Yon Yilma used to think that the sport of cross country was ridiculous.
As a child in Ethiopia, Yilma grew up playing soccer, a game that requires running but also involves a ball and a confined field with clear lines and boundaries.
He discovered cross country after immigrating to the United States.
No ball. No net. Just running for several miles across a variety of terrain — without taking a break.
“I was hoping to be a soccer player when I came here. It was more fun,” said Yilma, a 5-foot-3, 108-pound senior at Edmonds-Woodway High School. “I didn’t really see the whole point of (cross country) at first.”
He eventually changed his mind.
Today the diminutive, gregarious Yilma is one of Washington’s elite prep runners. He surged to a 36-second margin of victory Saturday at the Western Conference South Division championships, zipping through the 5-kilometer course in 15 minutes, 39 seconds. This week Yilma is considered a threat to defend his title at the Class 4A Northwest District meet in Langley.
How much does Yilma love cross country? Two years ago he completely gave up competitive soccer, his longtime passion, to focus on running. This past summer he trained harder than ever, enduring 16-mile days and 100-mile weeks to prepare for his final season at E-W.
Even Yilma’s part-time job revolves around the sport: He works at the Run 26 athletics store in Lynnwood.
“I really found what I was born to do. I just love racing,” said Yilma, who placed 11th at the 2006 4A state meet.
Unlike many prep athletes who need half a dozen years or more to reach such a lofty level of competition, Yilma is relatively new to the sport. He didn’t join the E-W cross country team until his sophomore year.
“Immediately, he had an impact on the team. He was one of the top guys,” E-W cross country coach Regina Joyce said.
Joyce had previously heard rumors about Yilma, who moved from Ethiopia to the U.S before he started fifth grade. He lived in New York for a year and then landed in Snohomish County with his mom and younger sister.
By the time Yilma was a seventh-grader, classmates were buzzing about his running ability.
Said Joyce, “I kept hearing about this kid who could run a five-minute mile but I’d never (met him) and I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ Then he came out for track (as a freshman) and was pretty amazing.”
A year earlier Yilma turned heads by running 36.5 laps on a track (more than 9 miles) in one hour during a school fundraising event. He had an epiphany that day: “Maybe I should do this.”
Running wasn’t just a way for Yilma to use his athletic skills. It also helped him gain friends and confidence.
“At first he was definitely really shy. He was not one of the most outgoing people,” said Calvin Grover, Yilma’s teammate and fellow team captain.
But Grover, who lived on the same street as Yilma in Edmonds, encouraged Yilma to run. Yilma also branched out by playing football and soccer. He gradually opened up, so much so that teammates call him a ladies’ man.
“He’s just completely changed. He talks to everyone. It doesn’t matter who they are,” Grover said.
Before the Wesco South championships last weekend, Yilma smiled and said his cross country teammates have become his family. He said his mom doesn’t fully understand cross country and only sporadically attends races. Yilma’s dad lives in Ethiopia, where he is a professor at a university in Addis Ababa. They talk on the phone monthly but haven’t seen each other in nearly five years.
Yilma said his mom left Ethiopia years ago to escape violence between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a small country that borders the north side of Ethiopia. His mom’s parents are from Eritrea but she was born in Ethiopia. Amid conflicts between the countries, she was caught in a dangerous cultural battle and fled to the U.S., Yilma said.
Yilma, his mom and his sister are removed from the hostility, but Yilma is also without his dad, an Ethiopian who for two years lived in the U.S. before returning to his career as an educator in Africa.
Running ahead of the pack helps fill the void. It has become Yilma’s life, his identity.
“He cares so much,” Grover said. “He doesn’t want anyone to be able to say, ‘I beat Yon.’”
Contact Herald Writer Mike Cane at mcane@heraldnet.com. For more high school sports news, check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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