South Georgia - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

The Valdosta community has another state champion in its midst. You probably won’t see this one on a sign as you enter Lowndes County or the city of Valdosta. If you were standing next to the champion in line at Wal-Mart, you probably wouldn’t even recognize her. But that doesn’t make her accomplishment any less significant.

Mary Alice Smoot, an eighth-grader at St. John School in Valdosta, won the state cross country championship in her classification, and she did so in rather dramatic fashion. The race was held on a very difficult course in Macon on Halloween, and featured several significant hills. Just before the finish line, runners had to climb a large hill before heading down the other side to the finish. Mary Alice knew she had a chance to win the race, and she had come up with a solid strategy as the race began. “I wanted to stay with the top pack, then sprint out the finish,” she says. When the gun sounded, one runner quickly jumped out in front. Mary Alice let her go, and stayed close as the race progressed. “She was ahead of me most of the race,” recalls Mary Alice.

Then came that hill. It’s a nasty little trick race directors play on runners, putting a big hill at the finish line. No lead is safe until the final hill is conquered. As the race leader started the climb, Mary Alice noticed that she was slowing down. Mary Alice wasn’t feeling the best in the world, either – her legs felt heavy most of the race and she was really having to work to stay up. But when she saw her opponent slowing, her legs suddenly felt lighter. She made a little ground and kept pushing. The gap narrowed. Mary Alice kept driving her legs up the hill. She eventually caught her opponent, who had no answer for Mary Alice’s surge. The Valdostan sprinted down the hill for the state championship. She had covered the 1.6-mile course in 9:51 – a 6:09 per mile pace.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt when your parents are elite-level runners themselves. Mary Alice’s father, Todd, is the owner of Get Active, a running apparel retailer in Valdosta. He also serves as Valdosta State’s cross country coach, and was a national-caliber runner until 1992. His palmares includes a victory at the Atlanta Marathon and numerous wins in smaller 5Ks and 10Ks. He also narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic marathon when he was at the top of his form. When Todd returned to competitive running four years ago, it didn’t take him long to regain his form. He remains a threat to win any local race he enters.

Mary Alice’s mother, Alice, is an excellent runner in her own right. She attempted to qualify for the Olympics in the marathon in 1988 and 1992, and has traveled the Southeast as a high level Masters runner. A quick Google search reveals that Alice holds the Georgia 40-44 5K record with an 18:18 that she ran in the 1998 Cave Spring 5K in Marietta.

Todd insists that Mary Alice runs in spite of her pedigree, not because of it. “We’ve never pushed her to run. She came to us wanting to get involved in sports. We always hoped she would run, but she chose to run on her own,” he says. Mary Alice agrees. While watching her mother run and hearing her father’s stories had an influence on her, it is her competitive streak that drew her into athletics. And she’s involved in more than just running; Mary Alice is

also a very good soccer player, and she’s also a member of St. John’s basketball team. “I thought sports would be fun. Then, when I got involved, I became very competitive. I get that from my dad. He likes to win, too,” she laughs.

Mary Alice has shown tremendous running talent at an early age. Todd and Alice are committed to taking things easy with their daughter. They don’t want to push her too hard and let her over-race herself. She does most of her training after school with the St. John team, and Todd doesn’t try to coach Mary Alice; he lets Rick and Martha Mazurkiewicz, the St. John cross country coaches, handle those duties. “She’s a member of St. John’s cross country team, and they are her coaches, not me,” says Todd.

It’s an arrangement that has worked well. Mary Alice is one of the top female runners in the area of any age. She doesn’t run too many 5K’s, but when she does, she’s near the pointy end of the field. At the 2009 Hahira Honey Bee 5K this fall, Mary Alice ran a 20:34 5K, a personal best, and came in 13th overall and first in her age group. Interestingly enough, she was seven seconds ahead of her mother, who was 15th and first in her age group as well.

Mary Alice isn’t fast just because she has good genes. She is dedicated to her running and works hard every day to get better and better. “She has a great work ethic, and she loves to race at the front of the pack. She’s very a very coachable athlete,” says Rick Mazurkiewicz.

She’s already had an excellent running career, even at her young age, and has too many age group awards to count. Out of all those races, her biggest moment was, without a doubt, winning the state title. “That was my biggest thrill. I was so happy,” she says. And yet the moment was not without humor. “When I crossed the finish line, I tripped and fell in a big mud puddle,” she laughs. At that point, it didn’t matter – she was the state champion, mud or no mud.

Mary Alice doesn’t believe in taking any time off from athletics. She plays basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring. She says she’s much better at soccer than basketball. She started playing basketball in the fourth grade, and because of the small size of the St. John team, has to play every position at one time or another. “It’s a fun game. I love the team aspect and the level of skill involved in the game,” she says. Still, she admits that her basketball abilities need some refining. “I’d like to continue basketball in high school if I can. I enjoy the game, but I’m not real good at it.”

Soccer, however, is a different story. Mary Alice has played soccer since she was in kindergarten, and is an accomplished player. She plays all over the field, but enjoys playing defensive back and forward when she gets the chance. “Those are my favorites,” she says. Mary Alice doesn’t mind contact, and says she loves making slide tackles – and avoiding them when she has the ball. “I like being a part of the team. You have to know what your teammates are going to do, and you get to know each other pretty well. I also like playing in front of the crowd.”

Mary Alice is an excellent student, and manages her time very wisely. Out of all the things she does well, time management is what her father finds most impressive. “She focuses on what’s important at the time. If it’s time to get serious about athletics, she focuses there. If it’s school, she focuses on school,” he says.

Mary Alice is the kind of person who does her best at whatever task is at hand. Her competitive nature – and her parents – won’t allow her to do otherwise. “We encourage her to do her best in academics and everything else she does,” says Todd. But they don’t have to do a whole lot of encouraging – she is self-motivated and knows that school is her ticket to the playing field. “If I don’t keep my grades up, I’m off the team,” she states very matter-of-factly.

Mary Alice isn’t looking too far into the future. She plans to attend Valwood next year where she will continue running cross country, playing basketball and soccer. She hopes to stay active well beyond high school and college. Mary Alice is also realistic, and believes that she could one day secure a college scholarship, most likely in cross country. But a college career isn’t the end-all, be-all for her. Athletics is a lifestyle, one that she’s grown up in and plans to pass on to her family. “I don’t ever want to stop competing. I intend to play sports for the rest of my life,” she says.

(Editor’s note: Shortly after this story was written, Mary Alice won the GISA Region AA state title. The St. John girls won the team title as well.) •