Devin Meyrer, 'The Late Bloomer'
If Quisenberry is the team leader and bravado for this talented team, Devin Meyrer is the poster boy for OC's training program. Meyrer showed up his freshman year as a scrawny kid with little or no visible talent who was splitting time between soccer and cross country.
"Devin was kind of a late bloomer," O'Connor kindly stated.
"He
came in as a freshman and raced with the cross country team on the weekend,"
remembers O'Connor. "He was a little ball of energy, like most freshmen are.
The thing about Devin is that he is the most competitive kid in
everything! Oh my gosh! You name it -- video
games, running, throwing a tennis ball -- he is insanely competitive!
"His competitiveness is what caught my eye. I started watching some of his races as a freshman. As I watched and saw this little guy just taking off on the track and I didn't recognize him. I didn't remember any freshman running workouts that fast. You get him in a race and he is insane!"
"OC said I was the most competitive on the team?" said a shocked Devin Meyrer after I relayed his coach's comments about him. He looked almost hurt.
Meyrer made this comment while we sat with his four teammates who had joined me at a Kaldi's after a morning practice session. Meyrer was truly stunned that OC would label him the most competitive runner on the team. His teammates did not share his shock.
Meyrer looked up from staring at the pretty steamed-milk artwork in his latte to find his running brothers nodding and smiling silently. Quisenberry then listed three or four different non-running events in their high school years where Meyrer had exhibited insane competitiveness -- including something regarding throwing a ball.
"Am I really that competitive?" Meyrer said in response to their four grins. "I didn't know that I was the most competitive on the team!"
Meyrer considers how this could possibly be and he begins to understand how OC could have come to this conclusion.
"My sophomore year I always wanted OC to put me in their group even though I was about 10 seconds slower," remembers Meyrer.
How competitive is Meyrer? He has gone from a part-time 115-pound soccer player to maybe the best 5K runner on Lafayette's talent-drunk team. He battled Austin Hindman at the District meet two weeks ago and beat him to the tape by .01 seconds. At Sectionals last week Alec Haines and him broke away from the field after the one-mile mark and Meyrer bested his running mate over the final quarter mile to add the Sectional crown to his senior resume.
All it took was four years of hard work, following OC's personal training plan for greatness and a competitive heart the size of The Arch.
"Devin is the one who pushes us hard on the final reps," said Quisenberry. "During the hottest days of summer workouts I will be ready to quit or take the last few reps off but Devin is always there pushing it to the end. Being around Devin makes me better."
"Devin is probably the best at talking to the young kids about what he did to become as good as he is now," said O'Connor. "He tells them, 'I did this as a freshman and now I can do this! If you do what OC says, you'll be a lot faster. You do your own thing, it ain't going to work. You're just going to get hurt.'"
"Devin is the reason that I went out for cross country," said Tommy Laarman, the soft-spoken junior. "We go to the same church and he told me I should run. That was the first time I had even heard of cross country."
Meyrer arrived a bit later than the rest of us at Kaldi's and his role as the team jester, comedian and creative talent was immediately evident as he sat down at the table. His self-effacing humor and quit wit make him impossible not to like. The day before at practice he entertained his teammates by riding his bike in the parking lot while sitting on the cross bar instead of the seat. He looked like a Pee-wee Herman episode come to life.
"Devin is the kid that everybody loves," Quisenberry added with sincerity. "Our runs aren't as fun and exciting if Devin's not around to talk to."
"I see myself as the mediator -- goofy as much as I can be serious," said Meyrer. "The whole team balances out. We are all natural, gifted leaders, and we all keep each other in check. I'm just another guy who loves running."