Leading with determination
We expect things of leaders.
We expect them to spot problems before they really become problems. And we expect them to perform the kind of magic that allows the whole to be greater than the sum of its individual parts.
John Marlow is a leader.
The East Valley High School senior took at look at the cross country team coach Dave McCarty would field for the 2006-07 season and knew it was going to take some work. Marlow and fellow senior Brian Munns are the only two returning runners from the Knights’ varsity, and the team was stocked with freshmen and first-year sophomore runners.
“I knew we were going to be really inexperienced – more inexperienced than any of the other teams I’d been on my first three years here,” Marlow said. “I think, on our varsity and junior varsity both, we have maybe three guys back from last year. Everyone else is new.
“But the question you have to ask is, where do you go with so many young, inexperienced runners?”
McCarty, in his 30th season as coach, always plans a summer full of practice runs and team-building events, which would be that much more important to a young group.
“Coach McCarty always works so hard to get out there every day he can to work with us, but this year they threw a WASL class at him and he had to teach that all summer,” Marlow said. “I just tried to carry on and get as many guys as I could to get out in the morning, before it got too hot.”
Between coach and senior, Marlow led the team on runs at fun spots, combining training runs with summer fun. There was beach volleyball at Liberty Lake, the beach at Coeur d’Alene and team Frisbee games at Plantes Ferry Park.
“They were great about it,” Marlow said. “What these guys lack in experience they make up for with heart and determination. I just tried to get them together, figure out some fun runs that we could do together and plan some fun stuff that we could do to help build some camaraderie.”
For all that hard work he’s put into preparing for this season, cross country isn’t Marlow’s first love.
“My first love is track,” he laughed. “And I don’t run the distance races. I’m an 800-meter runner. I came down with mono at the end of the track season and I didn’t get the chance to go to the state meet. By the time regionals came around, it had really hit me and I didn’t qualify.
“But I have enjoyed my cross country experience, and I want to make sure the runners coming behind me get that same opportunity.”
The cross country team took a hit just before the start of fall turnouts when its No. 1 runner, Tylor Thatcher, transferred to Central Valley, leaving the team with even less experience.
“I knew it was something that could happen,” Marlow said. “Even when Tylor was saying he was coming back to East Valley, he was still training with the guys from Central Valley.
“It’s just something you have to deal with. I just know I couldn’t leave a school after three years like that.”
One of Marlow’s challenges was to get his teammates to realize just how good they are and how good they can become.
“The first couple weeks of the season, before the All-Valley meet comes up, we have a couple practice races so guys can get a feel for what it’s going to be like,” he said. “We ran 2.8 miles and we had a bunch of freshmen and first-year sophomores all run under 18 minutes. For a bunch of guys who had only done summer running, that was great. Their hard work really showed.
“You could tell that these guys were going to have a great four years. They’re a lot faster than I ever was when I was a freshman.”