If there was ever a moment that solidified what it meant to be a Mustang, it came during Rance McClain’s freshman year at Iola High School.
And it occurred, of all places, during track season, a bit of a surprise because up to then, McClain’s passions were on the gridiron.
“Coming into high school, track was not even a priority,” McClain, a 1986 Iola High graduate, said during Monday’s Mustang football awards banquet. “I was focused on football. That’s all I could think about. That’s all I wanted to do.”
But after long-time Iola High track and field coach Marv Smith saw McClain uncork a throw from the outfield during a baseball game the previous summer, he had convinced the athletic youngster to give javelin throwing a try.
Turns out McClain was a quick study and showed enough promise that Wendy Frazell, another Iola coaching legend, began working with McClain.
McClain wound up qualifying for the state track meet in the javelin his freshman year.
Almost everyone else would have been ecstatic over such an achievement.
McClain felt guilty.
“Part of me regrets this, even to this day,” McClain said.
That’s because in taking third at regionals — only the top three finishers advanced to state — McClain had beaten out his Mustang teammate, Jay Don Frazell, Coach Frazell’s son.
“Coach Frazell could have been quietly upset that his son had that opportunity stolen,” McClain said. “Jay Don could have been upset because, you know, this freshman came in and got lucky and beat him.
“But that’s not what their family was about,” he continued. “Their family bled blue and gold. Every day between the district meet and the state championship meet, they were out there working with me trying to get me to make those little incremental improvements, even at the end of the season.”
The experience sticks with McClain still today.
“Those are the kinds of people that we have coaching in this community,” he said, “supporting everybody else, that even in their own time of disappointment, they wanted to stop and put that extra effort into somebody like me.”
The Mustangs of today should take note, he continued, and appreciate the efforts Iola’s current coaches are willing to provide.
