the hoopla aside and ran gamely in a loaded high school mile. He took the lead with 200 meters to go and tried to summon all of his strength and heart to hold it until the finish line. But his wheels didn't respond. With 100 to go, James Burke of Port Jefferson sped past and went on to win. 

Mikey likes to go when he hears the bell for the final lap. He'd been in a good position and took his best shot for the title. 

"The bell lap means to (go) break 30 seconds and go for the win," he said. 

After the meet was over, he jogged on the track with Lagat. At another point he spoke with Evan Jager, another of his admirers.

Kevin Tschirhart, a 2005 graduate of Northport who held the school records in the mile/2-mile before Brannigan came along and broke them, had drifted away from running after college. He approached Kevin Brannigan after Millrose to say he’d bought a ticket just to come and watch Mikey. And he had started running again, inspired by Mikey’s story. (Tschirhart remains a local legend around Northport and was one of Brannigan’s first running heroes).

It was getting time to leave The Armory and Edie knew her son needed to eat. No one knows better than Mikey's mother the precursors that can exacerbate his autism into behavioral outbursts or pits of anxiety.   

Out on Broadway the crowd to get into Coogan's was impenetrable. One door down at Chipotle, there was room. Mikey and his coach got in line for burritos. 

Outside, I caught a few minutes with Edie Brannigan while Kevin went to inquire about a table at Coogan's. The family has been through a lot in the past year since Mikey's story hit the mainstream. NBC Nightly News. The Dr. Oz Show. A USATF video. An assortment of additional newspaper stories and TV appearances.

But the question about what happens to Mikey after he graduates from Northport High School looms and at this point there are no clear-cut answers. An athlete with Mikey's talent goes Division I almost without question. A student with an autism disability like Mikey's does not get into a university that offers Division I athletics, at least not yet.

There is no precedent for it.

"Mikey takes everything you say as if it's literal," Edie says. "If I say it's raining cats and dogs outside, Mikey comes to the window and says 'Really?'"

Mikey is impulsive. You see the eyebrow rise over his right eye and that impish grin take shape, and you wonder what idea he's about to hatch and it's unpredictable. 

His parents don't know if he can make it living away from home, but 18 years of experience tell them it's unlikely that he wouldn't have trouble. 

Last fall when someone called the house and asked whether Mikey would speak at the Nassau Country Cross Country Awards Banquet, Edie thought the person clearly didn't know her son. "What if he only speaks for three seconds?" she replied.

But Mikey did make a speech at that banquet in December. He prepared for it, thought about it. And that night, he went up to the microphone and spoke the crowd -- for 11 riveting, ad-libbed minutes. 

Edie said her mouth hung open for the entire speech. She could barely believe it, but Mikey pulled that off.  

SEE MIKEY'S SPEECH HERE 

There are college coaches who say they want Mikey so badly on their teams that they will "make it work." But when Mikey's parents confer with college admissions people they find out that making it work is far more complicated. 

Mikey could train under the auspices of the USOC and participate in the Paralympic Games. Maybe he could even win a gold medal.

But the Brannigans aren't sure how that would work, either. 

Suddenly, word arrives that Kevin has found success at Coogan's, so we go in there. 

"This is so much fun," Edie says. "We never get to have nights like this."

In the track and field crowd at Coogan's, it's easy to spot Matthew Centrowitz. And Leo Manzano, who Mikey met when he did the Dr. Oz Show. And Will Leer. And Dan O'Brien, the NBC commentator and former Olympic decathlete who was part of the USATF feature last fall.   

Edie and Kevin order appetizers for the table. 

"I'm ready for round two," Mikey exclaims, gleefully. "I want the salmon!"

His parents look at each other and shrug. It's Mikey's night. He'll have the salmon. 

Mikey looks around and finds people he recognizes. He stands up and goes across the room greet them. Then he returns. At another point in the evening, there was a conga line featuring Mikey and his framed Sports Illustrated award. Cheers all around.

The music blaring out of the karaoke machine begins a sing-a-along at the table. 

Mikey gets up and in the space between two tables and begins to dance. His face remains neutral, demonstrating his cool, and his body gyrates like a hip-hopping robot. Inhibitions are nowhere in sight. 

The salmon comes. It's the healthiest food at the table. Mikey's appetite is still not satisfied. Chunks of salmon disappear, forked together with string beans and book-ended by scoops of mashed potatoes. 

Walsh stops by the table, for a second time. "I love this kid," he says, leaning down to kiss Mikey on the top of the head, an act that feels like an Irish Catholic blessing minus the robes. Ten minutes later, the Coogan's owner is belting out "Lean On Me" on the karaoke mic with over-the-top bluesy power. It's his go-to song.

"Will you sing with us if we go up there?" Edie asks Mikey.

Mikey has been hard set on "No" earlier. Now it's a definite "Yes."

And that's a good thing, because Ali Fenwick from Sports Illustrated, also at our table, has put in for a song. 

The table bops to a few more songs and then it's time. Mikey and his parents, and Fenwick and Samara Kelly from SI, are up there in a heartbeat. Journey pumps out of the speakers.

They gather close enough to the microphone to sing in chorus and also see the words on the screen. Mikey, at points, hollers just loud enough to hear himself over the din. Kevin captures as much of the performance as possible on his phone. The day's excitement and joy has reached a crescendo. 

...

Some will win

Some will lose

Some were born to sing the blues

Oh, the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on

...

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

...

As soon as it's over, Mikey gathers his backpack and swiftly makes his way outside, away from the noise and excitement. On the sidewalk, it's quiet and the snow is gently falling. 

The moment had passed, albeit too soon. All of the questions about what's to come, on this night, could wait.