11/1 cross country: Jami Hill leads team down path to success

By Kirk Bey | La Crosse Tribune

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. — It was 10 p.m. Friday, and Rod and Nancy Hill knew where their twin daughters, Jami and Katie, were.

Your sweat glands dry up and you exhale if you’re the parents of teenagers and can say that on Halloween. Jami and Katie’s evening included eating a healthy dinner (chicken breasts, rice, mashed potatoes and corn), passing out candy to trick-or-treaters and hitting the sack early.

This is what it means to be, as Rod describes his daughters, “real straight arrows.” Helping the Onalaska High School girls cross country team succeed at the WIAA state meet Saturday was more important to Jami and Katie than attending a classmate’s party. Being good, both behaviorally and athletically, led to Onalaska scoring 129 points and finishing second to Whitefish Bay in Division 1.

It led to Jami, a senior, finishing second to Arrowhead’s Gabby Levac in 14 minutes, 49.9 seconds.

Did it lead to some disappointment for not being able to wear costumes and enjoy a night of revelry? Jami and Katie, who finished 29th, will never say so. Their dad knows better.

“It killed them not to go (to the party). Just killed them,” Rod Hill said.

As Rod was saying this, Jami, Katie and the rest of the Hilltoppers were doing a 15-minute cooldown run on The Ridges Golf Course. Maybe they would cut it close to make it on time to the awards ceremony at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School. It didn’t matter.

The Hilltoppers and their coach, Darin Shepardson, believe in never letting up. That’s why they’ve claimed the title of the best girls program in our little corner of Wisconsin. That’s why, barring a chicken pox epidemic, they’ll be a formidable team for at least the next two years. Shepardson’s sophomore class, which includes Maddie Hibshman, Jamie Burr and Jackie Groshek, will only get better.

But Jami Hill should be remembered as the one who ushered Onalaska’s program into relevency. And seemingly faster than the 5-minute, 57-second mile pace she ran Saturday.

Hill, who finished 50th at state as a sophomore and 28th last year when Onalaska finished sixth, is as modest as they come.

She’ll tell you that Nicole Burr, a 2006 Onalaska graduate who now competes for NCAA Division I Marquette University, was a great mentor. She’ll tell you that Burr’s work ethic was second to none.

I discovered this the first time I tried to interview Jami during the Mississippi Valley Conference track and field meet in May, 2007 at Central. I asked Shepardson where she had gone. He pointed to the track, where she was “celebrated” winning the 400, 800 and 1,600-meter runs by taking a cooldown lap.

Rod Hill said Saturday that Jami very likely would finally allow herself to savor her success, and perhaps even a bratwurst or two. But both he and Shepardson knew her down time wouldn’t last long.

“If you want to be good, you have to be willing to do what other people aren’t willing to do,” Shepardson said. “Sometimes that puts you on the outside of social circles, and some people don’t understand that. You have to be willing to sacrifice in order to get something you want.”

Jami got a good night’s sleep Friday. She also got to be a part of what turned out to be a special day Saturday.

“This (Onalaska’s second-place finish) means the world to me,” she said. “The biggest thing (about being successful) is you can’t think about yourself. You always have to be thinking about what the team needs to do.”

The Hilltoppers are in a pretty nice place because Hill not only is an elite runner, but also a selfless one as well.

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