Under-the-radar Barron Park Striders help fuel many of Thurston County’s sports successes

A team that may have impacted more of Thurston County’s successful athletes than any other was born 800 miles away, more than 30 years ago.

In 1988, Drew Stevick was a vascular surgeon at the Veteran’s Administration hospital in Palo Alto, California, not far from where he graduated from Stanford’s medical school. He had a growing family that would eventually include five children.

The Stevicks had Stanford football season tickets. The kids loved riding their bikes around the Barron Park subdivision they called home.

But Stevick, who had thrown the “old” javelin 254 feet, 4 inches, claiming an NAIA championship for Whitworth and qualifying for the 1972 Olympic Trials, still had a track and field itch to scratch.

He created a high jump pit in his front yard, the run-up crossing the driveway, then gathered a couple dozen kids at nearby Gunn High School’s track to train and compete with a team named for the neighborhood, the Barron Park Striders.

“I have no idea how he had the time to do it,” said Stevick’s son Jesse, a 10-time winner of the Capital City Marathon who is the boys track and field coach at Olympia High School. “He was constantly on call at the hospital.”

When he moved north to Olympia in 1991, he started a new version of the team but like the Minneapolis Lakers moving to arid Los Angeles, kept the incongruous name.

Over the past 30 years, the Striders, training primarily at Olympia High School and competing in everything from local all-comers meets to national USATF championships, have become an undercover force, influencing many of the area’s top athletes.

Dozens of athletes gather to practice twice per week, coached by as many as eight coaches — all volunteers. Jesse Stevick singled out long-time area coach, official and master’s competitor Scott Copeland for his organizational work.

Each summer, all club members are invited to compete in a low-key, one-day decathlon, insuring exposure to multiple events at a young age.

“Basically, we’re an introductory program, making kids feel comfortable with the events,” Drew Stevick said. “There’s also a lot of multi-tasking that goes on at a track meet. They need to juggle the schedule and figure out how to use their time there.”

Brooke Feldmeier, a Striders record holder in several youth events, will compete Thursday in the women’s 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene. Feldmeier won five events at Class 2A state meets while at Tumwater. She starred in college at Ole Miss and Oregon.

She’s the second former Barron Park athlete to try for an Olympic spot this cycle. Former Olympia runner — and still a co-holder of the Striders high jump record for 9- and 10-year-old girls — Annie Dear ran in the marathon trials in Atlanta before the COVID-19 pandemic halted sports last spring.

Jack Olsen is bound for Washington on a track scholarship. He recorded nationally competitive high school marks in the javelin after working with Drew Stevick both at Olympia High School’s practices and with the Striders.

Olsen, who was an Olympian All-Area football linebacker for the Bears and played basketball, said his track career is entirely a Stevick and Stevick production. Jesse was his physical science teacher during his freshman year at Olympia and encouraged him to come out for the track team.

“On the first day of practice I was introduced to Drew and the javelin,” Olsen said. “The rest is history.”

With the pandemic wiping out the 2020 high school track season and virtually the entire summer youth track circuit, Stevick staged an open series of javelin competitions under the Striders banner in the fall, drawing 10 or 11 throwers each time. Olsen’s top form came together.

“I was throwing around 160 feet in March of 2020,” he said. “In March and April of 2021 I was consistently throwing near 200 feet. I couldn’t have accomplished any of my goals without Drew and his family.”

Unlike another multi-sport Bears athlete who was tutored in the javelin by Stevick, David Woodward, Olsen didn’t get the chance to compete for a state championship his junior or senior seasons, because the pandemic canceled the state championship meet both years. Still, he ended the 2021 season with longest throw in WIAA competition, 199-3, placing him just outside the top 10 nationally.

The Striders also hosted an all-star 3,200 meters race in April as part of a middle and long distance meet that helped make up for the lack of high school postseason competition this spring. Olympia’s Ethan Coleman, who won, Camas’ Evan Jenkins and Kamiakin’s Isaac Teeples all broke nine minutes and 28 of the 34 starters, including Yelm’s Bryce Cerkowniak, posted personal bests.

Dozens of other former BPS athletes have excelled in collegiate track, including another Stevick son, Casey, who twice finished runner-up in the NAIA decathlon, also winning the indoor heptathlon, while competing for Azusa Pacific.

Just as impressive is the list of Striders alums who went on to star in football, basketball or volleyball.

Several athletes who earned The Olympian’s All-Area player of the year honor in their sport, including Tumwater’s Zach Johnson (2006) and Black Hills’ Cody Peterson (2009) in football, were Striders as kids. So were Timberline’s Julianna Salanoa (2016) and Olympia’s Christie Colasurdo (2011) in volleyball, and Black Hills’ Maisy Williams (2019) in girls basketball, and Timberline’s Sasha Weber in 2012 (Disclosure: Weber is this reporter’s daughter).

Johnson, the twin brother of former Dallas Cowboy Matt Johnson, went on to excel as a defensive back at Eastern Washington. Peterson, who led Black Hills to the 2A track and field state championship in 2010, captained Navy’s football team, while Weber and Salanoa both became first-team All-Western Athletic Conference picks at New Mexico State, leading their teams to multiple NCAA tournaments.

Barron Park’s website lists the top 12 marks in club history for each youth age group from “Micro Bantams” (3- and 4-year-olds) through “Young Men/Women” (17-18). The names evoke memories.

“It’s so much fun looking down those top 12s,” Drew Stevick said. “It’s awesome to have had the responsibility of teaching and coaching so many kids.”

Ultimately, though, Stevick’s philosophy finds a place in the club for anyone who wants one, regardless of talent level or age. The 3-year-olds wear the team’s ultra-basic white singlet, with black printing. So do the 70-year-olds.

“That’s the good thing about track. We have something for everybody. You’re always working to improve your individual performance,” said Stevick, who said he gladly passes on highly-talented kids to more intense, specialized coaches — such as current Capital assistant and former Yelm coach Mike Strong — who have a knack for working with the elite.

Jesse Stevick says his dad puts none of his own ego into coaching.

“You look at a lot of youth track programs, high school coaches, too, and it’s all about them and who they have on their team, their own coaching skills,” he said. “My dad has more of a focus on the everyday kid who has the potential to get better.”

Barron Park is a family operation, with all five of Drew and wife Wendy’s kids competing and coaching over the years, as well as some of their in-laws and 11 grandchildren.

Motherhood didn’t stop Wendy from competing in all comers meets into her sixties. Jesse’s wife Jenny, mother of the couple’s six children, has logged thousands of miles pushing a runner’s stroller and holds a couple of Barron Park master’s records.

Four years ago, the five siblings — Jesse, Joseph, Autumn, Casey and Cassidy — formed a team and appeared on the athletically-demanding NBC game show “Spartan Ultimate Team Challenge.”

Not surprisingly, trips to USATF national meets with his children are among 73-year-old Drew Stevick’s favorite memories, along with visits to track mecca Hayward Field, before its recent rebuild, for the youth Track City Classic.

Jesse enjoyed traveling to Texas, Alabama and Nevada as well, but maybe not one Junior Olympic steeplechase race at a national meet in Omaha.

“It’s summer. It’s Nebraska. It’s well over 100 degrees.” Drew Stevick said.

While high school tracks are most often the site of practices, the family home in East Olympia has also been a BPS training ground.

Younger Striders for years spent Sunday afternoons putting the shot and pole vaulting in the backyard, high jumping onto an inflated pad in a small gym built onto the house.

Weber started track on a YMCA team, drawn to the sprints. When she joined the Striders after fourth grade, she decided to show up at the Stevicks’ one Sunday to test out the high jump.

“Drew and his family are very passionate about track and field. They’re very patient. I learned a lot,” Weber said. “Drew’s the only guy I’ve ever met who has a gym in his house, let alone an inflatable high jump pit. That’s kind of legendary in itself.”

At Timberline, Weber won the 3A state title in the high jump in 2010. She finished second in 2009 and 2011 and totaled four other podium finishes between the javelin and triple jump.

“Barron Park was my introduction to track and field. I wouldn’t have gone on to win the state high jump if I hadn’t been at Drew’s house every week,” she said. “Plus, he took the pressure off. We focused on PRs, not winning. I became the athlete I did because we were taught to do our best and keep improving.”

In the end, making track enjoyable is Stevick’s focus. He has traditionally urged on BPS athletes through a “final 400” that ends each practice, insisting they “finish with a smile” on their faces.

With Jesse Stevick promising to take the reins when his dad finally steps aside from his leadership role, none of those 400s are likely to be truly final anytime soon. Good thing, says Olsen.

“BPS is such a great thing for the community. I wish I’d known about it sooner,” he said. “It’s amazing to see what a great impact the Stevick family has had.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.