Washburn Rural state track champion Marquel Russell (middle) with his parents, Shanna Bigler, and Jason Russell, who adopted Marquel when he was 3 years old. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
On May 27 in Wichita, recent Washburn Rural graduate Marquel Russell put on a show for the Cessna Stadium crowd, posting an impressive 14.79-second win in the 110-meter hurdles to capture a coveted Class 6A state championship.
It was a huge moment, not only for Russell and his family but for the Washburn Rural and special needs communities as a whole, with the 10 hurdles Russell sailed over that day the latest among the hundreds if not thousands of hurdles he has faced and cleared since the day he was born.
"We got Marquel when he was three and he had been through the foster care system and had a lot of significant trauma,'' said Shanna Bigler, Russell's adopted mother. "He was also born with agenesis of corpus callosum, which means that the right and left hemispheres of his brain don't connect. So everything that comes in, all the processing that comes into his brain has to do both sides and it takes more work for him to process and understand things. Marquel didn't talk until he was three and he's really come through a lot. He's at about a third-grade reading level, but people just wouldn't guess that's how he is.
"We took him for another brain scan at KU a couple of years ago and they said, 'Honestly, we don't know how he's able to do the things he's able to do, but we're not going to put any athletic restrictions on him. Let him be as great as he can be and wants to be.' We were really excited about that because prior to that they had been really concerned about him hitting his head and creating more issues, so we were really proud that not only was he able to play general education athletics, but he surpassed his own expectations.''
Russell's state championship marked his third state medal in the 110-meter hurdles in as many tries, following a second-place finish as a freshman and a fourth-place finish as a sophomore.
"It felt great,'' Russell said of the state title. "I still can't believe I did that.''
"It was a miracle,'' said Jason Russell, Marquel's adopted father. "The chief of neurology told us, 'This kid shouldn't even be able to walk.' It's just amazing.''
Bigler agreed.
"Everybody that was with us for state, we were all standing up there crying because he wasn't supposed to be able to do this.''
A TOUGH START
Marquel Russell's future looked anything but bright in his first few years, with him being passed around from foster home to foster home before Bigler and Jason Russell entered the picture.
"When we actually got Marquel he wasn't legally up for adoption,'' Bigler said. "He was up for a legal guardianship because he had been in so many foster homes by the age of two. We got him at three years old and he had been in 14 foster homes due to behaviors and lack of communication. They said he would never be able to talk.
"It was a very negative prognosis on everything and we said, "Well, we're going to adopt him anyway.' We took him home and we spent a lot of time working on not hitting his head on the cement and the kinds of behaviors that he was having and then he started becoming active in our community. We live down in Auburn and every person in town knows Marquel and always has.''
Marquel admits that to this day he still has to battle frustration from time to time, but said he's discovered a somewhat simple solution.
"Sometimes I do get frustrated, but when I get frustrated I go outside and look at the view or something or just hang outside or watch the sunset for a little bit and that can work and I come back happy,'' he said.
THE POWER OF SPORTS
After being adopted by Bigler and Russell, Marquel's life continued to get better and better, with things really taking off after he became involved in sports.
Marquel began playing little league football when he was in the third or fourth grade and he later discovered diving and hurdling.
"He started running at three,'' Bigler said. "He would run out of the house and down the block. He's always been running.
"When he started middle school we had it written in his (Individual Education Plan) that he would be allowed to go run laps around outside the school because he was hyper. He would go run laps outside, so it was kind of a natural ease into track from there.''
Marquel eventually became a two-time city diving champion and was already a state-class hurdler by the end of his freshman season.
"Had he not had athletics and been able to participate in general education sports, he wouldnt have the confidence that he does,'' Bigler said. "I think the limitations that other people set for him, he might have put on himself, but because he had opportunities like this he surpassed everybody's expectations.''
FIT FOR A KING
Washburn Rural has seemingly been a near-perfect fit for Russell, and Bigler credits the entire Rural community and particularly coaches like Junior Blues head track and field coach Keith Wetzel and hurdles/sprints coach Doug Stanley for helping make that happen.
"Any time you have a kid that has as many challenges as Marquel's been through in life, as parents we get pretty used to fighting for things and honestly we can say with track for Marquel we've never had a fight with these coaches,'' Bigler said. "They're huge advocates for him and they'll go above and beyond to make sure he succeeds.''
"It's the same thing with diving, too,'' Jason Russell added. "Everybody's just been great.''
Wetzel said that from the day Marquel arrived on campus, the school and Junior Blues track team welcomed him as one of their own.
"It was a natural,'' Wetzel said. "It started years ago with one of our special education teachers and a lot of the unified sports and the inclusive attitude that our school has really taken on. It's part of our culture, so our kids don't know any different and they've taken Marquel in and they include him. He's another teammate.
"Marquel is extremely happy. He always has a smile, he's encouraging to others and kids adore him.''
Said Bigler:
"(Sports) is the thing he's been good at, so while school might have been harder for him, athletics was his way of socially connecting with his peers and socially connecting with his school and feeling like he's part of it and he belongs to it,'' she said. "I think for any high school kid that would be huge and vital and then you take a kid that is in a lot of special education classes and typically isn't necessarily in the mainstream environment, you put him in athletics where people get to know him and he succeeds. He was Homecoming King!''
''Over my four years I've been working really hard and I just wanted to say thank you so much to all my coaches that have helped me throughout my four years,'' Marquel said.
Washburn Rural track and field coach Keith Wetzel (left) and hurdles/sprints coach Doug Stanley (right) flank Junior Blues state track champion Marquel Russell. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
CHERRY ON TOP
Wetzel and Stanley have coached multiple state champions at Washburn Rural, but neither of the veteran Junior Blue coaches will ever forget the emotions they felt when Marquel Russell crossed the finish line with a state championship in tow.
"There was a big emotional release,'' Stanley said. "After you take second your freshman year and fourth your sophomore year, the expecations are so high that you're going to be up on that medal stand again, if not winning.
"So when he crossed his eighth hurdle and it was clear that he was gong to win there were other coaches around me turning to me to high-five me and stuff and I almost collapsed, honest to goodness. A storybook ending, absolutely,''
Wetzel agreed.
"It really is a miracle, and for those who may not believe in miracles, he's a walking, running, hurdling miracle,'' Wetzel said. "That was just sort of the cherry on top of his career. That just doesn't happen.
"Sports has been a huge part of Marquel's life, whether it's swimming and diving or track and field. It's helped from a social aspect and relationships with other people. Sports has been that vehicle and it's been a great one.''
And for the kid who was in 14 foster homes in the first two years of his life, the future looks bright.
Russell recently earned his high school diploma and will participate in Rural's 18 to 21-year-old progam through Washburn University to continue his education.
"He'll have life skill classes and a lot of different things and then he'll be in a work study program,'' Jason Russell said.
Although the state meet may have been Marquel's final hurdles race, he also plans to continue to be involved with athletics at the Special Olympics level.
"There's going to be a lot of potential to travel and still run track,'' Jason Russell said. "Unfortunately not hurdles, because they don't have hurdles, but he can do the 100-meter dash and things like that, so that's what he's going to be doing, too, on top of the 18 to 21 program.''
Wetzel is eager to see what lies ahead for his state champ
"I think his story is one that can impact a lot of people and he might just be beginning,'' Wetzel said. "His best might be ahead of him.''
Bigler agrees.
"We fought for him to be in general education inclusive classroom settings all the way until high school, which was fantastic and worked out so great,'' she said. "He saw the other kids doing what other kids do, so we stopped doing things like therapy and respite care and all of those things that they say you're supposed to do when you adopt a kid with special needs.
"We stopped doing those because he can be as normal as he wants to be. He's just like every other kid.''
