Maybe it doesn’t take a village: Teen wins two state track team titles by herself

No teammates, no problem: A track team of one

The story of how tiny Rochelle High School — enrollment: 59 — won the Texas Class A girls team track championship over the weekend sounds too good to be true. Only it might be better than that.

For one thing, it was the Hornets’ second straight title. For another, the only member of the team both years was Bonnie Richardson.

Remember the name. At the rate she’s collecting medals, you might see it in the Olympics one day.

“I coached eight years, was blessed to have her for half of those and I doubt I’ll ever see anyone like her again,” said Jym Dennis, who also teaches history at Rochelle.

“But I’ve got to be honest,” he added a moment later. “You don’t start the year with one girl on the team and think, ‘Sure, we can defend our title.’”

This time around, Richardson won two of five individual events, finished second and third in two others and fourth in the 100 meters. Never mind that she couldn’t compete in the relays, which offer double the points per event, or that the track Richardson trains on is little more than a rutted dirt path.

She single-handedly beat 56 schools, again.

“It’s about seeing how good I can get,” Richardson said Monday night, after a day spent working at a neighbor’s ranch, then working out at the school’s weight room. “Ever since last year, when I threw something out there to aim at, I wanted to find out if I could do all of those things better.”

She’s like a Norman Rockwell painting in action, a tall, freckle-faced 19-year-old heading for Texas A&M on full scholarship in the fall planning to major in nutrition. She was also the Class A, Division II high school basketball player of the year, valedictorian, National Honor Society member, and the McCulloch County Chamber of Commerce’s “Citizen of the Year.”

“And when I introduced her at the ceremony,” Rochelle High principal Steve Butler recalled, “it wasn’t just, ‘Here’s Bonnie the athlete.’ Whatever she does, no one is more dedicated or quicker to share the credit. She’s an unbelievable kid. I hate to see her go.”

The youngest of Madelynn and Jack Richardson’s three daughters grew up like her sisters, a tomboy in Texas Hill Country, riding horses, climbing rocks and building forts farther out on bluffs than her mother likes to remember. From the family ranch, it’s 2 1/2 hours to the big city — San Angelo or Abilene — and a 45-minute drive just to see a movie.

Jack Richardson played football and basketball in high school and was a pole vaulter in track, but what he wanted for his daughters more than anything was a chance to grow up in the open. Once they took up sports, he realized his coaching expertise was pretty much exhausted the day he went for a run with his oldest daughter.

“It was her junior year, she was preparing for regionals and I was never much of a jogger. It became painfully apparent pretty quick I was holding her back,” he said. “Finally she said ‘Thanks, dad,’ and took off.”

That was Adele, who’s 25 now, but was also a promising basketball player at the time.

“Except she turned out to be the runt,” Madelynn laughed, “She’s only 5-foot-8, and dainty besides.”

Next, it looked like middle daughter Lee, now 21 and 5-10, would shoulder the family’s athletic mantle. She played on traveling basketball teams as a kid, then for the Rochelle High team and through her freshman season at Schreiner University.

But right around the time Bonnie was 12, Jack sensed his gangly daughter was not only likely to be the tallest — she’s 5-11 now — she was already the most determined.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with all that people around here have done, her coaches and friends, everybody. And I don’t want to sound over the top,” he said, “but she had to do most of it on her own.

“This community has as much pride as any other, but we don’t have the resources or facilities to provide top-notch training. Heck, we barely have enough kids to play six-man football some years. So from that point of view,” Jack said, “she took the cards she was dealt, the ability she was blessed with, and made the best of what she had.”

Sometimes that meant lifting weights with the football team in the afternoons. Other times, it involved borrowing the key to the Rochelle gym to squeeze in a workout late at night. Still other times, it meant long runs over a school track covered with caliche — a gritty soil mixture better suited for rural roads and driveways — and packed down once a year with a road grader.

Soon after Richardson won the Class A schools (maximum enrollment: 199) team title last year — something no girl had ever managed and only former Baylor Bear and Pittsburgh Steeler Frank Pollard did at Meridian High School some 30 years ago — Butler began fielding calls from out-of-state schools inquiring where to get “one of those caliche tracks”

“They figured it was something fancy,” he said, chuckling at the memory. “I told anyone who’s interested they can have ours.”

When Richardson ramped up her performance this season, the college recruiters followed in waves. The call Bonnie wanted most finally came from coach Pat Henry at A&M, where her father, sister and several other family members went to school.

A&M hired Henry away from LSU, where his men’s and women’s teams won 27 NCAA titles in 17 seasons. Since his arrival, the Aggie women have claimed three straight indoor and outdoor Big 12 titles. Richardson’s versatility makes her an intriguing puzzle piece.

“She’s got size, intelligence, motivation and she’s a ferocious competitor,” said Jim VanHootegem, an A&M assistant coach who works with heptathletes. Still, he declined to speculate how far those qualities might carry her.

“A lot of teaching takes place at this level. I’m certain we can improve her technique, but there are enough events involved that it’s going to take time to learn and develop.

“But the way she wills herself to the finish line every time,” he added, “that’s something you can’t teach.”

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org