Brighton senior Josh Hamilton: From 26-minute 5K guy to school-record relay contributor

Source: Yahoo Sports

BRIGHTON -- Josh Hamilton was left scrambling for a Plan C as a freshman at Brighton High School.

He played viola in the Flint Youth Symphony Orchestra in eighth grade but that was shut down by the restrictions enacted during COVID-19.

A lover of music, Hamilton auditioned for a singing group. It didn't go well.

"I'm a terrible singer, so I didn't get in," he said.

He needed an extracurricular activity, but what else was there?

Hamilton found his way onto the Brighton cross country team where, regardless of his talent, he wouldn't endure the rejection he experienced as a would-be singer.

"Cross country was a no-cut sport," he said. "A lot of my friends were doing it. I thought, 'Hey, why don't I do this?'"

Brighton is one of the top cross country programs in Michigan, but being fast isn't a prerequisite to join the team.

That's a good thing, because Hamilton was far from fast.

In his first meet on Aug. 29, 2020, Hamilton ran five kilometers in 26 minutes, 29 seconds at Huron Meadows Metropark. He finished 64th out of 65 runners. He was even slower in his second meet, finishing in 26:44.

That wasn't even rock bottom, as Hamilton ran 26:56.3 late in the season to finish last out of 68 runners.

"I was horrible when I started," Hamilton said. "I came into there with a knee condition I had no idea about. My first Saturday, I couldn't make it a mile into the run and had to walk back. I wound up being injured for most of my summer training. The first 5K, it was horrible. I went out way too hard. For most of the race, I was watching people pass me."

What were Brighton coach Chris Elsey's first impressions of Hamilton?

"It hurt to watch him run," Elsey said.

That was partly because Hamilton had poor form and partly because he was legitimately running hurt because of Osgood-Schlatter disease in his knee and overpronation issues that stressed his ankle.

Now matter how much it hurt, no matter how slowly he ran, quitting was never an option.

"At that point, I met people on the team," he said. "I liked being part of the team. Mostly, I felt like quitting would be such a bad thing for me to do. That entire season, while I got mostly toward last place, I never DNF'd (did not finish) in a race. I never walked off. I feel like there really wasn't a reason for me to quit. Sure, I was doing badly, but I could see some improvement. What else could I do in the next couple years? If I quit, I would be wasting some potential. I had no idea how much potential."

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Hamilton never imagined when he was bringing up the rear at races his freshman year that his Brighton career would end on the all-state podium following a school-record performance at the state track and field meet his senior year.

Because of the depth of distance-running talent at Brighton, one of the biggest competitions within the team is earning a spot on the 3,200-meter relay. By consistently showing up day after day, month after month, year after year, Hamilton had developed into a sub-2:00 800-meter runner.

He finally earned a leg on that relay with Ian Cox, Luke Campbell and Bode Cooper for the KLAA meet on May 11.

After a third-place finish in 8:02.06 at the league meet, Brighton won the regional meet in 7:56.30 before running a school-record time of 7:50.64 to place seventh at the state Division 1 meet. The top eight teams made all-state.

Hamilton ran a split of 1:58.1, helping Brighton break the school mark of 7:51.92 set in the 2019 state meet by Nolan McGahan, Matt Jontz, Scott Spaanstra and Jack Spamer.

"I'm still processing it," Hamilton said 11 days later as he prepared to leave for the New Balance national meet in Philadelphia. "One of my big goals was to leave a legacy because, sure, people could talk about me for the next three years as, 'Oh, this guy went from some pretty slow times to some pretty good times.'

"But I feel like our 4x8 time was good enough that I'm going to have my time up on the board for a while. We're all going to have our names up on that wall for a while. It's cool to think we're going to be part of Brighton High School's legacy."

Qualifying for the state meet was a meaningful accomplishment for Hamilton, who never cracked the varsity lineup in cross country. He was an alternate for Brighton's state runner-up team last fall.

"I've never been to such a high-caliber meet before," he said. "It's honestly insane. It was amazing. I was pretty ecstatic to be there. Even if we didn't make all-state, I would have loved the experience being that I came from pretty much nothing athletically to being there."

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from Hamilton's story. Beyond his own persistence and hard work, the culture within the Brighton program made a kid who wasn't a star runner feel like he belonged.

"I actually had no idea about any of the tradition coming in," he said. "I ran a mile a day for a week beforehand, thinking that would be enough; it definitely wasn't. I never felt intimidated joining the team. It was a super welcoming atmosphere. There's really everyone for every skill level there. I feel like Elsey is a big part of that and just the people at Brighton help make that atmosphere."

Contact Bill Khan at [email protected]. Follow him on X @BillKhan