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3-Sport Standout Back as Airport Coach
September 9, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
CARLETON – Dakota Bostic started his high school cross country career because he wanted to get into shape for his freshman year of basketball for Carleton Airport High School.
A decade later, Bostic is about to launch his coaching career as the varsity cross country coach for the Jets.
“Cross country teaches you a lot,” said Bostic, 22. “It’s a tough sport. There’s no one to battle but yourself. There’s plenty to learn from the sport. I didn’t learn it until I looked back a bit. When you stop, you kind of realize what you put yourself through. It makes you mentally tough.”
Bostic was a three-sport athlete at Airport before graduating in 2015. He ran varsity cross country for all four years, was moved up to the Jets varsity basketball team as a freshman and played baseball four years.
“I think sports are an integral part of a person’s school experience,” he said.
Bostic played basketball for four years at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, going from a little-used freshman to starting his junior and senior seasons. He was also an outstanding student at Concordia, being named the Justice and Public Policy Student of the year in 2019 and graduating with a bachelor’s degree. The award came in part because of his work on a class project that involved investigating a 2013 cold case murder of a mother of two from Taylor. He was named to the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference All-Academic Team multiple times, maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.25.
Airport athletic director Tim Duffy said when he heard Bostic was available this fall to be a coach, he called him up. He at first thought Bostic might be interested in being an assistant with the cross country team. But after talking to him, Duffy thought he would be a candidate for head coach.
“He was a very well-rounded athlete here,” Duffy said. “I can’t tell you how many times I saw him run or ride his bike to and from school to get into the gym. Everything he does, he puts everything he’s got into it. Everybody you talk to here speaks highly of him.”
After Bostic was hired, he had to go through the MHSAA certifications and complete a lot of paperwork to be eligible to coach.
“The morning after he was hired, he was in my office trying to figure out everything he had to do,” Duffy said. “He knocked it all out within a week. And, he did it all while juggling a job. That’s the type of kid he is.”
Bostic has enjoyed his first few weeks coaching the Jets runners.
“The kids have been great,” he said. “My little brother just graduated from Airport, so some of them know me. They are a receptive group. They all want to get better. They are learning what it takes.”
While basketball was his favorite sport in high school, cross country holds a special place in Bostic’s heart. Now, he gets to pass that on to a new group of student athletes.
“In any sport, there is something you can do to get better every day,” Bostic said.
Bostic grew up about three miles from Airport High School and remembers attending Jets sporting events from a young age.
“I remember looking up to the older guys, watching them play basketball and football,” he said.
He exceled in basketball, earning some looks from colleges while being an all-region player in Monroe County.
“I always knew I wanted to play basketball in college,” he said. “It was a process once I got there. I had to adjust. My freshman and sophomore seasons, I didn’t play very much. I had to make my name in practice.
“By my junior year I started playing a little bit, then I got to start a game and stayed there from then on. It carried over into my senior year. In four years of playing basketball, I learned there are plenty of aches and pains.”
After Concordia, Bostic joined the Marines. He was in officer school when a back injury forced him to be honorably discharged. When Duffy found out Bostic had returned to the Airport area, he jumped at the chance to add Bostic to his coaching lineup.
“He’s a great guy, and we are happy to have him coaching with us,” Duffy said. “He’s a great pick-up for us.”
Bostic said his message to his cross country athletes will be to treat every practice and every meet as if it might be their last.
“Given the current situation of the world, I’ll try and remind them that no opportunity is guaranteed,” Bostic said. “You owe it to yourself and the kids who aren’t getting to participate to go out and not take it for granted.”
Bostic coming home to coach Airport is not necessarily what he previously pictured doing at this point in his life, but he’s happy to be doing it.
As Bostic said, "I hope to always be a Jet.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dakota Bostic this fall is beginning his first season as Carlton Airport’s cross country coach. (Middle) Bostic makes his move toward the plate while pitching for Airport. (Below) Bostic lines up to shoot a free throw while playing at Concordia-Ann Arbor. (Top and middle photos courtesy of Monroe News; below photo courtesy of Concordia-Ann Arbor.)
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D2 Champs Turn in Elite Performances
November 7, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BROOKLYN — It finished as expected, with a duel between Algonac senior Morgan Beadlescomb and Corunna junior Noah Jacobs.
However, the two fastest runners in the state this season had company for longer than anticipated during the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 meet Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
A pack of four runners entered the stadium with about 1,200 meters remaining, with Pontiac Notre Dame teammates Brendan Fraser and Nathan Mylenek intent on crashing the party.
With the finish line in sight on the long straight away, the two favorites separated from Fraser and Mylenek and launched a battle for the championship. Beadlescomb prevailed to repeat as Division 2 champion with a time of 15:26.5. Jacobs was second in 15:30.5, with Fraser taking third in 15:39.4 and Mylenek fourth in15:40.5.
Even at the highly competitive Portage Invitational on Oct. 10, Beadlescomb and Jacobs cleared the field by the mile mark and raced to the two fastest times in Michigan this season. Beadlescomb edged Jacobs by one second that day with a time of 14:59.
The difference this time was the wind, into which nobody was willing to push the pace alone up front.
"This race was completely different," Beadlescomb said. "I knew it was going to be a kicking race before the first mile. Something inside me was just saying, 'Go,' but I had to stay because people behind me will just use me and that will waste energy."
"Neither of us likes to take the lead and eat the wind," Jacobs said. "I figured somebody would take it for us, which happened."
The race featured the winners of the two distance events at last spring's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Track and Field Finals. Beadlescomb won the 1,600-meter run in 4:13.58, while Jacobs took the 3,200 in 9:27.49. Jacobs didn't run the 1,600, while a fatigued Beadlescomb was fifth in the 3,200.
They met twice during the regular season, with Jacobs finishing nine seconds ahead of Beadlescomb in the Spartan Elite race at the Spartan Invitational on Sept. 18 before Beadlescomb won Portage.
"He's a great kid," Beadlescomb said of his rival. "We wish each other luck every time we see each other. It's good competition. We're hard and we push each other, but it's good. It really helps both of us. I can't wait to see what he does next year as a senior."
While disappointed over finishing second, Jacobs would prefer a race like Saturday's to any of the easy victories a runner of his caliber routinely racks up during a season.
"It's a lot more fun to go out there and have great competition and really do something special than if you win your conference by 30 seconds or something like that," said Jacobs, who was fifth in the Final last year. "It's special to go out and see your training pay off in a big-time situation like that. I wanted to win today. I'm handling this well right now, but deep down I'm pretty hurt. I wanted to come out and win today. Morgan's a great competitor. I knew it would be a tough race. He outraced me."
The battle for the team championship wasn't nearly as close, as Fremont rolled to a 69-162 victory over runner-up Otsego.
Fremont had four runners in the top 19, led by fifth-place junior Matthew Zerfas in 15:44.7. Zerfas was fourth last year.
Also scoring for Fremont were junior Sam Kaastra (14th, 16:05.7), junior Cole Hamilton (16th, 16:07.9), sophomore Ben Schmidt (19th, 16:11.8) and junior Sam Stitt (35th, 16:26.5).
Ranked No. 9 coming into the meet, Otsego's boys were the lowest-ranked team to take home a championship or runner-up trophy in any division Saturday. Only 12 points separated second-place Otsego from fifth-place Corunna.
Alex Comerford led Otsego, taking 13th in 16:04.5 to finish first among freshmen. It was Otsego's best finish at an MHSAA Finals meet, eclipsing third-place finishes in 1951, 1961, 1962 and 2008.
Third-place Clio (171 points) had the best finish in school history, improving on fourth-place showings in 1963 and last year. It was the first time since 1963 and 1964 that the Mustangs have made the top 10 in back-to-back years.
The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Algonac’s Morgan Beadlescomb (446) and Corunna’s Noah Jacobs (294) stayed with the lead pack early before breaking away near the end of the Division 2 Final. (Middle) Fremont’s Cole Hamilton (322) works to stay ahead of the Clio’s Ethan Taljonick. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)