LA GRANDE, Ore. -- Rarely are writers in the sports world given a story that is a guaranteed winner. The feel-good stories are so hit-and-miss, that when one occurs you better run with it.
Pun intended in this case.
Karlee Coffey ran into my world just a few months ago when I first saw her at the cross country team orientation at the beginning of the school year. EOU head coach Ben Welch had just had the annual discussion of who is the “who’s who” of the new crop of runners. He mentioned a runner that would surprise a lot of people this season.
Welch described her as a tough worker, with raw talent, but not a lot of experience. She was a non-traditional freshman at the age of 28, who has a two-year-old son. So you can imagine the thoughts the small group of us had as he went on about Coffey.
We soon learned how right Welch was, and how wrong she made many doubters.
Coffey crossed the finish line fourth overall in her first ever cross country meet at the Northwest Nazarene Invitational on Sept. 13.
“Karlee is a tough competitor,” Welch said. “She is a unique individual. The crazy thing is to think about how inexperienced she is. She is rapidly growing. Every race she just continues to figure things out.”
While most athletes take running as a punishment, the cross country world thrives and lives off it. I don’t know how the cross country runners are punished, maybe told they are not allowed on the track.
I find it difficult to walk into Wal-Mart and find the item I am looking for in a short amount of time, and Coffey runs 5,000 meters in under 18 minutes.
Coffey, a graduate of La Grande High School, never participated in any high school sports. In fact she described herself as a person who recreationally worked out after high school.
“After graduation I moved to Colorado and worked for a non-profit organization,” Coffey said. “I dated a cyclist, started cycling myself, and learned that I was an adrenaline junkie. I moved to Portland and continued to ride my bike. When I got pregnant, I still trained on the bike.
“After I had my son, I quickly learned that riding a bike was just too time consuming. A three-hour bike workout took too much time away from my son. I found out I could feel happy with an hour of running as a substitute.”
That’s when it happened. Coffey propped the bike with the kickstand, and laced up her sneakers.
“I fell in love with running with my first half-marathon,” Coffey said. “I had to convert my bike time into running time. I loved my first race and things just took off from there.”
They sure did.
Coffey placed in the top four of every race in 2009 except one. On Oct. 22, Coffey had the highlight of her very young career. The freshman crossed the finish line before all the runners in the Yote Twilight Meet field.
“It was amazing,” Coffey said. “The greatest feeling I have had as a runner. I went into the meet with no technique and little experience. I wanted the College of Idaho’s best runner, Stephanie Helm, to run, but she was sick.
“From that meet on, I raced with confidence. I had to finish ahead of her, and put all of the other runners behind me. After winning that race I knew the feeling, and I knew I could do that.”
Coffey finished ahead of Helm at the conference championships in Springfield on Nov. 7, but finished second overall behind Concordia’s Alice Taylor.
As a 28-year-old Coffey naturally picks up leadership qualities to her younger teammates.
“I tend to help them when it comes to training and practice for a meet,” Coffey said. “But surprisingly I need them a lot more than they need me. My teammates give me great advice at races that has helped me all season.”
That advice paid off. Coffey ran one of her best races of the season at the best time. The freshman finished 12th at the national championships. She became only the third women’s runner at EOU to be named an All-American as a freshman. Better than that, she crossed the line before any runner in the Cascade Conference, including Helm and Taylor.
Welch has been coaching the Mountaineers for 19 years and seen many runners come through the program.
“Karlee is very special,” Welch said. “She ran an extremely good race at the national meet. We were expecting her to finish somewhere from 10 to 15, and she did just that. In the spring she will focus mainly on the marathon, but she’ll run a 5K and a 10K in there too.”
The athletic world needs to recognize the effort and work that goes into being a cross country runner. It is commonly known how difficult an individual sport can be on a person, but Coffey takes it all in stride.
Pun intended.
“It’s great at races when everyone cheers me on,” Coffey said. “But, when my son says ‘Go Karlee,’ it motivates me more than anything ever has. He is a constant inspiration to me.
“I’d like people to see that having a child does not have to mean you can’t train the way I do. I want people to know they can do anything they want still. Whether it is in sports or going to school, if you put your mind to it, nothing should be able to stop you.”
The future seems very bright for this non-traditional student. With three more years to work on her technique and get faster, let’s just say this Coffey will be tough to ground.