Heritage Sprinter Off to Stunning Start
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
May 2, 2018
When Marcus Montgomery took the advice of his good friend Juwan Roberts and joined the Saginaw Heritage track team prior to the 2017 season, he did it with the simple expectation of having fun.
He never imagined where he would be a year later – among the top 400-meter runners in the state and starting to see interest from Division I colleges. Montgomery’s personal best 400 time of 48.81 seconds, in a race he didn’t run competitively until this past winter, ranks third in the state this season in all divisions.
It’s an emergence longtime Heritage boys track coach Gary Loubert called “nothing short of stunning.”
“I wouldn’t have believed (this was possible),” the Heritage senior said. “Last year, at the beginning of the season, (Heritage girls track coach Ricky Flowers) did say that he was going to get me to states, but that was for the 100. But now, he’s got me somewhere I never thought I would be in a whole different event.”
As a junior, Montgomery started as a jumper, and eventually moved to sprints, where he was solid in the 100 and 200. While his times didn’t scream championship runner, the raw ability he showed while running at least gave a hint it could be pulled out of him. At 6-foot-4, Montgomery had the stride length – he just needed to learn how to use it.
Enter Flowers, a former World Class sprinter who ran at Michigan State University. Flowers, who coaches sprinters for both Heritage teams, took Montgomery under his wing, and even through the disappointment of him being academically ineligible to run in the 2017 Regional meet, he stuck with the talented youngster, encouraging him to work on the sport in the offseason.
“I just saw the length that he had and how he ran, and I said, ‘This kid probably could do something with some teaching,’” Flowers said. “I started giving him workouts and teaching him just how to run. This fall, I put it out to some of the kids to join my track club … long story short, Marcus ran indoors, he ran a 48. He came to all my practices, he got a taste of winning and learning how to run and finish races. Now we can’t keep him off the track. The best is yet to come.”
Montgomery’s first 400-meter run was more of a learning experience than a triumph. He finished it in about 54 seconds after running with no plan in place.
“For my first time, I did not have a strategy at all,” he said. “I full-on sprinted. I’m not going to lie, I was winded halfway through it. I honestly didn’t think (it would be my race) because of how winded I was, but just kept working at it.”
He ran at the Michigan Indoor Track Series meet in Saginaw and placed fourth with a time of 49.39 seconds, and won the Saginaw Valley State University Division 1 Indoor Invitational with a time of 49.2. He also qualified for the national competition in New York, but did not make the trip.
Now, even though the weather has been less than ideal for displays of speed, he’s carried that momentum over into his outdoor season, where he’s yet to be defeated in the 400. His success on the track has led to more focus off it, as Montgomery has put more focus on his school work.
“The success Marcus has been enjoying is transformative on so many other levels,” Loubert said. “He has grown in wonderful ways with a confident, but courteous attitude. He is extremely outgoing and a pure joy to coach. His teammates have really enjoyed watching the growth, too. He has definitely become a lead-by-example athlete. They are inspired by his progress and admire how smooth he runs. A little hard work and a growing positive attitude have been a catalyst for not only Marcus, but others are noticing and buying in. He is writing a story that will help strengthen our culture as a program.”
The prospect of running collegiately is a major motivator for Montgomery, who realizes that listening to his friend and coming out for track a year ago could very well have changed his life. He said the possibility has made him want to become a better student, as well as a better athlete.
But on the track, the future isn’t his concern.
“Coach has talked to me about that, about the things I can do and the things I have possibly in the future,” Montgomery said. “Myself, I’m more concentrated on right now. I’m sure when that time comes, it will hit me and my mind will be blown.”
Montgomery is worrying about being the best 400-meter runner he can be. Being the best 400-meter runner in Heritage history (the school record is within sight at 48.1), and the best 400-meter runner in the state.
“I want to be one of those guys that brings back a state championship for Heritage,” he said. “Most of this I’m doing not only for myself, but for my family and my school in general. I want to make everyone proud.”
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) Marcus Montgomery (196) charges through a turn during the 400 at the MITS state meet in February at Saginaw Valley State University. (Middle) Montgomery sprints the final stretch during a race this spring. (Top photo by RunMichigan.com; bottom photo courtesy of Marcus Montgomery.)
Longtime Coach Lukens Remembered for Building Champions, Changing Lives
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
September 27, 2024
The results speak for themselves as there were conference, Regional and MHSAA Finals championship and runner-up finishes.
But those accomplishments are not necessarily why Don Lukens will be remembered by most. It will be for the lives he touched and successes his student-athletes found after graduation.
Lukens impacted two communities separated by 200 miles during multi-decade coaching tenures for multiple high school programs.
Lukens died Sept. 15 at age 90. He was well-known across the state for his coaching as he spent 27 years teaching at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, where he coached with Ted Duckett, and 33 years coaching at Traverse City Central with John Lober. Duckett, now 78, and Lober, 82, are still coaching today.
Tico Duckett, one of the most accomplished running backs in Michigan State University football history, is one of thousands of kids Lukens recruited into the running world. Duckett, who went on to play in the National Football League, credits Lukens for recruiting first-time track athletes from challenging life situations and turning them into college scholarship recipients.
Lukens knew how to get the best individual performances out his athletes, recalled Duckett, whose high school running career ended with a hamstring injury sustained during Regional preliminary sprints.
“I can tell story after story of kids that he plucked out of class, and they are successful today,” said the first MSU back to rush three times for more than 1,000 yards. “Between him and my dad, they would take kids that had no direction, no future, no hope and bring them in and teach them track and teach kids what you put into it is what you’re going to get out.”
Lukens had graduated from Western Michigan University where he’d participated in football and track. During his 38 years coaching track, Lukens’ teams posted a dual meet record of 220-24, won 20 conference championships, nine MHSAA Regional championships, a Lower Peninsula Class A title and finished runners-up twice.
Lukens’ cross country teams also were impressive with a record of 198-60 during his 34 years of coaching. They won 14 conference championships and 12 MHSAA Regional titles.
Tico Duckett has memories of being recruited to the sport as a child while his father served as an assistant coach at Loy Norrix.
“Coach Lukens would say, ‘I can’t wait ’til you get here,’” the former MSU star fondly recollected. “Coach Lukens loved track – he breathed and ate track.”
Loy Norrix hosts the highly-competitive Don Lukens Relays every May. Duckett attended this year’s meet as he often does. It was Lukens’ ability to recruit and coach track that made the Knights stand out across the state.
“Loy Norrix track was special,” said Duckett, proudly noting the Knights’ dual-meet dominance. “When we would go places and get off the bus, people would literally say, ‘There’s Loy Norrix,’ and they would literally talk about us, and we would show ’em on the track and we backed it up.”
Inside the halls and walls of Loy Norrix, the Duckett name is engraved on trophies and next to track & field records earned by Tico Duckett and his brother TJ, who also went on to play professional football. Ted Duckett took over the head coaching duties when Lukens retired and moved to Platte Lake in Benzie County.
Word traveled fast that Lukens had arrived in Northern Michigan, and he immediately was asked to help Benzie Central by another legendary coach, Pete Moss, who died in 2019.
Lober ran across Lukens at a meet at Benzie and recruited him to coach distance running at Traverse City Central – which at the time had just five athletes committed to participate in those races.
Central had a prior history of success in sprints and field events, but the Trojans won the 1992 Class A title as their distance runners had become competitive enough to start contributing points at the Finals.
“We started coaching together in 1989, and we had 30-plus glorious years together,” Lober said. “We ended up qualifying right off the bat for the state finals, and we went 16 years in a row.”
Lober too was known for his recruiting to the sport.
“When we talked with kids, I’d be talking in one side of the kid’s ear and Don would be talking in the other,” Lober said with a laugh. “By the time we were done, the kid didn’t have a prayer of not joining the team.”
Lukens continued at Central until 2021, stepping aside as he ended 62 years of coaching.
Cody Inglis, now a senior assistant director for the MHSAA, served as Central’s athletic director while Lukens coached. He was well aware of Lukens’s coaching at Loy Norrix as he grew up a distance runner for nearby Portage Northern.
Inglis noted most of Northern Michigan knew very little of Lukens’ resume prior to his coming north. Inglis was coaching and serving as athletic director at the time for Suttons Bay when Lukens first joined the Trojans.
“People in Traverse City didn’t understand the success he had at Loy Norrix,” Inglis said. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, Traverse City Central was good, and they’ll be even better’ and it’s no secret that the reason their cross country program took off was because of Don Lukens.”
Lukens won the inaugural Coaching Legacy Award at the 2019 Traverse City Record-Eagle/John Lober Honor Roll Meet. Going forward, the award will be named after Lukens.
Lukens is survived by his wife Rosinda, daughters Paige Gray of Gladwin, Wendy Pohl of Kalamazoo and Donyelle Hayhoe of Lansing, and five grandchildren: Brynn Rusch, Ian Gray, Westyn Hayhoe, Travis Hayhoe and Lucas Hayhoe.
The Trojans will host a memorial tribute to Lukens the day after next year’s Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City. A graveside service was held for Lukens on Monday at the Benzonia Township Cemetery.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Longtime coach Don Lukens, far left, is pictured during the 2015 LP Cross Country Finals with past Traverse City Central runner John Steen (center) and Trojans coach John Lober, with Jane and Jack Steen standings in front. Jane and Jack Steen are current Traverse City Central runners. (Middle) The Niles Daily Star published this 1976 photo of Lukens (back row, second from right) and coach Ted Duckett (back row, center) receiving the championship trophy at the Daily Star Relays from publisher Bill Applebee. (Top photo courtesy of John Lober.)