Heart of a Lion

Logan Patete

Logan Patete thought his high school running career was over.

The Leander HS (Cedar Park, TX) senior had sprained his foot this past April before his regional meet, unable to get a chance to qualify for 5A state. Shin splints had already thwarted his cross country season the previous fall. So he figured his focus during the last weeks of school and the summer, before heading to University of South Carolina Upstate, would be relegated to healing up, graduating and earning money with his summer job.

But as it turned out, a mentor of his had other ideas. Coach Robert Roddy, founder of the Texas Thunder Track Club, had been coaching Logan since he was in middle school. When Coach Roddy found out one night about The Outdoor Nationals, the NSAF’s championship meet at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, he couldn’t even wait until the next day to tell Logan.

“One night at 11pm my coach calls me and tells me about this meet,” Logan remembered with a huge smile. “He told me, ‘You need to be there!’

Coach Roddy backs that up. “Yep, I said, ‘Logan, you have got to get to this meet! I’ve been coaching Logan since 6th grade. When he was a sophomore, running the steeplechase at AAU Nationals, he lost one of his shoes at the start. Instead of quitting or even going back to get it, he slipped the other shoe off and ran the rest of the race barefoot. It was unbelievable. The video of that race got like a million views. He has the heart of a lion.”

Logan’s parents were excited about the idea of his traveling to The Outdoor Nationals, but there was no money to travel to Eugene. Nor could his parents have gone with him, since his mother was due to have a surgical procedure. But nothing was going to stop Logan from making it to Hayward. “I’ve always been pretty independent and my parents trust me. They knew if I tried to do this, I’d do it responsibly.”

Logan had also already had a positive experience with another NSAF meet. Looking for a steeplechase opportunity in late March, he discovered the NSAF USA Meet of Champions in Myrtle Beach. Not only was Logan already planning to go to college in South Carolina, he had family there, too. He came to the meet and took 5th in the 2K steeple championship.

Fast forward a few months, Logan worked hard at his summer job for several weeks and started training again after his injury healed up. He saved up enough for an airline ticket, but where would he stay and how would he get around Eugene? He was too young to get a hotel room and rent a car, plus he had a budget to mind.

So Logan found an inexpensive Airbnb near Hayward Field and a sympathetic host who loaned him her bike to travel back and forth to the track. When Logan arrived for packet pickup the day before the meet, he chatted with NSAF staff and they learned of his amazing story.

“We were just thrilled to meet Logan and hear what he had done to get here,” said NSAF Executive Director Jim Spier. “The sacrifices he made and the fact that he wouldn’t let anything stand in his way is really special. He’s the epitome of what the NSAF is all about.”

Logan Patete didn’t win the 2k steeple, or even make the All-American podium. But he had an experience he’ll never forget.

“It has been such a blessing, because the NSAF meets are the ones that kids dream of going to,” he says. “Those are the meets that kids aspire to compete at. And to have the opportunity to travel and go to these beautiful facilities, and compete at these big meets with other talented athletes, it’s wonderful. It’s ethereal, honestly.

“I wish every athlete who dreams of going to it would get that experience, because I don’t know what kind of athlete I would be without it.”

Logan’s great story doesn’t end there. He has taken the magic manifested from his Hayward odyssey and carried it over to USC-Update. He performed so well this fall on the school’s cross-country team that he was named Freshman of the Year in the Big South Conference.

What Logan posted on his Instagram account with the trophy he won speaks volumes about who he is. “This would not have been done without support and accountability from my teammates and family. Thank you.”

Coach Roddy was excited to hear it, but not surprised. “He’s one of a kind and I’m so proud of him.”

NSAF Alum Power Couple

Tara Davis and Hunter Woodhall

“Wow … that was such a long time ago!”

Tara Davis was reflecting on the NSAF’s 2017 Indoor Nationals, as she and fiancée Hunter Woodhall sat down recently to look back at when they first met and were high school standouts in Agoura, Calif. and Syracuse, Utah, respectively. Before their exciting NCAA careers at Texas (plus UGA) and Arkansas, respectively. Before they each shone brightly in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Four and a half years can seem like half a lifetime ago when it was your senior year in high school and now you’re a college graduate, new track & field professionals and finally engaged to be married

Those 2017 Indoor Nationals were vastly different experiences for Davis and Woodhall, who were still months away from a relationship that would eventually transform them into the sport’s premier “power couple,” as they’ve been called. They had first connected at The Simplot Games just weeks earlier, but in New York they were worlds apart. Davis, who had already broken the high school national long jump record and was arguably the top female athlete in prep track & field, was shooting for LJ and 60m hurdle titles (and maybe a third win in the triple). Meanwhile, Woodhall was coming off two medals in the 2016 Rio Paralympics and was making waves competing against able-bodied athletes.

Davis famously won her two golds – including a big 60H PR and plus a triple jump silver. The visuals of her surprise and overwhelming joy after the hurdles triumph, and celebrating with friend Trey Cunningham who smashed the boys’ HS hurdle mark immediately after, are priceless. “Thinking about it brings back so many memories,” she recalled. “That was one of the greatest meets of my life and it was so much fun. The energy in the arena was just amazing.”

The experience was much different for Woodhall, but just as valuable in its own way. As the first Paralympian competing in the high school Indoor Nationals, he was overwhelmed with media requests before and during the meet. He competed in the 400 trials, but didn’t make the final. The transformative power of his NSAF opportunity, however, was no less valuable, opening doors to a new world.

“It was definitely a challenge for me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “It felt like a necessary stepping stone or hurdle in my life to continue on, learning to be able to fight for myself and push myself and find where my limit is. It really helped prepare me for what came next, especially at the NCAA level.”

Both Davis and Woodhall have had tremendous success the past four years. Davis capped off her collegiate career at Texas this past spring with a collegiate record in the long jump (Texas Relays), an NCAA title, a runner-up performance in the Olympic Trials and then a 6th-place finish in Tokyo. Woodhall, after completing a fine four years at Arkansas – where he had become the first double amputee to earn an NCAA D1 scholarship and was a 3-time relay All-American – made a triumphant return to the Paralympics and won 400m bronze to add to his silver/bronze double from 2016.

“The Paralympic experience this time was more the accomplishment of getting through, after all of the waiting and postponements,” Woodhall said. “It was kind of a moment of closure, and so satisfying to end season that way. I really enjoyed all of people around me, the venues were amazing and the competition was awesome.”

What has really made Tara and Hunter stand out, however, is the amazing social media presence they’ve cultivated on Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Tiktok and even Facebook. They’ve hence been profiled across all channels of media and even appeared on the “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Woodhall first went on the show in 2020, when he was invited after the producers learned about his Paralympic journey and Ellen presented him with a $20,000 check for training expenses. This year, the couple appeared together on the show for a post-Tokyo celebration.

There was, however, no digital master plan when they started posting together in their early days as a couple four years ago. “It all went organically, more than trying to build a social media brand,” said Davis. “Once it picked up, we started doing that, but it was all organic at first.”

“We just started recording things, taking pictures of things, and posting them,” said Woodhall. “It still kind of blows my mind, that people enjoy keeping up with what we’re doing.”

Woodhall has some words of wisdom to share about student-athletes finding their voices on social media. “My advice do as much as you can without overdoing yourself,” he said. “I think it’s healthy to push yourself and operate in more than one little area. As long as you can do the things you’re doing in life efficiently, I don’t think it’s an issue and you can take it wherever it goes.”

Davis and Woodhall – who plan to marry on an undetermined date next year – are eager to get about their lives as post-collegiate professionals, and excited about what’s ahead before the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics. “We just want to win some World Championships and travel, that’s pretty much it,” Davis said with a laugh, “to live a life we haven’t yet been able to live.”

Meanwhile, they’ll cherish those high school memories and opportunities presented by the NSAF that opened doors and led them to where they are today.

Balancing Team and Individual Glory

Coach Mike McCabe and Union Catholic

For more than 18 years, Union Catholic H.S. (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and its head coach Mike McCabe has produced one of the nation’s outstanding track & field programs – on the state and national level, and especially in NSAF national competition.

People best know the UC program and McCabe nationally for having developed the incomparable 2-time Olympian Sydney McLaughlin – who made her first team for the Rio 2016 Games as a UC junior – meanwhile claiming a record 13 NSAF titles (7 individual and 6 relays). But McCabe’s program has achieved so much more, including 17 NSAF relay or individual crowns that didn’t include McLaughlin. In all, he has coached 91 total national champions (including relay members) and 277 All-Americans.

“Some assumed that the success McCabe’s squads had on the state and national level was just because of McLaughlin’s presence,” said Jim Lambert, Union Catholic’s Information Director and one of the nation’s best track & field/XC journalists. “But while she was certainly a huge key to their dominance, the winning and the eye-popping results haven’t changed since her graduation in 2017. In fact, the program has gotten even stronger in the past few years.”

A lot of folks don’t know that McCabe’s start in the sport was as a distance runner. During the just-completed cross-country season, his Viking boys won their first NJ Meet of Champions crown with the 2^nd-fastest average time in Holmdel Park history. “I told those boys that parallels Sydney making the Olympic team for our program,” he said. “I think it’s that hard especially for us in New Jersey, to beat CBA, and to average 16:01 at Holmdel.”

In the preceding 2020-21 school year that was dramatically affected – like everything – by the COVID-19 pandemic, Coach McCabe and his teams were still able to achieve historic things. “This year stands out because of how much depth we had across all event areas,” he said. “How many coaches can say they had athletes score in every single event of a state meet? That’s unheard of.”

Then Union Catholic’s athletes came to The Outdoor Nationals and continued their great tradition with a Mixed 4×4 national title and seven other All-American performances in the relays. In August, McCabe was named the National Girls T&F Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA. “Receiving the award is great,” he said. “But there’s so many great coaches out there. I’m fortunate to have a lot of talent to work with. The 2020-21 school year was definitely a completely new challenge and forced me and my staff to approach things a little differently than we had in the past. I was most proud of how we were able to make the adjustments and – still, if anything, maybe even better than ever – compete at our best at the end of the year.”

The NSAF Indoor and Outdoor Nationals may be the perfect expression of the greatness of UC, and other programs with deep levels of talent, in that there are not only championship opportunities, but those for Emerging Elite, freshman and even middle school athletes as well.

Among the first NSAF Nationals memories that came to mind for Coach McCabe in a recent conversation was the first one in 2006. “We brought a sprint medley and that was it, 4 or 5 guys, and we got 7^th,” he remembered. “And it was great! We weren’t super strong back then and it was first time we went to a national meet. As a coach, all I wanted to do was come back the next year and see if we could get on the podium. We did … and we almost won it!

McCabe also values the fact that he has opportunities to go even deeper on his roster at Nationals, thanks to the Emerging Elite and Freshman events. “When used properly (by his team), the Emerging Elite stuff has had a lot of value, especially because the standards are (still) really tough,” he said. “You could be a state champion and not get the EE standard. I also think the freshman events are good; when they have the opportunity, it’s a great goal for those kids.”

Of course, McCabe’s memories of what McLaughlin did over eight incredible seasons in their program are pretty darn special, too. At NSAF Nationals, her record-setting 400m hurdle career sweep and back-to-back indoor record-smashing 400s were unforgettable, for starters. But maybe her most mind-blowing performances were anchoring relays.

When reminded, for example, of McLaughlin’s sub-50-second Swedish Medley closer in 2017, McCabe still shakes his head in amazement. “That last one she ran was insane (of four straight wins in the event); that one and her junior year indoor nationals 4×4, with Motor City out front … I still don’t think she caught that girl, it was 10 meters (distance McLaughlin was trailing) coming off the last turn. It was crazy.”

Regarding coaching McLaughlin, McCabe is perhaps most proud of the fact that they were able to take a relatively cautious approach to training and racing that kept McLaughlin almost injury-free and making steady progress for four years. “I’ve always said, and I still believe it, that she’s the best there ever was. I could see it (early) and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t deterring that in any way.”

Moments like that are what might be most special. “I think the team component (at NSAF events) is such an important piece,” he continued. “There’s so many great athletes and elite kids every year. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to have those elite kids and sometimes we don’t. But you can always find a bunch of good kids and put them together (in relays). You can go win some stuff together and those are the memories you’re going to have.”

“Mike McCabe has the unique ability to get all his athletes to improve and get the most out of themselves, and he does this by constantly adapting his training plans and specializing workouts for all his athletes,” said Lambert. “He’s one of the most driven, knowledgeable, hard-working, and passionate coaches I’ve ever been around. He also cares about the lives of his athletes, and prepares them well for life after high school, both on and off the track. He has blended all those qualities to become one of the greatest all-around track and field and cross-country coaches in New Jersey history.”

Photos courtesy of Jim Lambert and John Nepolitan

Opening Doors to the World

Sydnee Walker

When the NSAF chooses its squads for international competitions in places like Cuba and Iceland, it picks student-athletes it believes to have a great chance to make future U.S. teams to compete in Under-20 or Senior World Championships, or even the Olympics. Of course, those selected each year won’t all excel at the next level of the sport, but the vetting process also involves identifying those of high character and/or academic achievement who could make a difference in the world “beyond the track” and would benefit from the international experience.

Sydnee Walker, who competed in the hammer and other throws on the NSAF’s second Cuba team in 2016, is a shining example of someone who may not have gotten quite as far as she would have liked to in track & field, but has been achieving great things and ascending rapidly in her chosen field.

Even before she picked up a hammer, Walker played and loved sports – all sports. Growing up in Roswell, Ga., she followed the plethora of pro and college teams in Atlanta – the NBA’s Hawks, NFL’s Falcons, MLB’s Braves and more – and often watched them on Turner’s TBS and TNT networks. Meanwhile, she was a talented, multi-sport athlete herself, including throwing events on youth and her high school’s track teams.

Prior to her sophomore year at Kings Ridge Christian in Alpharetta, Ga. in 2014, Walker had been a volleyball player and thrown the shot and discus in T&F. Then during the summer her mother took her to connect with the great hammer- and weight-throwing club founded by Mike Judge in nearby Marietta, Ga. 

“My mom found this summer throwing camp at Throw 1 Deep and signed me up for it,” she said. “She said, ‘This will be a good idea for you to check out.’

“I went there and met Coach Mike Judge and the whole crew, and they said I would be good at hammer. I really had no clue what it was. I was like, I’ll try it. I ended up picking up on it really quickly and just started training with them every weekend.”

Working with Coaches Judge and Rhonda Broome, Walker threw the weight nearly 47 feet that next winter and the hammer more than 174 feet the following spring, a stunning distance for a sophomore in her first year with the ball and chain. As a junior in March of ’16, she won the NSAF’s Indoor Nationals Emerging Elite weight throw with 54-2. That led to her selection with Team USA to Cuba in the late spring of that year.

It was the second squad the NSAF had ever sent to Cuba, following those who made the historic debut in ’15 and several years before that of the foundation taking teams to Puerto Rico where the Caribbean Scholastic Invitational (CSI) originated.

“Those trips were some of the best experiences of my life; I still talk about them to this day,” Walker recalled. “And not only just having the experience to travel abroad … just interacting with you guys. The NSAF does an amazing job providing that space for us and letting us travel and meet new people. I’ve formed some amazing relationships and friendships from there. I still keep in touch with a lot of people from that 2016 team.

“Just the NSAF providing that space for all of us athletes to compete on an international level and make those friendships is really valuable. I really appreciated it then and still do today.”

Meanwhile, Walker was attracting the interest of college coaches that spring, during which she improved to 177 feet. One of those was the throws coach at the University of Oregon. “Coach (Eric) Whitsitt invited me on a visit and the rest is history,” she remembered. Walker was interested in the university’s School of Journalist and Communications and already had some career aspirations in that area, should track & field not take her to the professional level.

Walker competed for the Ducks during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, but then suffered an injury that waylaid her competitive plans.

“I know how major her injury was to her T&F career, that she had to basically retire. And she handled it with such grace and purpose,” said Dean E. Mundy, Ph.D., Associate Director and PR Area Director of the U. of O. School of Journalism and Communications. “I remember meeting with her almost immediately after it happened, and she wanted to discuss her double major and what she could do to get ahead and position herself professionally. She didn’t let the injury stop her. She pivoted as if to say, ‘Ok, that door closed. But I’m going to use that time and energy to open another one.’”

Walker graduated with BA’s in Journalist and Public Relations in 2021 and was chosen as the commencement speaker. She is now working at Turner Sports in the Marketing & PR division at Turner Sports, supporting the media giant’s MLB, NBA, NHL and NCAA Properties.

She has also launched an exciting venture called The Collaborative in April of 2020, with her friend, Ryan Ballis. The Collaborative is focused on connecting the sports and entertainment Industry with journalists and PR professionals.  At 22, she is a pioneer, making a difference in sports media for women and young professionals in general.

“She works tirelessly to not only hone her professional skills, but also to build lasting relationships,” Mundy said. “She is kind, thoughtful, steady, and incredibly smart and one of the most driven students I’ve ever had. Yet, despite her success, she remains humble. People are drawn to her because of that combination of qualities, which made her the ideal commencement speaker.”

Realized Potential

Allyson Felix

Most fans of track & field are well aware of the incredible legacy 5-time Olympian Allyson Felix has authored during more than 20+ years in the sport. Not so many know the story of the 9th-grade basketball player who tried out for the track team at Los Angeles Baptist HS and in the next three years would blossom so quickly into a prep legend that captured three World Youth and World Junior medals with Team USA in locales as diverse as Hungary and Jamaica.

Let there be no doubt, the Allyson Felix who became a 6-time Olympic Gold Medalist had a high school career nearly as amazing, one that launched her directly into all of the achievements that followed. When she gave her speech at the NSAF’s first National High School Track & Field Hall of Fame ceremony in 2018, as the final inductee of the night, she proclaimed, “All of the lessons I learned in high school really gave me the foundation to be able to continue on and be successful.”

Felix has always had wonderful coaches and family support. As a prep, she also had the NSAF’s (Nike) Indoor Nationals and (adidas) Outdoor Nationals when she was a sophomore in 2001. Her All-American performances there were part of a resume’ that led to her selection on the U.S. World Youth team to compete that summer in Debrecen, Hungary. There Felix scored a stunning 100m triumph and led the U.S. medley relay to another Gold. An international star was born.

“I don’t have to tell you guys how special this sport is,” Felix said in that Hall of Fame induction speech. “It has the power to change lives … and it changed mine. It introduced me to a completely different world that I had no idea about, and it gave me the opportunity to have a better life than I ever could have imagined. High school track & field has the power to do that.”

Most folks know the NSAF for the Indoor and Outdoor Nationals it’s been holding since 1991, providing life-changing experiences for more than 220,000 athletes. But deeper down, it’s also been about creating opportunities for high-potential student-athletes to discover and cultivate their talent regardless of socio-economic status — that was what Jim Spier and Mike Byrnes were trying to do even before they founded the NSAF 30+ years ago. After all, the stated mission is, “opening doors to the world for our youth, through athletics, and providing them opportunities to succeed.”

One manifestation of this mission has always been helping outstanding young athletes learn about and get to Team USA-qualifying meets. Felix the next year would qualify from the USA Junior meet in Palo Alto to the U.S. team for the 2002 World Juniors in Jamaica (now Under-20 Championships), despite being just 16. She was 5th in the 200, won a 4×100 silver and learned many valuable lessons competing against older athletes

Fast-forward 19 years: At this past summer’s Tokyo Olympics, Felix, at age 35 and mother of a 2-year-old, blazed to a bronze-medal finish in the 400 meters with a near-PR 49.46. Then, with an amazing lineup of other NSAF alums, she won her sixth Olympic gold as part of the USA 4×400, which at 3:16.85 ran the fastest of any American quartet in 28 years. Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammad and Athing Mu – with 16 NSAF titles between them from 2007-2018 – made up the fabulous foursome for the ages.

Felix has always been an ambassador for the sport, but as her career transitions from international competition, the causes and ventures she is passionate about come to the forefront. As a New York Times story noted, she has “become a fierce advocate in recent years for female athletes, for mothers and for gender equality.” And in a recent piece on CNN.com, she also noted wanting to use her platform to bring positive change in racial equality.

In that story, Felix also discussed a new partnership with an insurance company, Anthem, which conducted a study into the social drivers that affect people’s health in the U.S. “The campaign hopes to trigger a national conversation about well-being and improve people’s awareness of the things in life that can have a negative impact on one’s health.”

Felix and her brother Wes – always known as a rock of support in all aspects of Allyson’s life – also recently founded “Saysh,” a women’s lifestyle/footwear brand that sets another example of what can be achieved. Saysh has merited significant international attention across all forms of media and was honored by Footwear News as its Launch of the Year for 2021.

These ventures only scratch the surface of what Felix has given and continues to give to the track & field community and how she has become a role model in many ways for young people can aspire to accomplish.

“I’m so grateful for the people who have invested in my life,” Felix said. “We never accomplish anything alone and there are a whole host of people who have contributed to my success. And it all started in high school.”

The NSAF, with the support provided by generous donors in this Legacy Fund Campaign, will always be there to invest in the lives of young people on the sport, and do all it can to contribute to their success – on the track and off, and during their careers in the sport and beyond.

Preparing athletes for life

Dr. Janice Davis II

Many Olympic dreams don’t end with gold medals at the top of podiums. But since its inception, the NSAF has chronicled the progress of rising track & field stars at the Youth, high school and Junior-age levels and, through its Travel Grant program, helped these athletes get to competitions – whether it be NSAF’s Select Meets, U.S. Youth or Junior meets, or the Foundation’s own indoor and outdoor nationals.

But the NSAF’s commitment is not only to opening the doors of the world to student-athletes, but remaining connected as support for whatever the next steps turn out to be. Janice Davis II had those Olympic dreams, but when that door closed, she continued to push through to a new podium. Eleven years later, she is now Dr. Janice Davis II, MD, MPH, Clinical Fellow Pediatric Anesthesiologist at one of the world’s top medical centers, Boston Children’s Hospital. 

Davis’s sprinting accomplishments certainly portended a golden future. She first forged her speed as a youngster racing with her friends in the streets of Natchez, Miss. and began summer track at age six. Over the next 3-5 years, she started winning ribbons and medals and by age nine was topping Junior Olympic podiums. 

Success continued through middle school and she won the first two of 10 Class 5A state sprint titles as a 9th-grader in the spring of 2000. Then when Davis unexpectedly finished 3rd in the U.S. Junior Women’s 400m, she was invited to compete in a Team USA dual meet in Canada, where she won that same event. “I was the youngest athlete on the team at 15,” she remembers. “My mom was super nervous!” 

At the J.O. meet in California later that summer, Davis saw some U.S. Junior team members and said to herself, “I’m going to wear that uniform someday.” She finished the summer with spectacular PRs of 23.80 and 52.92 for 200m and 400m – 1st and 2nd nationally among freshmen in those two events.

Davis’s sophomore year of 2001 was even better, this time peaking with a victory in the U.S. Junior 200 (23.38w, plus 3rd in the 100). Suddenly she was competing at the 2001 IAAF World Youth Championships in Hungary – where she faced some injury-related adversity – unable to finish her 100m heat. “I think I would have medaled if I hadn’t gotten injured,” she says.

Still, Davis was on the radar of everyone in the track world, including the NSAF – which wanted to help her on her quest to make her first World Junior team the next year, taking the next step from the Youth level. She and her family received travel grants to compete in the NSAF’s 2002 and 2003 Adidas Outdoor Championships and the 2003 USATF Juniors. These experiences were invaluable.

“Meets and trips to nationals were great exposure, allowed for family bonding and I wouldn’t have had the opportunities without the NSAF,” she says. “Track afforded me the chance to see different cultures around the world. There was a lot of education in that which you can’t find in textbooks.”

Even while still striving toward Olympic dreams, Davis was plotting her future beyond the oval. Both her academic and athletic accomplishments got her into Stanford, where the years were filled with All-American and All-PAC-10 honors, both individually and in relays. Davis’s next goal on the track was the 2008 Olympic Trials and what lay beyond. But a severe back injury waylaid those plans. It was there that the lessons learned, her support team and her ability to deal with adversity really kicked into overdrive, enabling her to move on to the next chapter.

She earned a Master of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta (2009-10), then took on the Medical University of South Carolina (2012-16), where graduated as Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) with flying colors. Next was an Anesthesiology Residency at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (2016-20), and now she is a Clinical Fellow Pediatric Anesthesiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. 

“Because of the way I trained and pushed myself in track, medical school actually wasn’t that difficult for me,” Davis says. “You really learn time and stress management, and you pull from sports when it comes to handling adversity.

“You have to be coachable and receptive to criticism,” she adds. “You learn to control your emotions, think clearly and compartmentalize when you have to.”

All along, Davis stayed connected with the NSAF COO Joy Kamani, knowing they were standing with her whatever roads she continued to choose. Her NSAF affections are tied in with memories of her late mother, Janice Davis, who passed in 2014. 

“She and Ms. Kamani would chat on the phone quite a bit,” she recalls. “Ms. Kamani has kept up with me and my progress on social media. I’m all about building positive relationships.

“My mom was my rock and the visionary for what transpired. She told me I was going to become a doctor. I definitely took a circuitous route, but she knew what she was talking about.”

Empowering champions

Marquise Goodwin

Marquise Goodwin was the youngest member of Team NSAF’s second Caribbean Scholastic Invitational (CSI) squad in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2007, having just completed his sophomore year at Rowlett (Texas) High School. He was already the NSAF’s Nike Outdoor Nationals long jump champion and arguably the country’s most electrifying jumper/sprinter and football player, still years away from the national record-setting Olympian and NFL star he was to become. 

Goodwin won the CSI long jump and ran leadoff on the winning 4×100. Then he did something that no one expected.

“At the end of the meet, Puerto Rico’s meet administrator Victor Lopez was thanking the crowd in Spanish,” NSAF Executive Director Jim Spier recalls. “Marquise went over to him and asked for the microphone, then proceeded to thank the crowd in English. He said, ‘We know you could have been doing other things today, but we appreciate you coming out and supporting us.’

“We were stunned and thought it was incredible to see him spontaneously do that. The public expression of gratitude for others really seemed beyond his years. I turned to Joy and said, ‘We have to bring him next year.’”

Says NSAF COO Joy Kamani, “We select kids for these events because of what they’ve done, who they are and what we know they can become. To watch them grow up and become leaders right in front of your eyes, like Marquise did, is very special.”

That was only the beginning. In 2008, Goodwin – having added the NSAF’s Nike Indoor Nationals long jump title to his resume that past winter as a junior – returned with Team NSAF to Puerto Rico as a team leader. He is the only student athlete to represent the NSAF twice in Caribbean events.

“Those meets and those trips were special to me in many ways,” says Goodwin. “I appreciate that the NSAF invited me not just once, but twice, and I was motivated not just to compete as well as I could, but help lead the team as well.”

“Later, when I made U.S. World and Olympic teams, I knew what to expect and how to handle myself at major competitions and on international trips. And I could share that with others, too.”

Goodwin’s first U.S. national team berth was only a week after that second CSI trip. He soared 25 feet to win the U.S. Junior title and punch his ticket to the 2008 IAAF World Championships. Just two weeks later in Barcelona, Goodwin leapt 25-4.75 to claim the gold medal and top the podium. 

“I had many more things I wanted to achieve, and still want to achieve,” says Goodwin, “but winning the World Junior gold in the Olympic stadium is something I’ll never forget.”

Incredibly, Goodwin still had another year of high school – and he made the best of it. He dominated the prep scene in Texas and nationally, and took to a new stage at the 2009 USA Championships in Eugene – that’s the senior championships, for Olympians, other pros and collegians. He rose to the occasion in dramatic fashion, breaking the 20-year-old national high school long jump record with a 26-10 – a mark which still stands today – and came within two inches of making the Team USA for the senior IAAF World Championships.

Goodwin went on to win his 2nd USA Junior title and then won a silver medal at the Pan American Juniors that summer in Trinidad & Tobago.

More than a decade later, Goodwin has continued to grow and achieve, both in track & field and football – and add to his legacy as part of the NSAF Alumni family. On the track at the University of Texas, he won two NCAA long jump titles, plus the USA Champs in 2011 and 2012 – the latter of which was also the Olympic Trials. He went on to finish 10th in the London Olympics.

On the gridiron, he was a triple threat for the Longhorns as a receiver, rusher and kick returner, catching 120 passes and scoring 10 touchdowns. He started in the 2010 BCS Championship and in the 2012 Alamo Bowl, scored two touchdowns and won the game’s MVP Award. Goodwin was then selected by the Buffalo Bills in the 2013 NFL Draft and played seven seasons with the Bills and San Francisco 49ers. 

This past April, Goodwin was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, but in July decided to sit out the season due to COVID-19. He and his wife – hurdles star Morgan Snow – had just welcomed a daughter into the world in February after losing three boys in childbirth over three years. Honoring the couple’s strength and resilience, and ultimate joy when their daughter was born, ESPN did an E60 Personal Journey Father’s Day special on the family.

“The lessons I learned in high school and with the NSAF continue to be a part of what uplifts me and my family to this day,” says Goodwin. “Any athletes who are invited to be a part of Team NSAF should take advantage of it and can benefit as I have.”

Promoting opportunity and equity

Boys’ Relay Team

From the beginning, the NSAF’s mission has been to provide opportunities for student athletes to get the most out of their ability.  The best-known examples of these opportunities are the Indoor and Outdoor national meets.  The travel grants provided to athletes to attend USATF Junior events, however, has proven to be pivotal in the careers of many high potential athletes.  In June of 2002, sprinters Willie Hordge, Ivory Williams and Ashton Collins found out what lengths the NSAF will go to provide these life-changing opportunities, and what the payoff can be. 

Willie Hordge, 2002’s fastest high school 100m runner in the country (10.21), was in the medical tent at that June’s NSAF’s Adidas Outdoor Championships. The Forrest Brook HS (Texas) junior had just run the second fastest prelim time, but had a nagging hamstring injury and NSAF Medical Director Rob Jones was advising him not to compete in the final later that day.

NSAF COO and fellow Texan Joy Kamani had joined them, but her mind was racing ahead to the following week’s USATF Junior Championships at Stanford – which was also the qualifier for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Jamaica. The NSAF has become known over the years for its massive Indoor and Outdoor Nationals, now with more than 12,000 competitors combined. 

But the cornerstone of the NSAF mission, something co-founders Jim Spier and Mike Brynes were zeroed in on even before the Foundation was formally established, was informing athletes of USATF Junior meets and helping those who needed help getting there through their Travel Grant program. The belief is that Team USA Youth and Junior experiences can help develop athletes for the Senior level. More than 300 NSAF alums have become Team USA Olympians since 1984.

Kamani knew Hordge, already a veteran of the 2001 World Youth Championships (winning 100m and medley relay silvers), could help get Team USA on the podium in both the 100m and 4x100m relay. The selections for U.S. Youth teams back then were made by committee, so Willie hadn’t competed in a Junior meet and a Trials meet before.

“I didn’t know anything about those Junior meets,” says Hordge now. “I was a football guy, but I was getting more serious about summer track. I really wanted to do it, as long as my hamstring healed, and Ms. Kamani said they would help us.”

By the time those Adidas Championships had concluded, Kamani had also enrolled Ivory Williams and Ashton Collins – two more outstanding prep sprinters who starred in Raleigh – in the idea of going to Juniors. There was just one problem: Just four days’ time to help the athletes get entered, ticketed and housed for the next weekend’s meet.

But Kamani, Spier and the late NSAF coach and board member Cedric Walker were veterans at this sort of thing. After all, potential Team USA medalists don’t always manifest themselves until season’s end. Kamani and Spier knew the talented trio had great potential to make waves in Kingston.

Between Sunday and Thursday of that week, arrangements were successfully made (not without a few harrowing moments) and the trio arrived in San Francisco the day before the meet and transported to a nearby hotel.

Kamani’s and Spier’s intuition was on point. Hordge (2nd 100), Williams (4th 100, 3rd 200) and Collins (3rd 400) all made the team and were in a position to do great things in Kingston. But no one had any idea just HOW great. “We didn’t want to let down Ms. Kamani,” Hordge says, “It would have been a waste of money if we didn’t perform at the level at which we were capable.”

The next month in Kingston, Hordge took the bronze in the 100m, while Williams and Collins waited for relay duty. Due to injury to another sprinter, Collins would be running both the 4×4 and 4×1, while the trio was joined by 200m bronze medalist Wes Felix – a USC freshman. The quartet – Collins-Felix-Williams-Hordge – advanced first in qualifying for the final with a fast 39.18.

The final started equally promising and when Hordge took the baton on the anchor, he exploded down the track like his hair was on fire. He was being chased by 100m gold medalist Darrell Brown of Trinidad & Tobago, and a 15-year-old youngster named Usain Bolt – the Jamaican anchor who several years later would become history’s greatest sprinter.

But no one could beat the motivated Texan. He crossed the finish line with a huge smile on his face and baton thrust in the air, then turned to see the result: A World Record 38.92!! And with Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago in silver and bronze.

“It was the record that almost wasn’t,” Spier likes to say.

“The crazy thing is, I’d heard about Bolt, but I wasn’t thinking so much about him,” remembers Hordge. “I was worried about Darrell Brown!” And with good reason: While the 15-year-old Bolt had won the 200m, he was not yet an acclaimed 100m man and Brown had just beaten Hordge in the 100. 

And just in case anyone thought the result was a fluke, Hordge, Carlos Moore and both Collins brothers (Ashton and Aaron) duplicated the feat at the 2003 Pan American Juniors in Barbados, again beating Bolt on the anchor for the gold in 39.29.

While he didn’t go on to have the type of Olympic track career that Bolt did, Hordge had his own kind of success. His track and football achievements at Buffalo State (Class of 2009), which included an NCAA D3 100/200 double in 2007, earned him a spot in that university’s Hall of Fame in 2016. He played two years in the NFL and is now studying for his doctorate in physical therapy at Texas State University. He still stays in touch with Williams and said he even caught up with Bolt a few years back.

Hordge will never forget the NSAF and his adventures in track & field in 2002. “They can really help you a lot if you have some talent,” he says. “They get it done for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to travel to events like that. I never would have had those experiences if it hadn’t been for the NSAF.”

Supporting programs, changing lives

St. Stephens Indian School

Billy Brost is not without a sense of humor in describing some of what he had to work with when he took over as head track & field coach at St. Stephens Indian School (Riverton, Wyo.) in 2015-16. “I did inventory and the uniforms looked like they were from the ’80s,” he says with a grin. “We had shot puts that had been run over by lawn mowers – chunks were missing – and batons were twisted like pretzels. Desperate is an understatement.”

Coach Brost started looking up grants and fundraisers for track teams and came across the NSAF’s Tony Wells Team/Club Development Grant. He didn’t have high expectations at first, but “we got it right away, the first thing I did is bought some new shot puts, batons and starting blocks. We’ve been piecemealing everything together ever since in these five years I’ve been a head coach.”

St. Stephens also had only two student-athletes from which to start a team before his first season of 2016. Full of energy and motivation, Coach Brost convinced nearly three-quarters of the school’s students to run, jump and throw for the Eagles. “We went from three kids to 77,” he says proudly, “And we’ve never had less than 55 in the years since.” 

And it hasn’t just been the quantity of student-athletes participating in the program; the quality is improving, too. “We hadn’t had anybody qualify for our Class 1A state meet in four years, but we got three to state that first year,” says Coach Brost.  “Every year we send more than the year before. In 2019, we had seven individuals qualify for state, and out of those seven, four of them were freshmen. The goal now is to compete for a team trophy.”

He’s also become pretty proficient at grant proposals, too, earning three more Tony Wells Grants. He declined the one St. Stephens won this year, though, as the WHSAA cancelled spring sports due to COVID-19. The Northern Arapaho Business Council has yet to allow tribal students on the reservation to return to its four schools, Brost said, so sports programs for these schools were closed this fall, too, and classes have remained online.

“It’s been a battle for our student-athletes,” says Coach Brost. “We use sports as a vehicle to lead success in the classroom. We take extra time with our students to begin with here in the Reservation and when we don’t have that daily interaction with them and can give them a hug or a fist-bump or sit down and talk with them and see how their life is going, it’s a struggle. Kids don’t get what they need from Zoom and our kids are suffering.

“But we are not going to risk the health of our students and our elders. We want our kids to be safe and our community to be safe.”

A big component of the NSAF’s Tony Wells (and Cedric Walker) Development Grants is a community service project, which must be proposed and then completed before the full funding is dispersed. Eagles’ team members at first dutifully completed their community service, but now it’s actually one of the things they most look forward to each spring.

“I’m a big believer in giving back, a big service project guy,” says Coach Brost, “so when I saw that part of requirement of the grant was that our program do community service, I was like yeah, that’s going to show these kids that money doesn’t fall out of sky into our laps.

“I want my young people to understand that you do for others when you have the capability of doing that. It’s not just about winning races, earning medals and going to state, it’s about representing the community and giving of yourself when you can. And hopefully that trickles down to younger people. The first couple years the kids raised an eyebrow, but now they expect it and like to do it.

“It’s just been a phenomenal process for kids in the program and the entire community has embraced what we try and do through the service projects.”

Coach Brost and his school feel very blessed to have been awarded the Tony Wells Grant multiple times. “It helps allow me to teach, motivate and succeed. We thank our lucky stars and we will always be grateful.”