Track Buddies At Center Point

I wrote today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette about Marshall Leonard and the friends he's made on the Center Point-Urbana High School boys track team, including Ryan Mixdorf, after receiving an e-mail from assistant track coach Bob Dillon. In part, here's what Bob wrote:

"We have a challenged freshman athlete on the team, Marshall Leonard (center in the photo at left), who has befriended the best athlete on our team, Ryan Mixdorf (to the right of Marshall), as well as many other team members . . . his experience at CPU has been very positive for him . . . he has really needed a male mentor in has life . . . Ryan designs some of his workouts adapted to what he can do and also makes sure he has his homework with him at the end of practice.

"At meets, he will run the 400, 200, and or 100 which takes him twice as long as the average athlete. Our CPU tracksters are always around the track cheering him on.

"If you think this would be a possibility for a "Ramblin' with Rasdal" column you would be welcome to attend one of our practices or meets to visit with Ryan and Marshall and to watch the interaction."

I thought it would be a great story. Too often these days, if someone isn't like you or as gifted as you, it's easy to brush them aside or ignore them.

As I watched a practice, I saw no pretense. There is genuine friendship between Marshall and Ryan and several of the other members of the track team. It's something we can't see enough of in the world today. I am more than happy to tell that story.