Cross Country, Track
Favorite athlete: Erv Hall
Favorite team: Chicago Bulls (in the 90s of course)
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the 4x400m title at states my sophomore year – watching Jamila (Branch) kick and close a crazy gap, out-leaning a girl at the line to win us the title by a fraction of a second.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I’m really, really terrible at remembering cross country courses. At the Bulldog Invite my freshman year, I wasn’t even 400 meters into the race before I found myself running alone, heading in a different direction than the hundreds of competent runners in the race.
Music on iPod: It definitely varies, but lately a lot of Hiatus Kaiyote, Hiromi Uehara, and St Vincent.
Future plans: Attend Penn to run track, minor in music, and find a career path that is fulfilling to me.
Words to live by: “Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.”-Sivananda Saraswati
One goal before turning 30: Do meaningful volunteer work abroad. And become fluent in Spanish!
One thing people don’t know about me: I have four brothers (one older, three younger).
By GORDON GLANTZ
Going into the state championship meet, CB West’s Maddie Villalba had not been satisfied with her performances during the indoor track season.
The University of Pennsylvania commit may have seemed to be doing well to outside observers, but she was not living up to her own lofty standards.
“I had been dissatisfied with my performance this winter,” she explained. “Instead of focusing on my times, I was racing other people instead of focusing on myself and running my best race.”
But all that changed in what may have been, at least to date, the race of her life.
The Univest Featured Female Athlete of the Week brought home the gold in the 800 metters at the recent 2016 PTFCA Indoor State Championships, outlasting Gabby Wilkinson of Friends Central.
“When it was over, it was a great feeling, knowing there was nothing else I could have done to win that race,” said Villalba.
While she makes a habit of studying the competition, Villalba didn’t want to overthink it, either.
“All I knew was that (Wilkinson) was fast, very fast,” she said. “I didn’t want to give up on it before the race even started. I had made that mistake in the past. I had to get myself into a place where I was going to race her.”
Pushing each other to photo finish, where Villaba lost her lead only to regain it, led to her coming away with the second best scholastic indoor time in the 800 in the entire nation.
“It was all just a matter of getting in front and holding that position,” said Villaba. “In the last lap, she got in front of me. It came down to a fraction of a second, but I had a pretty good idea I won. It was just so exciting, pushing against people you really respect. All the girls are really fast.
“Just going to states is a really cool thing to be able to do. It’s just a lot of fun. Winning is so exciting. The times (of the other runners) were all very fast, so it makes me very excited about the outside (spring) season.”
But the excitement is tempered by knowing it will be the final lap of a career that has seen consistent success in cross-country, in which she has medaled all four years, and has brought home springtime gold in the 800 and 4X400 relay events the last two years.
“It’s crazy to think I’m going to be done,” said Villalba, who half-jokingly said that her speed comes from keeping pace with her four brothers. “Running has been such a huge part of my high school career, and an important part of it, too.
“While it’s exciting to move on, it’s also kind of sad to move on.”
High Praise
The sadness is shared by Kiki Bell, who has coached Villaba in cross-country and track all the way through – with the one exception being in the spring of Villalba’s freshman year when she played lacrosse.
Bell - an English teacher at the same school she attended and ran for - finds herself at a loss for words to describe Villalba’s impact.
“It is hard to gather thoughts about someone so unbelievably special knowing that there is only one season left,” she said. “Probably the largest statement I can make about Maddie that is entirely sincere is that if I can raise my two daughters in a way that makes them even in the tiniest way like her when they get older, I would be the happiest mom.”
High praise, for sure, but it speaks to how much more Villalba is than just a young woman who happens to run fast and gets good enough grades to choose the likes of Penn over Vanderbilt and Maryland.
“In 16 years of coaching, I have come across a lot of dynamic, wonderful female athletes,” Bell said. “Maddie is certainly one of those. One of the best of those.
“Maddie is someone that anyone would be lucky to know. She is a gritty athlete, for sure. Gritty, tenacious - all of those words apply. But she is also very cerebral. She studies the sport, her competitors, race strategy -- and she wants to discuss these approaches. She wants to know what the purpose of a workout is - how it will get her to the big race - she likes learning about the means and trusting it will justify, prove and ensure the ends.”
Villalaba, who treasures the relationship she has built with Bell and the rest of the coaching staff – including weight-lifting guru Kevin “Mr. Munns” Munnelly and former 1968 silver medalist Erv Hall -- was bemused by the word “gritty” used to describe her.
“Well, I don’t know if I would call myself ‘gritty,’” she said. “I don’t know. I see what she means. I like to work hard. Track is, inherently, a sport where you have to make sacrifices.”
As for the cerebral part?
“Mentally, you have to be aware of where you are. You need to be cognizant of what is going on in a race and of what (the other runners) are going to do. It’s important to consider and to be able to then react.”
But as she learned from edging out Wilkinson, a sophomore speedster with unlimited potential, there needs to be a balance between thought and natural instinct.
“Anyone can have a good day at any time,” said Villalba. “You have to be able to run the race as it comes, but I do always spend some time considering who I am racing against.”
Twin Passions
While running is important in Villalba’s life, music is its fraternal twin. She has been playing the classical piano since Kindergarten but has also added an interest in jazz, playing in the school’s jazz band, and plans to minor in music – while also enrolling in the school of engineering with an undetermined major – at Penn.
The opportunity to combine both passions at a top-notch academic school that topped her list since visiting with the coaches after the Penn Relays is an ideal scenario.
“I was very interested in Penn right away,” she said. “The academics are superior. The first time I met with the coach was at the Penn Relays. He invited me to meet the coaches and we kept the relationship going from there.
“(Music and running) are the two things I care about most, in terms of what I’m passionate about. I’m super lucky.”
At some, she would like to give back and spread her joy, whether through mission work or some other form of volunteerism.
“I don’t have a very specific idea for what that might look like,” she said. “I don’t have any location in mind. I haven’t contemplated specifically how that might fit into my life in the coming years. I just think it could be a really significant, really enlightening experience--to be in another part of the world, enacting a positive change and interacting closely with a radically different culture. It’s something I think I could learn a lot from, so it’s definitely a goal of mine. Hopefully I’ll be able to take multiple trips.”
The Journey
While her journey at CB West was not in the form of physical travel, it was one of evolving through experience and maturity.
According to Bell, some of that came from giving Villalba space early on.
“I have been thinking a lot about her journey and how, in her freshman year, she played lacrosse in the spring and we were content to let her explore and take her time --to figure out that track was ‘the fit,’” Bell said. “She immediately had an impact on the team all the way back then.
“In her freshman cross-country season, she was a large part of the reason why we made it to States as a team, and then in that winter season of her freshman year, she was on a relay at States. In every season she has run, she has earned State medals.”
The journey has been exemplified most in the relationship with Bell, who she refers to as “Kiki” instead of “coach” or “Mrs. Bell” or other such terms.
“Our relationship really developed over the years,” said Villalba, who had Bell as a teacher for a film class. “I’m a different person than I was when I was a freshman. I have become more team-oriented, and more mature – in running and in life.
“We have lunch together. We have developed a really close relationship.”
Whether or not she has a chance to coach another like her, Bell is grateful for the four years that went by in a blur almost as Villalba bolts to the finish line ahead of the pack.
“I just know that I am lucky, and the rest of the West coaching staff, for getting the opportunity to coach Maddie, to know Maddie, and to see her move forward competitively into the Ivy League,” she said. “She is so very special.”
