Springs Valley Community High School

During a junior-high gym class, Grant Brown saw Alan Marshall running laps around the gym. His response to that was pretty straightforward — he wanted to race. They ran one lap around the gym to see who was faster, Brown claims it was a tie, but the result didn’t really matter. They’d started something. Marshall encouraged his friend to give cross country a try and he did. That one race turned into many, many races the two would run with and against each other over the ensuing years. It turned into a friendship, and a rivalry, that would help revitalize Springs Valley’s boys’ cross country team. All because Marshall was running around in gym class and happened to find somebody who could compete with him. “I asked him to run cross country because he was able to challenge me and keep up with me,” Marshall said. “Since then he’s gotten a lot better, he’s really put depth in our team and really helped us out through the years.” Brown has gotten a lot better. Much better. Now a junior, he’s become one of the best runners in the state as well as in school history. He qualified for semi-state in last year’s state tournament and took home Class 1A All-State honors, the first time a Springs Valley cross country runner had done so. This year he’s already won an individual Orange County championship, earned himself a place on the All-Patoka Lake Athletic Conference team, broken the 17-minute mark, and given the school 5k record a scare in the process. He’s managed to come all this way because of Marshall, who’s pushed him to be great. “I’m competitive, so I just always have to be better than him. When he’s better than me, I want to be better,” Brown said. “It’s just always a never-ending cycle of me trying to be better than him and him trying to be better than me.” Marshall’s also benefited quite a bit from Brown’s presence. He’s chased his training partner to multiple All-PLAC honors and has also appeared in the regional round of the state tournament. He recently flirted with a sub-17-minute 5k himself, recording a personal-best time of 17:02 at the PLAC meet last weekend. When he saw Brown get named All-State he was proud of his friend, but also disappointed that he wasn’t on the list with him. He set his sights on making a deep tournament run himself and earning himself a spot. “It really helps me strive to be better, to continue to work on my form and everything just so I can be better than Grant,” Marshall said, “but it also really gives you a sense of friendship and closeness on those long runs that someone who’s training by themselves won’t really have.” Their success has influenced more than just the two of them. It also had an effect on their coach, Derek Freeman. He’s had to step up his game the same way they have. “I’m getting smarter as a coach. They’re helping me push to a new level of coaching because I’ve never coached kids at these levels,” Freeman said. “We’ve had kids that went through this program who probably could’ve been and were just as good as these guys, but I didn’t know as much so they’re also helping push me and that’s helping me train them better. I know that there’s a lot left in the tank for them, there’s a lot we can improve upon.” Marshall and Brown have also had an effect on the cross country program as a whole. From the time they entered the high-school ranks, they’ve brought a seriousness to running that not every runner brings. “From day one, they’ve come into the program disciplined and determined. They knew that they didn’t want to come in and run recreationally, they knew on day one that they wanted to be great and they do all the little things,” Freeman said. “They work on their diet, they make sure they’re getting enough hydration, they make sure they’re getting plenty of sleep, they do all the recovery things that need to be done. They put in all the hard work and the miles and they do all of that, it’s just discipline. I knew these guys had the potential to be great as long as they carried it on and they have.” They’ve also encouraged others to take up cross country. Their eighth-grade year, the varsity team had just two boys. Currently there are nine. Success breeds success and when Brown and Marshall started having it, others wanted to be a part of it. “They’ve shown success and people have fed off of that and wanted to be a part of that. It’s interesting because they’ve changed how I’ve approached people about running cross country because I have to sell people on the fact that they’re not going to do the exact same thing as Alan and Grant and that’s OK,” Freeman said. “We’ve run into kids who have thought this would never be the sport for them and now they’re enjoying it immensely and regretting not doing it earlier.” On Saturday, Brown and Marshall have an opportunity to help Springs Valley reach a new height and do something that’s never been done before. When they hit the course with their teammates at the Jasper Sectional, they’ll be in contention to advance to regional as a team. To do that, they’ll have to be one of the top five teams in a field that also includes bigger schools like Jasper, Heritage Hills, Forest Park, Perry Central and South Spencer as well as other Class 1A teams that will be competitive like Northeast Dubois and Loogootee. “It would be incredible. I never thought we’d ever come close to this,” Brown said. “I’ve been wanting to do this, but I never thought it would be possible so I’ve never really thought about it that much until recently. It’s just mind-blowing.” In order to pull it off, the Blackhawks will need to have five or six runners go out and have really good days. In that effort, it will be Brown and Marshall who lead the way and set the tone and they’ll do it together. “It would mean a lot to me for us to go out there, give it our all, do everything we’re capable of and be able to advance to regional as a team,” Marshall said. “It’s never been done before and it would be absolutely mind-blowing.”