Track & Field
Favorite athlete: David Rudisha (800m world record holder)
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the 4x400m then going on to win the outdoor state title.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: The most embarrassing thing was getting pushed off the track during the 4x4 at the Armory.
Music on iPod: Lots of rap/hip hop and R&B, but also some classic and alternative rock.
Future plans: Going to college and hopefully becoming an ecologist.
Words to live by: “Life without cause is life without effect.” – Barbella
One goal before turning 30: Going back to the homeland (Africa)
One thing people don’t know about me: Before every race, I listen to the same album: Late Registration by Kanye West.
By GORDON GLANTZ
It happens every four years – more specifically during the summer Olympics.
That’s when viewers to Google surges to locate the small twin island country of Trinidad and Tobago, located north of Venezuela in the Caribbean.
While the country only has a population of around 1.2 million and just under 2,000 square miles in size, it manages to have a formidable presence, particularly in track and field.
Sprinter Hasely Crawford won the republic’s first gold medal in 1976, while Ato Boldon has taken home four Olympic medals (and four from the World Championships). All told, it boasts 12 medals from nine different Olympians.
And there is a long list of challengers, who reached the finals and runners who make an impact at US schools in the NCAA.
A name missing from that list is Roger Davis, the father of Cheltenham’s Kyle Davis, the Univest Featured Male Athlete of the Week.
He didn’t compete, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do some racing in the street and win some medals in his mind.
“He claims to have run, and that he was fast. I guess that’s where I get it from,” said Davis, adding that it is actually his mother, Tracy, who ran track in high school while growing up in the West Chester, Pa. area.
Between his parents, it was bound to happen.
“I just love to run,” said Davis, who proudly serves as a captain for his coach, Dr. Robert Beale, on the indoor and outdoor squads. “It’s my favorite sport.”
Davis adds that the only other sport he enjoys is Frisbee – joking that “I guess Frisbee counts as a sport” – and that being naturally fast isn’t enough to succeed at the highest level and become what his coach says is “an integral part of our program.”
The average observer might not be able to quite comprehend that a runner can make him or herself faster. They can’t improve, they would argue, the way a basketball player can by shooting jumpers all day can.
“I’ve always been faster (than other kids),” said Davis, an integral cog in the wheel for the record-setting relay teams that helped propel the Panthers to a state title in both winter and spring last year. “It took a lot of time – a lot of hard work and dedication; a lot of training and a lot of repetition. I was just coming out working hard, going into the weight room.
“Track keeps me busy.”
Staying on Task
The dedication shown in his athletic passion is matched only by a love of learning, which was also inherited from his parents.
He says they have been actively supportive of his track endeavors, which include summers with the Ambler Olympic Club, but it still gets only a silver medal when it comes to priorities.
“They are serious about academics and staying on task,” he said, adding that his 13-year-old sister, Kayla, is “more into art” than running. “My family is strict about my grades, but it feels good when you have good grades. Now, I’m getting into most of the colleges I have applied to and I’m waiting to hear from some others.”
That list includes the likes of Pitt, Fordham, Hampton, Penn State and Ithaca.
He is not sure he will run track at the collegiate level, as it may involve walking on and making a commitment of time that he may not be able to provide while holding down a demanding major.
Part of his “staying on task” while be pursuing a major in biology and a graduate degree in environmental science with the goal of becoming a research ecologist.
While he says the calling is “a broad field,” the career goal is narrowly defined for a high school senior, but Davis said a spark was lit when he took AP biology as a junior, leading him to take a class in environmental sciences this year.
With or without track, Davis has put himself in position to write his own ticket in the future.
A member of the school’s Black Scholar’s Club since he was a freshman, Davis now serves as the treasurer for an organization that requires a 3.0 grade-point average to remain in good standing.
No problem there, as Davis has been on the school’s honor roll every semester and doesn’t plan to fall off pace now.
He is also active in the community, volunteering as a member of the Key Club, which led to such odd tasks as walking greyhounds. Davis also tutors middle school students in math.
“I like helping people,” he said, adding that the regiment of academics, sports and community service – with the welcome break between the winter and spring track seasons – is more of a help than hindrance when it comes to “staying on task” and reaching his goals.
“It’s a little bit weird,” he says. “I like to stay focused. I knew if I stayed focused, it would pay off.”
From the perspective of his coach, it has paid dividends beyond what Davis may comprehend in the present. He has helped leave behind a legacy of how to do it the right way.
“It has been my pleasure to be associated with Kyle, for the past three and half years,” said Beale. “I am also in a position, however, to be aware of Kyle's record of personality development and community involvement.
“Kyle has been a responsible, enthusiastic, and competent young man of high moral principles, who is always willing to help others.”
The View from the Top
Tasting success at the highest level a year ago has made Davis and his teammates that much hungrier to consume the competition again.
On the flip side, they are the opponent that is marked on everyone’s calendars for dual meets and the team than can’t go unnoticed at weekend invitational meets.
“Oh, there is added pressure,” said Davis. “There’s always pressure on you when you’re at the top.
“We had a great season and we’re hoping to repeat as state champions again. We were No. 1 in the US in three relays. It was really exciting. It was nice to be part of a team that made history.
“We were mostly all juniors last year, so we have high hopes.”
Davis runs in the 4 X 4 meter relay and Sprint Medley relay teams that haven’t missed a beat since Christian Brissett has stepped into the mix.
John Lewis runs the anchors. Davis goes first in the sprint relay and third in the 4X4. The other member is Cordell Richardson.
Davis, who gave up cross-country to focus on track, also runs individual events – 400 and 800 – in spring and winter.
“I’m not ranked yet but I’m working on it,” he said, adding that his smallish frame has led to nagging injuries throughout his career.
If it rhymes with tendinitis or bursitis, he has probably had to push through it, along with hamstring strains.
“That’s something I had to overcome,” he said.
Davis, who prefers the spring season – and practicing outside instead of the hallways – says he has learned enough about his own limits and body to put the aches and pains behind him as an upperclassman.
“I haven’t had many injuries lately,” he explained. “I know how much to push and how much I can take, based on experience.”
Other trials and tribulations have included getting “pushed off the track” – in a seemingly deliberate act -- last winter at the prestigious New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory in New York.
“That was rough,” he said. “Mentally, it was a setback, but it just made me want to work harder.”
The Best Part
When Davis feels like he is literally running uphill, he counts on his teammates and coach to motivate him into shifting into another gear.
“I attribute most of my success to Dr. Beale,” said Davis. “He is the best coach in the state and one of the best in the country.
“He knows when to push us, but we also have a lot of ‘chill days’ where we do light stuff. He knows when and when not to push us. I know he is always worried about us overworking.
“We trust him because it’s paid off. We have been successful.”
As much as Beale has served as a mentor, there is nothing like the bond with his fellow Panthers.
“My teammates push me when I want to quit,” he said. “It’s really a group effort. There so much pushing of one another. When we train, we train together. We always want each other to do better (each meet).”
And when the future research ecologist looks back, it is that teamwork – in what is supposed to be an individual sport, the way that his father’s homeland of Trinidad and Tobago isn’t supposed to shake up the Olympics every four years – that Kyle Davis will remember most.
“It’s been great to be part of this team,” he said. “It’s been the best part of my high school career.”
