One Step Ahead
Early struggles don’t hinder sprinter’s goal for a NCAA championship crown
By John Walls
Skiff Staff

With another highly anticipated track season underway, the TCU track team is joined this year by junior-transfer Demario Wesley.

During his high school years Wesley, a Fort Worth native and graduate of O.D.Wyatt High School, impressed track coaches around the state with his national record-breaking times.

“Demario was a local high school product,” head coach Monte Stratton said. “He was one of the states’ best sprinters in the history of the state.”

Photographer/Publication Junior-transfer Demario Wesley had problems making into college after high school. Now at TCU he has hopes to capture individual titles and a national championship.

Stratton had taken an interest in Wesley’s sprinting performance early on.

“By just being in the business of a track coach, it’s our job to know the talent across the country and certainly right here under our noses in Fort Worth,” Stratton said. “I knew about Demario from the time he was a freshman or a sophomore in high school because he was a phenomenon and exceptionally fast from his first race.”

Wesley’s high school track coach Steve Williams played a vital role in his development as a sprinter.

“My high school coach was the one who kept my head on straight for me,” Wesley said.

“I was a freshman in high school and he told me I could run at a varsity level. The next year I just concentrated on track, and I was still playing football. But my first love is track.

“(Williams) always told me that I have million dollar legs,” Wesley said. “He told me to stay in it and don’t give up and there will be no way for the other guys to keep up. He’s always looking out for me.”

With William’s support and coaching, Wesley was able to mature in track and catch the eye of many college recruiters.

“From the first time I heard about him it was obvious that he had a very special talent,” Stratton said.

At the end of his senior year in high school, Demario was given many scholarship offers from numerous universities like Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Unfortunately, the offers were soon taken off the table when his sub-par SAT scores were received by the universities. However, Wesley said TCU remained on his side and continued to support him regardless of his situation.

“Coach Stratton and TCU had faith in me,” Wesley said. “They kept contacting me when I was in junior college making sure I was doing what I had to do to get back here. They knew I wanted to come back here and they wanted me to come back here, too.”

Once he learned that he could not be accepted to a major school, Wesley enrolled at Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan. and continued to run track. After two years he signed with TCU’s track program.

“Demario decided to go straight to track after he finished his junior college career and he signed with us,” Stratton said.

Now at TCU, Demario competes in the 60-dash and the 200-meter run in indoor meets.

In outdoor meets he races in the 100-meter and 200-meter runs as well as running the anchor leg in the 4x100 relay.

Wesley’s sprinting ability was clear after TCU’s first two track meets.

On Jan. 19, Wesley won the 60-meter dash at the Oklahoma Indoor Classic in Norman, Okla. with a time of 6.64 seconds, which is a provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Indoor Championships. His time in the race was two-hundredths of a second away from the NCAA automatic qualifying time. He was the only sprinter at the meet to break 6.7 seconds at the meet.

Wesley also competed at the Tyson Pre-National Indoor Classic on Feb. 1 and 2 in Fayetteville, Ark. He placed second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.98 seconds.

“He’s broken a lot of records in junior college and in his high school career,” Stratton said. “I fully expect that he will be pushing the records here in the sprints. Demario has as much speed and expressiveness as anyone we’ve ever had at TCU. He has the ability and the potential to be as fast as anyone we’ve ever had.”

After Demario’s near record-breaking time in Oklahoma, he was awarded the Conference USA Male Track Athlete of the Week.

TCU’s second meet was at Texas Tech’s track meet in Lubbock last weekend.

“Demario had the fastest time in the preliminary rounds but was pulled from the finals with a sore hip-flexor,” Stratton said. “ It has improved greatly so I am anticipating that he will race this weekend in Arkansas.”

However, a sore hip-flexor isn’t the only injury that Wesley has had to deal with.

All through his junior college sprinting career, he repeatedly strained his hamstrings.

“After some down time they would heal but then I would run on them and I would end up pulling them again,” Wesley said.

But now that he is at TCU he doesn’t plan on wasting any time.

“I just want to win a national championship,” Wesley said. “We got close to winning one last year and I want to do it this year or hopefully next year for sure before I leave. I’ve been trying three years to get here and I am finally here.

With Wesley’s determination and focus in his events, Stratton is optimistic in Wesley’s future.

“I think that any time Demario lines up against collegiate competition he is a threat to win,” Wesley said. “There are no guarantees in sprinting, but I don’t think there are any [sprinters] in the collegiate game that have any more ability that Demario.”

Demario recognizes the expectations that have been set for him and he intends on accomplishing all of his goals for him and the team while at TCU.

“They expect a lot from me and I plan on doing big things here,” Wesley said.

John Walls
j.c.walls@student.tcu.edu
Blair Busch contributed to this report

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