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Stephen Barker

Stephen Barker began his running career in 7th Cross Coun-
try at Deckerville. He wasn’t the fastest kid on the track but he
hated to lose. It didn’t take long for him to realize that success in
distance running would take a lot of hard work and dedication. He
committed himself to the sport and our running program. By 10th
grade he was the leader on the team and he went on to become
one of the most successful runners in Deckerville history.

The first time I saw the spark in Stephen’s eyes was after he
ran a 2:15 split as a freshman at regionals in the 3200 Relay. He
came up to me and stated that it didn’t feel too bad and he was
sure he could run faster. Since that moment, one of his goals
has been to have the fastest 800 time in school history. In 10th
grade he made it to state and finished around 11th place. As a
junior Stephen had a great year in Cross Country but then had
to deal with mono over the winter and wasn’t able to start track
practice until 3 weeks after season began. To show what kind of
determination he has, he came back and did double workouts to
get ready to compete in the peak of the season. He was regional
champion and top 3 in most of the area Meet of Champions. At
the state finals, he broke 2:00 for the first time finishing in 6th
place with a 1:59.71.

This year began with excitement and anticipation. For Stephen
and the coaching staff, it was more when than if he would break
the school record. The Deckerville 800 record, held by Scott
McVittie, has stood for 39 years at a mark of 1:58.7 set in ’79
at the Thumb Meet of Champs in Caro. Stephen found out that
he was in a class by himself in the 800. He was running against
the clock and himself for much of the season, his times dropped
from a 2:05 down to a 1:58.90 with the majority of his competitors
running 5-10 seconds slower than him. We knew that there was

36 • Sports Finest Magazine June 2018 sportsfinestMagzine.com 989 545 0735 kelly@sportsfinestmagazine.com