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1970s Pioneers Took 1st Track Strides
May 16, 2017
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Between 1982 and 1987, Sue Latter-Addison was considered among the top 10 women runners for the 1,500 meters/Mile according to Track and Field News.
In 1986, she became only the eighth female in U.S. history to break 4:30 in the mile with a time of 4:23:93 at the Nikaia meet in Nice, France. Over the years, she ran with and against some of the greatest of all-time, including Mary Decker-Slaney. As a junior at Michigan State in 1977, she earned All-American honors in the outdoor 800 meters.
As a coach, she was named NCAA Division III Midwest Region Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1999, in her third season at Wheaton College. Her previous coaching stops included stints at Brown University, Colorado, Florida State, and most recently at Hope College. Running professionally for Reebok and Nike, she competed around the world.
“We were fortunate to come along when we did,” said Latter-Addison, recalling some of the track trailblazers and a time when participating in high school sports was not a possibility for girls. “If we had been born a couple of years before, we wouldn’t have had the opportunities that we did.”
Sue Latter was a 16-year old junior at Clarkston High School in January 1973 when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 1972 ruling that allowed girls to compete in varsity, non-contact sports with boys in Michigan. Since her high school didn’t have a girls track team, she joined the boys team.
“(Running with the boys) had advantages and disadvantages,” she said a few years later to the Lansing State Journal while running for MSU. “It did make me work harder, and my teammates were always encouraging me.”
The arrival of the first MHSAA Girls Track and Field championships in 1973, won by Marquette in the Upper Peninsula and by Lincoln Park in the Lower Peninsula, was the culmination of many things.
The nation’s view of the female in society was rapidly changing. In many cases, the battle for the chance to compete against others was led by parents who believed in the educational value of athletics, and saw that opportunity denied because of gender. Thanks to their efforts, walls that prevented girls from enjoying opportunities that once were exclusively reserved for males began to crumble. Among those barriers were rules that prevented girls from competing athletically. Title IX, along with other lesser known lawsuits, meant rapid expansion of sports in Michigan and across the United States.
A survey of MHSAA member schools during the 1969-70 school year found 59 districts offered track for girls. A year later, 69 schools offered the sport. In April of 1972, the MHSAA announced plans to expand girls state tournaments to five sports – Tennis, Swimming, Gymnastics, Golf, and Track – during the 1972-73 school year. One year previous, gymnastics was the only one offered, beside skiing regionals that allowed teams containing males and females.
With the announcement, the number of girls prep track programs shot up to 150. However, Clarkston wasn’t amongst them.
A new sport called Powerball – a version of competitive volleyball – was added to the athletic menu at Clarkston during the 1972-73 school year. The girls converted from six-girl basketball to a five-girl team during the 1969-70 school year. The “ball” sports were the only athletic options, outside of cheerleading and skiing, that were offered by the Clarkston district for girls during the 1972-73 season.
“I liked competing and enjoyed running and realized I was pretty fast,” recalled Latter-Addison. “Obviously there wasn’t much to choose from. I liked individual sports, where you’re responsible for yourself and your own success. Coach, (Errol) Solley gave me a chance.”
“She had a lot of talent,” said Solley, now a resident of Florida who returns to Michigan for the summers. “She wanted to run. We didn’t have a girls team at the time. It was a time when things were changing and changing fast.”
A few other girls had joined Latter on the team, but by the 1973 track season’s end, she was the only female still working out with the boys. Solley entered her in the girls regional state meet at Madison Heights, where she won the 880 and 440-yard dashes. With the wins, Latter advanced to the state meet, hosted at East Lansing High School.
She was one of 366 entrants from 119 schools at the Lower Peninsula meet, open to all schools regardless of enrollment classification in that first year. In the Upper Peninsula, 29 teams competed at Iron Mountain for U.P. honors. In 1974, the L.P. girls event was split into two, one for Class A and B schools and a second for Class C and D schools. In 1975, events were run for each of the state’s enrollment classifications. In the U.P., the event was segmented into Class A-B, Class C and Class D beginning in 1974.
And, like many others, Latter was the only qualifier present to represent her high school. According to the State Journal, Latter’s clocked time of 57.1 seconds set a national schoolgirl record in the 440-yard dash that year. She also won the 880 run with a time of 2:17.7.
Solley proudly relayed word to the Clarkston News that the University of Michigan girls coach had said he “hadn’t seen anything like her comeback from 880 to the 440 within an hour.”
“She opened up a lot of eyes,” recalled the coach more than 40 years later. “When you have a girl win two state championships, that will happen.”
Running second in the 880 was Sue Parks of Ypsilanti High School, who finished at 2:18.3. Park’s father Bob was head coach of Eastern Michigan University’s men’s track and field and cross country teams for 34 years. Like others, he had fought hard for his daughter’s right to run, and the 1971-72 school year found her practicing with the track team at Ypsilanti.
Anita Lee of Detroit Cass Tech was the day’s other double winner. In 1970 as a 12-year-old, Lee’s name landed in “Faces in the Crowd,” still a feature of every issue of Sports Illustrated, for setting “her seventh world age-group record with a long jump of 18'6¼" at the U.S. Youth Games in New York.” According to the magazine, she already held the 10-, 11- and 12-year-old girls world records in both the long and high jumps.
A sophomore in 1973, Lee won both the long and high jump in the MHSAA’s open meet. A year later at the Class A-B track championships, she won the long jump, the 80-yard hurdles, then ran the opening leg of the 880 relay, also won by Cass Tech. As a senior in 1975, Lee grabbed the top medals in both the long jump and high jump at the Class A championships. Like Latter, she would compete at Michigan State after graduation. There, she would post jump records that would last for years.
“When you have success, it is addicting,” said Latter-Addison.
Unfortunately, Latter’s success didn’t translate into a girls track team. Clarkston still didn’t sponsor a girls squad in 1974, her senior year. So she and some other female classmates accepted their only option and ran with the boys squad. Now running the 100 and 220, Latter was Oakland County champ in both events at the first county meet, held at West Bloomfield High School. Ready to return to statewide competition, suddenly a roadblock appeared.
“A question of Sue’s eligibility arose last weekend as she and three other Clarkston High School girls prepared to run in the regional meet” at Madison Heights Madison, stated the Clarkston News that May.
“Because Clarkston did not field enough girls for a girls track team, the co-eds had practiced with the boys’ team and ran practice in their meets. They … ran afoul of a new athletic rule which says that a boy or girl must elect which team they will enter competition with.”
As explained by a school official, “if a girl decides to play with the boys’ tennis team, for instance, she cannot play with the girls team.”
Since there was not a girls team at Clarkston, officials were unable to present a clear ruling on eligibility, and it was initially decided that the girls would not be allowed to run in the qualifying regional.
“I was very emotional,” said Latter-Addison, recalling the incident.
Clarkston school officials had said they had no intent of violating state rules. Unable to get a clear cut decision, ultimately Latter and her three female teammates, Vadna Seyler, Judy Henderson and Nancy McAlevy, were allowed to compete. Latter was the only Clarkston girl to qualify for a trip to the state finals, but at the conclusion of the meet, it remained uncertain if there had been a violation.
Similar occurrences happened around the state, and confusion reigned. Ultimately, it was decided that the rule needed to be re-examined. The performances were accepted and Latter was cleared to run at the state meet, held in Grand Rapids in 1974.
There, she finished second in both the 100 and 220 to Josephine Hobbs of Detroit Central. Hobbs would win both events again in 1975 and 1976, and then run for Delaware State.
All were pioneers, shattering pre-conceived notions about girls and athletics. While it may seem a clichéd phrase, those early participants truly paved the way for today’s female athletes.
For Sue Parks, the freedom to run competitively led to a fabulous college cross country career at Eastern Michigan University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in 1980 and a master’s degree in 1988.
During her college days in Ypsilanti, she served as head girls track coach at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard High School in 1982 and head girls cross country coach at Ann Arbor Huron from 1979 to 1983. That was followed by a coaching career that included years at the University of Michigan, Michigan State, the University of Arizona, and Ball State before returning in 2006 to EMU.
There, she still heads the women’s track and field and cross country coaching staff.
“Look how far it’s come,” stated Latter-Addison, remembering the challenges and opportunities that came from the chance to compete.
Her daughters with husband Ron Addison, an All-American runner at the University of Tennessee, earned MHSAA state championships while at Grand Haven High School. Both Becca and Laura Addison later ran for the University of Michigan.
“I wasn’t awarded an athletic scholarship at Michigan State until my junior year,’ Latter-Addison said. “They simply didn’t exist for girls. Back then, you had to be happy with a free pair of shoes. Today, the opportunities are there.”
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Lansing's Betsy Leverich takes the baton from Cathy Mueller (right) during the first MHSAA Girls Track & Field Finals in 1973, as captured by the Lansing State Journal. (Middle top) Clarkston's Sue Latter stands for a photo with coach Errol Solley. (Middle below) Detroit Cass Tech's Anita Lee was among the earliest Michigan high school female track stars. (Below) Sue Parks also was an early star and the daughter of a collegiate coach who went on to compete at the next level. (Photos provided by Ron Pesch.)
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Meridian Speedsters Find Home on Track
May 20, 2016
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
SANFORD — Nobody had to talk Christian Petre into playing baseball or persuade Hailey Stockford that playing softball might be fun.
Both fell in love with those respective sports early on.
But track and field? THAT took some lobbying from others to get the two sprint stars at Sanford Meridian on the oval.
Both added more titles to championship careers Friday, as each won the 100 and 200-meter sprints at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Regional at Clare to qualify for the MHSAA Finals on June 4 at Comstock Park. Petre also ran on two winning relays, while Stockford ran on a relay that finished runner-up.
Petre was a freshman when his older brother, Mic, tried to talk him into running track.
"He saw me run during my football games and said he really wanted me to run track," Petre said. "He put some pressure on me. At first, I wasn't really sure, because the only thing I knew was baseball back then. I wasn't really sure about track. I didn't think it was a good idea. I told him 'no,' at first. Eventually, I changed my mind. I said, 'I might as well try it. I don't know where this could lead.'"
In Petre's case, it led to an MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 100-meter championship among four all-state finishes last spring while he also played on a Sanford Meridian baseball team that was ranked No. 2 in the state before getting upset in the District Semifinals.
For Stockford, there was a similar reward for adding track and field to her plate in the spring. In her first year on the track, the former softball center fielder won the Division 3 championship in the 100 and 200.
Her speed became apparent when she was faster than many of the boys on the football team in a 40-yard dash in gym class. The instructor for that class was Mike Bilina, who is Meridian's varsity football and boys track and field coach.
"My time was really good," Stockford recalls. "He kept telling me I should join the track team. I'm like, 'No, I'm playing softball; I don't think that's for me.' I ended up changing my mind. I guess at the time I was thinking I wanted to dedicate everything to softball. I thought it would be best to focus on one sport."
Stockford finally came out for track one week into the season last year as a junior. She quickly caught on, winning the 100 in 12.07 seconds and the 200 in 25.11 seconds at the Division 3 Finals, just 45 days after competing in the first meet of her life.
Both became champions while juggling two sports — their first loves and their new loves. Neither has been beaten in the sprints this season as they attempt to close out their high school careers with more championships.
"The coaches are pretty understandable and communicate well with each other on what day I'd be doing what," Petre said. "It's not that difficult for me, really. I put a lot of work in over the offseason. I try to get ahead of the game before the season actually starts, so when the season comes around I can just go about it normally and not have to stress about going back and forth with each sport."
Being able to do two sports in the same season not only benefits student-athletes who are capable of handling the workload, but it benefits the teams at Sanford Meridian, which has an enrollment of 408.
"Because we're so small, if we didn't have dual sports, we'd lose a lot of athletes from one sport to the next," girls track and field coach Jenny Nosakowski said. "We're pretty open. We try to work with the coaches. We've had a lot of kids come over from baseball this year. We try to work it so both of our teams, baseball and track, will benefit."
Running in his first MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals, Petre cracked the top four in all four of his events to help Meridian place fourth as a team. He won the 100-meter dash in come-from-behind fashion with a time of 11.13 seconds. He anchored the fourth-place 800 relay team and third-place 400 relay team before finishing third in the 200 in 22.72 seconds.
Petre is convinced that the competition he's experienced in other sports helped him cope with the pressure of track and field Finals.
"Especially since I was on varsity as a freshman in football and baseball," he said. "Just playing on a bigger stage at only 14 years old really helped me. I was really nervous at state last year. I had a lot of adrenaline pumping. I didn't know what to expect. I feel like the past experience really did help. I wasn't as nervous as I could have been."
Running at a high level all day may have caught up with Petre in the 200, his final event. He had the fastest time in the preliminaries (22.44) before taking third.
"I don't want to make any excuses," he said. "I had a long day with prelims and relays. I guess I didn't train my body as well as I could have last year, so I got a little fatigued and came up a little bit short. I didn't run the race I expected in the 200."
Coming up short in the 200 wasn't the biggest disappointment on that day for Petre. In the middle of the meet, he learned that his baseball teammates were upset, 13-8, by Beaverton in the District Semifinals. The Mustangs had a 29-6 record going into that game.
"I was really hoping to come back after states and play with my team," Petre said. "It did kind of put a little downer on the day, but it was what it was."
Petre made a different decision the previous year, opting to play in the baseball Districts rather than run in the track and field Finals. He helped the Mustangs win the District championship before they lost in the Regional Semifinals, 3-2 to Cass City. The track and field team, meanwhile, won the MHSAA Division 3 title.
"It was tough, because at that point I was still new to track," Petre said. "I didn't really know what was going on. Back then, I always said baseball would be first; that's what I decided on that day."
There is a chance that Petre could compete for two MHSAA championship teams this spring. The baseball team has a 25-1 record and is ranked No. 3 in Division 3. The track and field team has been in the top four at the MHSAA Finals the last two years.
"We've talked about it ever since the beginning of both seasons," Petre said. "It's crazy to think that could happen. As of right now, we have to keep working on the little things and keep moving forward, so when it comes time to do this, we're ready to compete."
Petre's speed was also put to good use as Meridian's starting quarterback the last four years. Petre led Meridian to a school-record 10 victories last fall. The Mustangs won their first 10 games before losing to eventual Division 6 champion Ithaca in the second round. He had a 30-10 record as Meridian's quarterback, having been promoted from the junior varsity early in his freshman year.
"I was the head JV coach," Bilina said. "He was taken from me in Week 2. We knew he was a special athlete early on. He was just faster than everyone as a freshman. He was forced into a position where he had to go up a little bit quicker. He handled it very well. He's the winningest quarterback in Meridian history. He's received a lot of individual and team honors. He's in the history books here at Meridian, that's for sure."
Petre, a center fielder and pitcher, isn't sure which sport he'll play in college.
"I have a preferred walk-on to Northwood for football," he said. "Davenport has offered me for track. Saginaw Valley is still talking to me for track. I'm going to see how the summer plays out for baseball."
Petre legged out four triples in a doubleheader sweep of Gladwin on Tuesday, including two in the first inning of the opening game. For the season, Petre is hitting .541 with six triples, a homer, 22 RBI and 40 runs.
As one could imagine, stealing bases was a big part of Stockford's game on the softball diamond.
"A lot of teams we play pretty much expect it," said Stockford, who was a center fielder.
Stockford also played volleyball at Sanford Meridian, but softball had always been her favorite sport.
"I played since I was little in T-ball," she said. "My dad was a really good baseball player, so it was just in the family. My brother and sister also played."
Another family member, cousin Sarah Stockford, helped close the deal in getting Hailey to run track last season.
"A week into the season, I just got the urge to run it," Hailey said. "My cousin was on the team, and I'm really close with her. I figured it'd be a good year to try it if I was going to. I had been told I was fast. I knew I was fast based on stealing in softball."
Less than seven weeks after getting started in the sport, Stockford found herself on the track at Comstock Park as a championship contender in both sprint events.
"You never know what to expect, especially it being my first year running, but that's obviously the outcome I was hoping for," Stockford said. "I just wanted to go in there and see what I could do.
"It's a great atmosphere. It could be overwhelming. There are a lot of schools there. You know how important the meet was. It was a different experience, but it was fun. In every other sport I played, you relied on your teammates. Being there in an individual sport in such an important meet was different for me."
Stockford has never been beaten in the 100 in her high school career, losing in the finals of the 200 only three times. Her talent caught the eye of Saginaw Valley State University, which offered her a track and field scholarship. So, the girl who thought of herself primarily as a softball player will be competing in a different sport on the college level.
"I had coaches talk to me about playing softball in college, but I see potential in myself in track," Stockford said. "I've done good so far. I'm hoping to get better and see how I can do. I thought it would be something I might regret if I didn't try it."
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) Sanford Meridian's Christian Petre leads the pack during a sprint at Beaverton on April 27. (Middle) Meridian's Hailey Stockford takes off from the blocks, also during the Beaverton meet. (Photos courtesy of the Sanford Meridian athletic department.)