Davidson's Legacy: Friendship, Hard Work
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 7, 2017
Jon Davidson may be retiring, but he isn’t slowing down.
That’s just not something the longtime St. Clair cross country and track coach does.
“Even when I go on vacation,” Davidson said. “If I’m not really, really sore at the end of it, it wasn’t a vacation.”
Davidson, 51, coached his last cross country meet this past Saturday when his Saints placed fourth at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final at Michigan International Speedway. It ended his 20-year run leading the St. Clair boys program, which included Finals titles in 2012 and 2013, a runner-up finish in 2000, and 12 Regional titles.
He concluded his time as a teacher at St. Clair High School this past spring, and this upcoming track season will be his last.
While that’s a lot off his plate, Davidson will manage to keep his schedule full between the 11 rental homes he owns, his work remodeling homes, and following his youngest son, Ben, around the Midwest as he joins the Ferris State University basketball team in the 2018-19 season.
“If I wouldn’t have had six seniors this year, I probably would have retired from coaching (after 2016-17), too, but I told those guys I wouldn’t leave them,” Davidson said. “Actually, the plan was to retire from teaching and coaching this year, but they offered a buyout (for teachers). It was a lot of planning that all came together at the right time.
“I’m going to miss coaching a lot, but it was time. It had nothing to do with the kids. The kids are just as great as they were when I first started coaching in 1991 -- maybe better.”
Davidson – who began coaching at Clio in 1991 and spent three years at East Kentwood before moving to St. Clair in 1996 – took over the Saints cross country program in 1998. He coached both the girls and boys teams in 1998 and 1999, leading the girls to their first Finals appearance in program history before turning the reins over prior to the 2000 season.
With the boys, he turned a program that didn’t have enough runners to compete as a team in the Regional the year before he took over into one that was perennially among the state’s best.
While all of that success is a great source of pride for Davidson, it pales in comparison to his favorite part of the job.
“The thing that means the most to me is all the friends I made with my runners,” Davidson said. “There are guys who have graduated who are some of my best friends. Obviously winning the state championships were amazing memories, and going from not qualifying for state to taking second in 2000. But the best part of it is all the friends I still have that were my runners, and the opportunity to change kids’ lives.”
The feeling was mutual from his athletes. Davidson has been a member of the bridal party in weddings of his runners, and was recently the best man in the wedding of Addis Habtewold, who won an individual Finals championship under Davidson in 2007.
He often meets up with former runners, whether it be for a meal while they’re back in town, or taking trips with them to going skiing or hiking.
“Coach Davidson was the closest friend I had in high school,” said Brennan Shafer, the No. 1 runner on the 2012 Division 2 championship team. “He always knew what was best for me. He was always there when I needed him. He showed me what hard work and dedication was and where it could take me and our team.
“If it wasn’t for Coach, I would have never received a college scholarship, I wouldn’t have been included in our state championship team in 2012, and I wouldn’t be who I am today.”
To many outside the program, that may come as a surprise. Davidson could be seen at any meet constantly moving around a course barking out instructions to his runners. His workouts, which are a combination of systems used by legendary Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and legendary distance coach Jack Daniels, are meant to be as tough as possible – “more mileage and running faster while running that mileage,” Davidson said.
So when a former runner of his met up with someone from a rival school at a party years later, “I heard you all hated (Davidson)” was the rival’s comment.
“He said, ‘Are you kidding me? He’s one of my best friends,’” Davidson recalled with a laugh.
The hard work equaled results, and not just with runners like Habtewold, who entered with a ton of physical talent. Davidson had a track record of taking runners who were struggling to break 19 or even 20 minutes when they first came to him, and turning them into scoring runners on Regional – or even state – championship teams.
“The thing I stressed the most was running hard,” Davidson said. “It’s a training sport. I prided myself on taking below-average kids and making them great. Lars McElroy, his PR as a freshman was 19:05. He ran a 15:54 by the time he was a senior.”
There’s a large list of those runners from St. Clair, and Davidson can rattle off all of their PRs without a second of hesitation.
“I love them,” Davidson said. “I love them all. You put that much work into something, and how can you not remember? It’s not just something I did for fun – I did do it for fun – but it was what I poured my life into.”
One of those runners was Trevor Holowaty, who started running for Davidson as a sophomore in 2011 and had a personal best of 19:02 that year. He was a scorer on both of St. Clair’s Division 2 championship teams, coming in 11th at the Final in 2013, and finished his high school career with a personal-best time of 15:47. Recently, while running for Ferris State University, he qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championships.
“Jon taught me what hard work truly meant,” Holowaty said. “He was an extremely passionate coach, very emotional and thoughtful when it came to interacting with his athletes. He always had a plan and a drive to see us succeed that convinced us to trust that plan, and it always came together.
“His excitement to see us succeed through effort and hard work transferred over into the classroom and daily lives of myself and many others for years to come. He created a relationship closer to a friendship rather than a job with his athletes. I cannot imagine being coached and mentored by anyone else growing up.”
Even with his retirement, Davidson’s impact is sure to live on through all those he’s encountered.
“I feel like I’ve made my mark on the world,” Davidson said. “I left a great legacy, and still will, because I’m friends with most of those people who ran for me. That’s my greatest accomplishment right there. That tells me I’ve done a good job, because they still want to see me.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Recently retired St. Clair boys cross country coach Jon Davidson runs ahead of one of his athletes during a meet. (Middle) Davidson poses with his 2013 MHSAA championship team. (Photos courtesy of Jon Davidson.)
Lee Learns From Best, Runs To Be Next
August 18, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
FENTON — Jacob Lee attained a measure of fame last summer through his association with the No. 1 high school distance runner in the nation.
However, the Fenton High School senior gained much more from the experience than an appearance on the cover of a major national running magazine.
When Running Times profiled Grant Fisher in its September 2014 issue, his training partners shared in the glory. The cover of the magazine showed Fisher and five visible training partners doing repeats on a sledding hill at Bicentennial Park in Grand Blanc.
On the far right of the cover shot was Lee, who had trained since eighth grade with Fisher and a group of predominantly Grand Blanc runners led by coach Mike Scannell.
"That was pretty awesome, actually," Lee said. "I saw myself. I knew the article was about Grant. It's still pretty cool to be training with all those high-caliber guys."
Fisher was a two-time national Foot Locker cross country champion who won two cross country and five track and field titles in MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 meets, setting the all-time Finals record of 4:00.28 in the 1,600-meter run as a senior last spring.
Fisher raised the bar incredibly high for the next generation of Michigan high school runners. Having trained daily in the offseason with Fisher, Lee had a unique front-row perspective as Fisher progressed into one of the top high school distance runners ever in this country.
Lee certainly hopes to take the lessons he learned in training with Fisher onto the cross country course this fall and the track next spring. But, beyond that, he will seek to apply lessons learned while training in Scannell's group to other areas of his life.
"It was incredible to train with Grant Fisher and all those guys up at Genesys (Athletic Club in Grand Blanc) with the level they train at," Lee said. "It's not just athletics. They strive to do great in the classroom and the community. That's what I like about it. They have household goals, academic goals. We just strive to achieve them."
One lesson that Lee has learned all on his own is that, no matter how well you've trained and how attainable your goals might appear, strange things can happen in MHSAA Finals.
He was primed to grab a top-30 spot last year after finishing 37th in the Division 1 cross country meet as a sophomore. Things were going according to plan through the mile mark before the race began to unravel for Lee. His body mysteriously betrayed him. Slowing down just a little bit can spell disaster in the Finals, as Lee discovered by dropping to 212th place out of 256 runners with a time of 17:24.3.
"I was feeling good between the first and second miles," Lee said. "I was right on pace. I was in the top 30-40 group. About the second mile, I started cramping up. I don't know what happened exactly. My back kinda tightened up, too. I couldn't move as much. My stride became super short. I'm not really sure what happened that day. I'm just making sure it's not going to happen again."
The Finals aside, it was a season in which Lee lowered his personal best from 16:13.4 as a sophomore to 15:46.75 as a junior. He broke 16 minutes twice.
“I thought the season overall was a great success,” he said. “I wish the state meet would’ve gone better, because I know my fitness level was higher than what I finished.”
Lee's shot at redemption came at the Division 1 Track and Field Finals, where he placed 13thas a sophomore in the 3,200-meter run in 9:38.78. He was peaking at the right time, running 9:23.6 on May 1 in Saline and 9:27.9 two weeks later in the regional meet.
As was the case in cross country, Lee was positioned right where he'd hoped to be. But bad things sometimes happen when so many fast feet are in close proximity. Again, disaster struck for Lee in the biggest meet of the season.
"I tripped and fell with 800 to go," Lee said. "I got spiked in the head, actually. I've still got a little bit of a mark. So, I wish that would've gone better, because I was in the top eight going into the last 800, but there's nothing you can do about that. I was right behind (Davison's) Nick Schmidt, who ended up coming in sixth."
The 5-foot-7 1/2, 122-pound Lee got to his feet and finished 21st with a time of 9:37.23.
“When I first met Jake, I thought he was someone’s younger brother who happened to be training with the team and Mike’s guys,” Fisher said. “Jake’s always been one of the smaller guys. Because of that, he has to make up for that in his work ethic and intensity at every practice. I definitely have a lot of respect for him because of that. He’s racing against guys who are 6-3, 170 or whatever. Jake’s not the biggest dude. Jake has a focus that is pretty special. He brings his all at every practice.”
While Lee no longer has the Stanford-bound Fisher to push him in training, he will have some strong talent within his own league to keep him sharp throughout the regular season.
Fenton competes in the Flint Metro League, which will feature Clio senior Ethan Taljonick and Holly senior Dilon Lemond. Taljonick finished 16th in last season’s Division 2 Final, while Lemond was 39th in Division 1.
Lee's goal is to finish among the top five at the MHSAA Finals, but along the way he hopes to emerge from that speedy trio as the Metro League champion.
"The competition is really high in our own league, so it should be a good race for the individual top spot," said Lee, whose personal best came when he won a talent-laden league jamboree at the Cummings Center in Mount Morris. "All of the league meets are pretty good competition, especially the ones with Clio and Holly. There's no slacking off when it comes to racing those guys, for sure."
Lee also will get a good daily push in practice because of a coaching change that has former Fenton all-stater Jesse Anderson in charge of the cross country program. Anderson was 11thin 2006 and 10thin 2007 at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Cross Country Finals. He still runs at a high level in road races.
“It’s going to be a huge benefit, a huge advantage for us,” Lee said. “Not only does he know what he’s talking about, but he runs. He knows all of this great stuff about running, he owns a shoe store, but he can also run with us and tell by our individual fitness what we’re capable of.”
And what is Lee capable of this season
“It’s pretty limitless, really,” said Anderson, who calls coaching Fenton his “dream job.” “We want to keep him healthy. He’s coming in with a very, very strong base. We’ll see how he responds to training.”
Lee began running in fifth grade with the encouragement of his physical education teacher at North Road Elementary in Fenton.
“We had this thing called Mileage Club at North Road,” he said. “He turned me on to that. I started running. I really liked it. I kept running every single day to get toe tokens. Once you get five miles per card, you get a token. It was a race between me and my friends to get the most tokens. You put them on a shoelace and wear them around; it’s pretty cool.”
As cool as they were back then, a medal from the MHSAA Finals on Nov. 7 would be even cooler.
And for his part, Fisher was glad to see friends like Lee make his Running Times cover.
“I was really happy they picked that picture,” Fisher said. “They were taking all these options for a cover shot. To have that group of guys on the cover was really special, because those are the guys I train with day in and day out. A lot of times, they’ll feature me or Mike.
“Jake is the younger guy, but he’s very dedicated to running. To get him on the cover and the other guys, when they first saw it and had the magazine in their hands, their reaction was pretty cool. It was definitely more special for me. I’d rather have it that way than an individual shot of me.”
Bill Khan served as a sportswriter at The Flint Journal from 1981-2011 and currently contributes to the State Champs! Sports Network. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Fenton's Jacob Lee runs with a pack during last season's MHSAA Division 1 Cross Country Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Lee, on left, turns the corner during a race at the 2013 Brighton Invitational. (Top photo by RunMichigan.com, middle by Bill Khan.)