Ask Mark Stanbrough about Jacob Davies, and he’s bound to tell you a story.
It’s a story Stanbrough has told many times this past year, and one he’s sure to tell several more times to anyone who will listen.
As the story goes, Davies, a senior at Emporia High and the defending Class 5A State champion in the 800-meter run, was participating in the youth national championships in Chicago last summer. He ran in the preliminaries on a Thursday and then in the finals on Saturday, where he finished sixth.
When Davies got back to Emporia, he realized he had not run very many miles that past week, so to make up for it, he ran six miles that Monday morning. Later, on Monday evening, the Emporia Track Club met for practice, only to be greeted with a lightning storm, and Stanbrough, the Emporia High cross country coach and the distance coach for the EHS track team, sent everyone home.
Only Davies and his teammates didn’t go home.
They went to fellow senior Mike Robinson’s house, and from there, set out on a “fun run.” They ran down Commercial Street in the rain, past the railroad tracks and down to Soden’s Grove before turning around and racing back to Robinson’s house.
That run ended up being 10 miles; Davies totaled 16 miles that day. This from a guy who began his running career as a sprinter and had competed in just one season of cross country as a junior.
The story about Davies’ 16-mile day is one of Stanbrough’s favorites because it not only best illustrates the type of athlete Davies has become, but it also gives insight into the mental character of one of the state’s top runners.
“How many guys that can run 49 seconds in the 400 will go out and run 16 miles in one day because they didn’t get their miles in the week before that they wanted?” Stanbrough says. “That’s commitment there.”
The past two seasons, Davies has been as committed to running as it gets, and he’s been an absolute joy to watch.
One of the best measures of a great athlete is how those watching respond when that athlete is in their element. The best athletes demand your attention, because there is always the anticipation that something remarkable is about to happen.
Jacob Davies is no different.
The past two years, whenever Davies has been on the track, I’ve found that I stop everything I’m doing and simply watch him run. At the risk of sounding facetious, when Davies is running, it is breathtaking.
His stride is effortless yet powerful. He is fast yet durable. And I’ve yet to see a runner able to match his kick in the last 100 meters.
It’s remarkable, then, that Davies admits he struggles from time to time actually believing he is as good as everyone else around him knows him to be.
“Each year, Coach Stanbrough gives us these mental toughness worksheets to gauge where we’re at, and the questions basically rate your nervousness and if you get butterflies and if you’re doubting yourself. I usually score pretty high on those in the negative column,” Davies says. “I sometimes get down on myself.”
This is not an abnormal thing, though.
Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach and arguably one the greatest coaches ever, was one of the most insecure figures in all of sports, and he had no reason to be.
What’s fascinating is that the fear of losing provides more motivation than the expectation of winning, and that could explain why Davies has become such a fantastic runner.
“Surprisingly, you would think that a lot of runners that dominate believe they’re going to come out and win every race, but that isn’t the case,” Stanbrough says. “There are a lot of good runners that doubt themselves and think, ‘Can I do it? Can I do this?’ I think that’s fairly common for that to occur.”
But what Davies says he lacks in confidence before a race, he more than makes up for when the gun sounds and he is in the thick of competition.
“I try to do anything to get my mind off the race before it starts, but once I get into the race, I don’t really think about anything else,” he says. “You just go into that competitive mode, and that takes over. You don’t really have any control over it. Your body just responds to the challenge and the competition, and when that happens, I feel pretty confident.”
I am one of many who will miss watching Davies compete in an Emporia High uniform. He will run in his final races as an EHS student this Friday and Saturday at the State track and field meet in Wichita, where he’s qualified in four events — individually in the 400, 800 and 1,600 and as part of the Spartans’ 4x400 relay squad.
After this weekend, he’ll continue his training over the summer before heading off to run cross country and track at Kansas State.
“Not too many people have his combination of speed and endurance,” Stanbrough said. “I think the story about him running 16 miles shows that he sees the big picture about what it takes to be successful. I’m real high on him ... and he’s got a great career ahead of him.”
For as spectacular as he’s been at Emporia High, Davies might just be getting started.
And that could be the most impressive story of all.
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