Le Roy has produced some of the most successful athletes over the years from its schools and none more so than Southern Coffey County High School track graduate Aaron True.
True specialized in the javelin at Southern Coffey where he set a school record toss of 202’0” and was crowned the 2014 1A State Champion in the sport. Not only did True letter in track all four years of high school but also in basketball, averaging 20 points per game.
Since his college graduation, True has embarked on a professional career, as an Insurance agent in Lebo, where he also serves as the Lebo High track and cross country coach.
Track was True’s favorite sport. Between his freshman and senior campaigns True improved from a mark of 105 feet to 202 feet in the throw. In his senior year, True led his school to a regional title and finished 15th in the country and second in Kansas in the javelin throw.
“Both my older brothers threw javelin… my dad and both my uncles threw back in the day, too, so it kind of ran in the family,” True said. “In my junior year I knew I had a pretty good chance to break my brother’s school record. I ended up breaking it a couple different times. For my senior year I just had the goal to throw 200 feet.”
This was only the beginning of True’s illustrious javelin career. He was recruited by a number of Division I programs including Kansas State and Nebraska but ultimately settled on Wichita State University. The Burlington native began his college career in 2015, took a redshirt season the next year in 2016 and then competed three more years until 2019 for his senior year.
“I knew if I threw over 200 feet that would pretty much guarantee me a spot almost anywhere I wanted to go in the javelin. As far as recruiting, I didn’t really branch out and get my name out there like I should have,” explained True. “My first college visit was to Wichita State and it was a really good fit for me… I ended up signing my letter of intent the week of state.” 
As a freshman at WSU, True finished in second place in the javelin at the 2015 MVC Outdoor Championship with a toss of 214 feet. True competed in a few more big competitions for the Shockers that year after finishing 22nd at the West Preliminaries with a throw of 210 feet as well as a personal best throw of 220 feet at the ESU Invitational.
AFTER sitting out his sophomore year in 2016, True picked up right where he left off the next spring of 2017. True improved that season finishing an impressive five times in the top-five out of seven meets. His best performance that year came at the MVC Outdoor Championships where he threw a whopping 229 feet to win the event.
One of the other meets he finished top-five in that year was when he won the Arkansas Spring Invitational with a throw of 216 feet.
True kept up the effort in 2018. He finished in the top-five at six track meets. He also won four regular season track meets at the Emporia State Spring Invite, the K.T. Woodman Classic, the Central Missouri Mules Relay and the Shocker Open. The longest of his winning throws in the regular season was 72 meters at the K.T. Woodman Classic.
“At the conference meets we would go against some bigger schools we hadn’t seen yet and a lot of times they had better throwers so it puts some added pressure on you to make sure you compete at the highest level and have a chance to win,” said True. “The later in the season we got, the more competitive it got so the conference was typically pretty competitive.”
After the regular season True participated in the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championship, setting a school record with a throw of 77 meters. True finished eighth at the NCAA Championships that year.
“It was pretty cool,” he said. “You’re competing against the best of the best, the top-24 in the nation at the college level so you had better bring your ‘A’ game or you’re going to get smoked. I never threw my best at nationals, but I was fortunate enough to get first team All-American both times.”
Senior year for True brought him five javelin meet victories out of the seven he competed in. His season-high throw of 75 meters helped him win the event in the 92nd Kansas Relays. He was ranked third in the country with the throw. True marked the first Wichita State javelin thrower to finish as a first team All-American in two different years.
Every year of True’s collegiate javelin career propelled him to the NCAA West Regionals where he finished third his senior year. Today, True ranks No. 1 on the all-time javelin throwing list with his throw of 77.49 meters in 2018.
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