Going the Distance

Tim Meacham spotted John Ngaruiya and his brother, Timothy, in a Hewitt-Trussville High School physical education class at the beginning of the 2013 school year.

The fraternal twins fresh from Kenya were hard to miss. They spoke with thick Swahili accents and ran with unmistakable rhythm.  

“They were just so out of place,” recalled Meacham, a longtime teacher.  “I said, ‘Kenyans run the marathon. They need to be running cross-country for Hewitt-Trussville.’”

Once Meacham relayed the news to Husky head coach David Dobbs, that’s precisely what John and Timothy did. 

The rest is history. 

Over the past four years, the brothers have become ingrained in the fabric of the Hewitt-Trussville program. They’ve competed in cross-country each fall and track and field each winter and spring. 

John, in particular, has excelled. 

As a result, the 15-time All-State performer will continue his running career at Central Arizona College on a full scholarship. Timothy also will run collegiately for San Diego Christian College.

“I’m so excited,” John said. “Going to the next level has really been my goal since sophomore year.”

Before that, John didn’t even know he could pursue college running. In Nairobi, Kenya, where John and Timothy lived with their mother and sisters before joining their father in Trussville, athletics were separated from academics. 

School was school. Sport was sport.

John discovered that wasn’t the case in the United States his 10th-grade year. As he rode with Dobbs to an indoor track and field meet at the Birmingham CrossPlex, he noticed that Birmingham-Southern College had a track near the edge of its campus.  

John asked if it was a high school. 

“‘No, it’s a college,’” Dobbs responded. “‘You know, if you run fast, you can to go college for free.’”

The answer stunned John, who second-guessed his coach’s revelation. Dobbs explained to him that he would need to run not only fast, but “very fast” to secure a college scholarship. The training required to get to that level, he said, would be painful. 

“He goes, ‘I’ll hurt,’” Dobbs said. “That was it. It was like the light bulb went off.”

John went on a two-and-a-half-year tear after his epiphany. In that period, he transformed from an on-the-verge standout into one of the state’s top talents. This year, he placed third or higher in five state championship races. He finished as the Class 7A state runner-up in cross-country and in the indoor 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. 

That’s significant improvement for an athlete who only took up running seriously a few years ago. In Kenya, he had played soccer. 

“First of all, I didn’t enjoy it because I wasn’t very good at it,” John said of distance running. “But as you continue, you love it because you become better at it, and then you get to know people who are doing it.”

One person John became acquainted with through running was Paul Barlow, a former Auburn High star John used to race frequently. Barlow signed last year with Central Arizona, and John sought him for advice when weighing his college decision. 

Ideally, John will receive a substantial scholarship offer from an NCAA Division I university after two years at Central Arizona, which is an athletically revered community college about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. 

“Apparently it’s the feeding ground of the major sports other than football — well, really softball, baseball, volleyball, cross-country and track,” Dobbs said. “If you’re a college coach, that’s the first Juco [junior college] or second Juco that you visit.”

Dobbs originally connected John with Central Arizona’s coach through Dan Waters, head cross-country and track and field coach at the University of Alabama. Waters recruited John, but he couldn’t offer the amount of scholarship John needed. Waters knew the coach at Central Arizona and directed Dobbs his way.

John is not afraid of his upcoming location change. Timothy will only be one state over, and his parents and siblings will be in the general region. They are moving this summer to Seattle, Washington, where they have extended family.

Recently, Dobbs showed John a map to illustrate the distance he will travel in a few short months. He pointed to Trussville, and then to Tucson. 

That’s a long way away, Dobbs told him.

“‘No, coach,’” he replied. “‘Kenya’s a long way away.’”