Then & Now: Dressel-Ferraro runs after daughters now

Memory can be a good filter. Two decades ago, Lisa Dressel was the standard bearer for female distance runners in Spokane.

She won almost every race there was, many in record times, and criss-crossed the country to compete in places most runners just read about.

Prior to her senior year, she won national Junior Olympic titles, was a Bloomsday placer and ran with elite adults in the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon in Los Angeles. Her senior year included an appearance at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden, the indoor championships in Maryland, a record-breaking run at Arcadia, Calif., and a win at the Penn Relays.

“What a whirlwind of emotions and almost disbelief at what I was able to experience and all that was accomplished in such a very short time,” Dressel-Ferraro, a mother of two, recalled. “It went way too fast! It’s all frozen in memory though – all the little steps and the experiences, opportunities I had along the way; they’re just as important to me now as the wins were to me then.”

But there was controversy.

Her father, Vince, played a major role in her coaching, and despite winning the 3,200 meters at the state track meet as a sophomore and junior, winning the 1,600 as a junior and placing second in state cross country as a sophomore, the decision was made for Lisa to transfer from Shadle Park to Rogers, from where she graduated in 1989.

In old news stories, Dressel-Ferraro admitted there was tension and it affected her in at least one race.

And it wasn’t her first transfer. The Dressels lived in Colbert, but bought a second residence in the Shadle district before her freshman year so she could run varsity, which wasn’t allowed at Mead.

Her transfers, as well as those of other athletes, led to an in-depth story questioning the motives, legally and morally, of those involved.

But 20 years later only good memories remain.

“Changing schools was strictly related to running; racing,” she said. “There shouldn’t be any limits to kids for development. My dad always said, ‘You can be good in a lot of things or you can pick one and have a chance to be great.’ … He said, ‘As long as there is fire in the horse, let it run.’ ”

And great she was.

“There was a lot of sacrifice, but I was just thrilled I had the opportunity to do that,” she said. “It wasn’t too hard socially. I was too focused on running.

“I loved Shadle, loved the school, loved my friends. I was going to be student body president. I felt I let them down, but I thought a lot of them realized I had to look into my future. I went to Rogers and I was so lucky. They welcomed me with open arms.”

Selective memory?

Maybe not. She was the Rogers Lilac Princess.

Today she is the mother of princesses, Sophia, 5, and Olivia, 4, married to Vincent Ferraro, who she met on a driving range, and living in Rhode Island wishing she could pound the pavement more often.

“When I do get out I miss it,” Dressel-Ferraro said. “I hardly run any more. It’s tough. I’ve gotten lazy as I’ve gotten older. I remember when I couldn’t get on a plane without my running gear in my carry-on for fear my luggage would be lost.”

After she graduated, Dressel-Ferraro went to Wisconsin, along with Mead star Chris Lewis. She was part of a Big Ten champion cross country team that featured Suzy Favor as the most recognizable name. But like Lewis, who transferred to Washington State, her tenure with the Badgers didn’t work out and she went to Auburn midway through her sophomore year.

“Honestly, it was a huge institution,” she said. “I remember running in a record-setting blizzard. … I didn’t want to fight that and it was bigger than what I was comfortable with.”

Her career at Auburn produced “nothing memorable … third in the SEC (Southeastern Conference) 5K, maybe. I found myself in a pattern of overtraining in college. A lot of responsibility ends up on the athlete. You have to balance being a normal student and an athlete and I had a lot of trouble with that.”

After she got her degree in finance, she set out to make her mark. After a year of training at home, she moved to Washington, D.C. in 1995 to prepare for the ’96 Olympic Trials.

“I had a hard time staying healthy,” she said. “I couldn’t keep myself going. That’s the key at that level. It’s such a fine line … sometimes it just isn’t in the cards.”

After that disappointment, she was invited to train in New Zealand for a shot at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

“I thought long and hard about it,” she said. “I went for a 13-mile run (in Colbert), and when I got done I made the call, ‘thanks but no thanks.’ It was a gut feeling. I didn’t want to get halfway around the world … pushing a door that had already been open and was shut again.

“I told them I was fooling no one but myself. I was exhausted; I needed to get on with my life. I was 26 at the time. I never had a full-time job. I thought I should focus on my (future) before I forgot what my degree was. My only regret was not being able to see the country. People have limits. Whether I reached mine, I don’t know.”

She got a job in D.C. but soon moved into real estate, as her folks did, in the booming market of northern Virginia. She met her husband in 1997 and they were married in 2000.

It is golf that has helped her perspective.

“I vowed to never take myself serious again,” she said, a trait that may be her one regret.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” she said. “I think a lot of people in that kind of sport can relate. One thing growing up, I wish I wasn’t quite as focused. It helped me get places. I was just a good, average runner, able to hit key notes in big meets and I did well.”

The admitted Type A personality works hard to stay busy with a variety of interests but relished the opportunity to reflect.

“I still to this day cannot believe how much the sport has given me. I have such great memories.”