Marlon Wiley, Jordan High School Class of 2019
Personal Bests:
100 Meter Dash: 10.75
200 Meter Dash: 21.86
Long Jump: 20'7 ½"
MSHSL State Meets:
2017 Class A 100 Meter Dash State Champion
2017 Class A 200 Meter Dash 3rd Place
Tell me a little bit about your background. What sports did you do growing up?
I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and I tried most sports growing up. My first sport was wrestling which I started in second grade. I was good at it but did not continue beyond that first year. I am not sure why it worked out that way. My baseball career started in third grade and I played that sport until the end of my freshman year. I also have three or four letters in weight lifting which we call MAX in Jordan.
My football career is interesting because I started out as a quarterback and played that position in grades fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. In middle school they saw I was fast so I wound up playing running back. Then when I entered ninth grade I switched to wide receiver and defensive back. I have two letters in football. Last year was my first season in track & field! My last name (Wiley) is pronounced like the coyote with a long i.
What adversities have you faced?
This fall I got hurt towards the end of the football season. During an onside kick during a practice I severely strained one of my calve muscles. Although I did try sitting out some games I was never as effective as I had been earlier. It hurt the team because we lost in the state semifinals to Marshall, MN. The doctor told me I had to take four weeks off after the football season before I could do any physical activities. I mostly did calf strengthening exercises to get back to speed when I did get healthy again.
Who are your common opponents and what were your relationships like with them?
Marcus Walsh of Belle Plaine, who is a senior this year, and Rhett Streeter of Le Sueur who has graduated were common opponents for me last year. Streeter not only pushed me in every race we had, he also gave me many pointers on all aspects of sprinting. Unfortunately Rhett got hurt at his section meet and did not make it to State. He is running for one of the Montana colleges this year. Marcus is sure to be tough again this year.
What teammates encourage and inspire you?
Our relay team of sophomore Bryce Sievers, and juniors Ako Butler, Julian Morales, and I ran a 44.66 in the 4x100 relay last year which was only .01 off our school record.
Ako and Julian recruited me hard for track & field last year. Then when I was on the team they made sure to help me in every way they could and answered any questions I had. Brice helped me with the timing of our handoffs. We look forward to a couple more seasons together.
Who else supported you?
My parents Steven Lutterman and Yolanda Patrick were at meets and cheered for me. My football coach, Bo Wasurick was at the State Meet cheering for me.
Do you have any special goal-setting and mental training tips for us?
During football I wrote down pre-season goals and underneath each goal was at least one sub-goal which would help me obtain that goal. For example if my goal was to catch 5 passes for 100 yards, I might have some goals to help me catch the ball, or run my routes better. This definitely helped me in football as my top game was 7 catches for 160 yards and a touchdown. In addition I self-grade myself with stars as to how well I am doing with each sub-goal. (We used a spread formation last year and threw 350 passes!)
I plan to do the same thing for track because I know it works for me.
How did weight-training help you develop your speed?
There were three guys who helped me with the MAX program. Football coach Bo Wasurick is there everyday and he helps teach the lifts and gives encouragement with the other stuff we do. There are many things we do that help including front squats, back squats, power cleans, hang snatch, and a wide variety of agility drills and exercises.
Cody Pulowski, a former hurdler from NDSU, also helps out during the school year with my running form during the school year. My head track coach Ben Nylander comes by a couple days per week during the summer to continue to help with my running and jumping.
What activities are you in besides sports?
I have a 3.3 GPA and am a member of the Captains Council at my school. The Captains Council is all of the captains in each sport coming together to figure out ways to improve Jordan High School. The group is led by the Athletic Director. I also work for the public library finding and re-shelving books.
How did Jordan do last year and what do you expect this year?
We won our conference, subsection, and section meets last year. Although we did lose some seniors last year we expect another good year. A big part of that reason is Owen Keiser who wins most of his mile and 2 mile races for us.
What is interesting about your team?
For team bonding we have both the girls and boys teams go to Sand Creek Adventures which is an obstacle course. We do a pizza fund raiser. A week before the season starts there is lots of "table top pushing." Table top pushing is where you have two guys work together to knock over another person. One person will gets down on all fours as the "table," and then another person will push a teammate over the table!
Do you have any plans for college?
Yes, I have been to the University of Minnesota for their Junior Day Football recruiting. I have also been asked to attend a four-year college on scholarship. I haven't made up my mind yet though.
Long Jump Technique Tips from Marlon Wiley:
Brian Homan was our long jump coach last year and he taught me how to do the long jump last year. This spring he will be coaching in Pillager. The first thing we did was to work on the jump and landing. We did this with the aide of a gymnastics board. I jumped as high as I could and tried to make a snow angel with my body in the sand pit.
Afterwards we worked on a seven step approach. I started running from the takeoff board backwards and the coach would count every other step until he got to seven and make a mark where my seventh step was. This wound up being 98 feet from the board which was the longest approach I saw all season except for two people. When I go to a meet I always take chalk and make two marks so I know where I am supposed to take off from. Long jumpers spend a lot of time doing what we call run-throughs to get the timing down so we take-off from the board right.
My biggest problem as a new jumper was being able to get enough height on take-off. This resulted in some flat jumps early in the season. Brian told me from the beginning that I would be a 20 foot long jumper. I didn't believe him, but he believed in me and kept telling me I could do it even though early in the season I was only jumping 16 or 17 feet. It was his constant work and encouragement that got me over 20 feet!
Jordan Head Coach Ben Nylander on Marlon...
Marlon is very
strong and explosive so he powers out of the blocks very nicely. He was able to
run a very nice 60m dash indoors because he drives well out of the blocks and
was able to reach top speed and didn't have to hold it.
His 100m started to develop next as he started to develop some speed endurance and his 200m really came along nicely towards the end of the season as he improved at his race modeling.
