Track Star Gives Colleges a Run for Their Money

Takiyah Wahhab

More stories from Takiyah Wahhab

Band Ball 2016
April 29, 2016
Senior+Devin+McLeod+laces+up+his+running+shoes+before+using+the+schools+indoor+track+to+condition.

Ashley Guinn

Senior Devin McLeod laces up his running shoes before using the school’s indoor track to condition.

Senior track star Devin McLeod knew he was a fast runner when he was seven years old.

That’s when a little league baseball team picked him as their bullet-speed base runner. They would practice trying to throw the ball faster between bases than he could run them. And McLeod beat the ball. Every time.

If you do not recognize him by name, you will definitely know him by his unique green eyes and lashes as long as rakes.

Only standing five foot six inches tall, McLeod is still a pint-sized force to be reckoned with. McLeod has multiple offers from colleges to run track, but he has made up his mind that he is going to Eastern Michigan University in the fall on the track scholarship offered to him.

If the scholarship offers themselves don’t speak for McLeod’s talent, his actions on the track and field surely do. He runs four by fours, four by ones and the 100-meter dash, where his best time is 10.96 seconds for Southfield High’s track team.

McLeod’s main focus as a senior this year is to keep running track while still succeeding in the classroom. McLeod has a passion inside and outside of the classroom to motivate his peers to join the track team.

McLeod has many people to thank for his current success.”I thank my parents for constantly staying on me and motivating me about track and putting so much money and effort into making me a better runner,” says McLeod.

He also thanks his coaches, Richard Crist and Ross Weaver (of former Michigan State University football fame), for believing in him and working him so hard.

Coach Crist said, “Devin dedicates himself to track. He runs both in season and out of season.”

To that list of people to thank he also went on to mention his older brother, Desmond, and his girlfriend, senior Lena Parker, of Birmingham Groves High School, for being there as a support system.

McLeod says he is looking forward to his final high school track season where he will have a new coach to work with. “I’m adjusting to the new coaches nicely so far, they’re really working us hard,” says McLeod.

Senior Jeremy Gates, who is one of McLeod’s best friends, says, “I am proud of Devin because I know he has a great future. I expect great things from him, and he’s really fast.”

McLeod says that for now, track is his life.

“The best advice I can give to an up and coming track stars is to not quit,” says McLeod. “Track drains you physically and mentally, but in the end, it will all pay off.” At least it did for McLeod.