Big River Feature Interview: Derrick McKee

Timberland Derrick McKee is a definite contender for All-State status in Class 3 in 2007. His path to success has seen him attend three different high schools but he has found his home at Timberland where he is the captain for an up-and-coming team. Big River caught up with Derrick near the end of September as he was preparing for the last few cross country meets of his high school career. The following article can also be read at www.stlscoop.com and found in the October issue, Central Corridor Edition, of St. Louis Scoop Magazine.

---The bond between a coach and an athlete is a special one, especially at the high school level.  A coach not only has the privilege of watching a student-athlete “catch the bug” for a certain sport  but then has the honor of watching and guiding that person through the trials and tribulations that are a natural part of athletics. If they are lucky coach and athlete get to go out on top with a crowning achievement during senior year.

For Timberland senior Derrick McKee and his longtime coach Meghan Aydelott that crowning achievement would be a top 20 finish at the State Cross Country Meet and it looks like that just might happen. This coach-athlete story actually starts in middle school and might have ended there were it not for some odd coincidences in which destiny seemed to intervene, determined for a happy ending. McKee was first introduced to running in seventh grade where Aydelott coached him during the track season.  By the end of his eight grade year his coach knew she had a talented runner on her hands.

“He was a pretty good miler and half miler in middle school,” Aydelott said. “That group of boys he was with were all good and they went on to place first or second at districts.”

After his successful introduction to the sport it was on to high school at Warrenton where he was reunited with Aydelott who took a position coaching track at Warrenton High. Admittedly McKee, who said he ran a lot of mileage and attended running camps this past summer,  wishes he would have worked harder that first year.

“I wish I would have gone to camps and taken things more seriously when I was a freshman and a sophomore,” McKee said. “It made me like the sport a lot more and it gave me a lot more endurance.”

Of course it is not always easy to be serious about one thing with many other things going on around you.  After beginning his sophomore year at Warrenton, McKee moved and spent a quarter at Columbia Hickman.  McKee then moved again, this time to Wentzville, and enrolled at Timberland High School in the spring of his sophomore campaign. It was there that he was once again reunited with Aydelott who had taken a job at Timberland that same year.

“It was pure luck that we ended up together again,” Aydelott said.

Despite all the moving around and all the different coaches McKee had put together some nice running as an underclassman.  In 2005 he had qualified for the State Cross Country Meet where he finished a respectable 115th place.
Reunited with his old coach, McKee made a big breakthrough as a junior at Timberland. He ended the season with a 42nd place finish at the 2006 State Cross Country Meet, a remarkable 73 places higher than the year before. Unsatisfied with that, McKee has trained harder than ever for his final high school cross country season and seems confident that the best is yet to come.

"My goal is to go to State and be in the top 25 or the top 15,” McKee said. “I just have to work hard.”

Working hard is likely the last thing McKee will have to worry about. After all, as the captain of the team he is the guy who his teammates look up to as their leader for his diligence on and off the course. As a member of the Student Council at Timberland he is one of the students his classmates look to as a leader for his work in and out of the classroom. Watching McKee mature over the years and take on those leadership roles is what his coach said was the most rewarding aspect of the coach-athlete relationship.

“It's been really neat to be with him for six years and to see him grow as an athlete and as an individual,” Aydelott said. “The boys respect him and listen to him even though he's only been on the cross country team at Timberland for two years and it's because they see how hard he works.”

So far this season McKee's hard work has paid off with top five finishes at the First Capitol Invitational, the MICDS Invitational, and the Hazelwood West Invitational.  His highlight thus far though was probably his victory at the Troy Invitational. Now his sights are set on the final weeks of the season where McKee said he hopes to finish in the top five at his conference meet and at districts before moving on to State.

Aydelott said McKee is happy with how things have gone so far but after every race he has been hungry to improve.
“He really wants his time to go down and he knows that it needs to by the time November comes around.” Aydelott said. “I think winning Troy and being able to control the race was a big deal.”

McKee acknowledged that Troy was the race in which has felt the best so far and that the one thing he needs to improve upon in the bigger meets is to hang on to the top guys and not let them get away so early. He pointed to the 800 meter repeats that his team does as a key workout that will help him stay strong throughout the race.  McKee said that perhaps the biggest reason for his improvement this season is that he has a lot of teammates to help him out in practice.
“I don't think I'd be as good as I am without my team to help me,” McKee said. “I would run by myself but I wouldn't be able to push myself as hard.”

Of course that works both ways. As a captain it is McKee who encourages his teammates to run to the best of their abilities as well. A role he relishes.

“I like to be a good influence and I tell them to work hard,” McKee said. “It doesn't always have to be serious though and I joke around a lot too.”

It is that perfect blend of willingness to tackle the supreme effort of distance running along with an absolute enjoyment of the fun side of the sport that make Derrick McKee a superb student-athlete. It is likely why he will be a success in whatever path he chooses. By the way, McKee says that path will likely be physical therapy so he can help active people and help others become active. He has certainly already helped himself and his teammates become better runners and he has given his coach six years worth of great memories.

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