Lawson and Ruth Van Kuren listen along with Cheney School Board Director Rick Mount (left), Cheney High alumnus and current Freeman boys' basketball head coach Marty Jessett (second from right) and Cheney School Board President Henry Browne (right) to speakers at the Jan. 29 dedication of Cheney Middle School's track in their honor.
Almost 150 people gathered at Cheney Middle School Jan. 29 to honor and name the school's track and field complex after a Cheney couple who are legendary in the sport.
The Lawson and Ruth Van Kuren Track and Field will bear one of the many encouragements the couple bestowed on over 2,000 athletes in their nearly 40 years running the Cheney Track Club - do your best. The phrase is one of three things Cheney High School alumnus and current Freeman boys basketball coach Marty Jessett said he learned from the Van Kurens as a club member, the others being inclusion and commitment.
"They're the definition of commitment," Jessett said of the couple that began Cheney Track Club in 1972 with just 50 kids.
That first year was supposed to just provide meet registration information to athletes' families, according to CMS Principal Mike Stark, but within two weeks the Van Kurens were holding practices. In 1973, the club expanded to 160 members and grew from there, attracting athletes from as far away as Ritzville and Coulee Dam.
The club began hosting meets in 1974. It hosted the Cheney Marathon and 20-kilometer races for 10 years, including one year when the latter was the Junior National Championships. Spokane runner, Olympian and Bloomsday founder Don Kardong still holds the record for the Cheney Marathon.
The Cheney Track Club sponsored the Inland Northwest Junior Olympics Championships for over 30 years and several Region XIII Junior Olympics Championships. The Van Kurens have also lent their talents to other track and field meets, including 35 held at Cheney Middle School.
"I think maybe what many don't fully understand about the Van Kurens' contributions to the track community of Cheney Schools is that for the past three decades, the Van Kurens haven't just helped out our track meets, the Van Kurens organized and ran the track meets," Stark said in his written remarks.
The Cheney Track Club accepted anyone who wanted to compete regardless of age, which ranged from 2 to 70-plus, abilities or disabilities. Jessett said besides himself and his siblings, his parents, and later on, his children competed in the club.
As someone who competed four years at the junior high level, Jessett said he was a rarity. The reason was he began competing in the fifth grade because there was no school program at his level. Lawson Van Kuren, who taught and coached in the district for 30 years, told him to come to the junior high and practice with the team.
"That was a way of including me when there wasn't an opportunity," Jessett said.
Cheney Track Club has produced numerous local and regional champions over the years, including a pair of national champions. Those accomplishments have also spilled into the high school and even collegiate arena.
One of those was Kurt Holland's daughter Sanne, a "hyperactive kid" who he said "thrived" as a result of the Van Kurens' work.
At Cheney High, Sanne Holland won back-to-back state titles in the 3,200-meter run in 2011 and 2012. As a cross country runner, she placed second, third twice and fourth in four 2A state appearances, helping lead the Blackhawks girls to a fourth-place finish in 2010, second in 2011 and a state title in 2012.
As a member of the Colorado State University cross country team, Holland was named the Mountain West Conference's Freshman of the Year in 2013.
Ruth Van Kuren, who served as an instructional aide at Betz Elementary School for 19 years, said the years of trips with carloads of kids, inventing "crazy games" to get them to run and train without realizing that's what they were doing, hauling track equipment around, plane rides to nationals and buying sundaes in Wenatchee were more than worth it.
"We enjoyed the adventure," she said. "Thanks to many of you for helping us, and there are a lot of you out there who have done that."
"Ruth and Lawson are very good at making an impact in others lives," Cheney School Board Director Rick Mount said. Mount then recited a phrase from an unknown author that "The hardest thing to teach is how to care."
"Lawson and Ruth, thank you for teaching us all how to care," Mount said.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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