Harper's Unsung Hero - Larry Quick

Harper’s Unsung Heroes

August 2024

Written by Gale Fischer

Coming Home

“The best thing about sports is the sense of community and shared emotion it can create.”

—-Bob Costas

For many, high school is a stage of life filled with fond memories. Athletics and extracurricular activities are two venues that provide these experiences that will be etched in stone in the minds of many for years to come. As a high school athlete, success can create a legacy for some. This month’s Harper Unsung Hero, Larry Quick, was fortunate enough to build a legacy for himself back in the 1980s, as a high school athlete for the Beavers. He played a part in providing memories for teammates, classmates, his coaches, and local residents that helped fuel the community spirit of Harper Creek’s fan base. Larry has been blessed with the opportunity to return home and build another layer to his legacy as a long-time coach for Harper Creek. Through this coaching role, Larry has also helped to enhance the joy of high school athletics for the locals, while also creating long-lasting memories and life lessons for the teenagers that he has coached.

Larry’s destiny to become a Beaver for Life started as a second-generation Harper Creek student. Larry gives a brief summary of his Harper Creek lineage. “I was born here in Battle Creek on January 21, 1965. My younger brother, Randy was born three years later. My parents, Larry and Margaret both graduated from Harper Creek in 1962.”

Larry and Margaret raised their boys on a farm on the southwest side of Battle Creek just two and a half miles from the high school with both Larry and Randy attending Sonoma Elementary School in their early years. Larry explains how sports were a big part of his life for as long as he can remember. “Sports has always been important to me. My first experience with sports came when I played t-ball as a young boy. I couldn’t hit the ball well once t-ball switched to baseball, so later on in high school, track became my spring sport. I started wrestling in seventh grade. Very quickly this became my first passion in sports.”

Many in the Battle Creek area have seen or heard of Larry’s success as a high school runner, and as a track, and cross-country coach for Harper Creek but early on, before running became a part of his life, football was something that Larry enjoyed. Larry reflects on his experience on the gridiron. “We had so many kids on our ninth-grade football team that Mike Seedorff and I had to share the same jersey number. As a result, I received much of the credit for what Mike did on the football field from the PA announcer. There was no rocket football for Harper Creek at that time and we played non-contact flag football in middle school. I also played football in my first year of high school with Doug Sikora and Mike Malony as our freshman coaches.” 

Larry had found out as a freshman that football was not a sport that suited him. He would eventually transition from an athlete competing on the turf to a harrier on the cross-country course, but it was more than his lack of success with football that pushed him in this direction. Larry explains how this transition came about. “I switched from football to cross-country in my sophomore year. My middle school wrestling coach, Gary Stoner, also coached varsity cross-country. I lacked the size and skills to succeed as a football player and Gary talked me into coming out for cross-country my sophomore year. I had the mindset that my sport was wrestling so initially I didn’t take cross-country seriously.” The theme for Larry as an athlete in high school, college, and beyond became, injury, surgery, and rehab. This would set the tone for him to begin to experience success as a runner. “I hurt my back my junior year and wasn’t able to wrestle the entire season so my thought process changed and I began to take cross-country more seriously. I figured that if I couldn’t wrestle I could put my heart and soul into another sport. I started to experience success with running and I was able to make an even bigger jump my senior year.”

Larry experienced a life transformation with running. The success turned to joy which quickly changed how he defined himself. Larry was now a runner. This was his lifestyle. Running was not just restricted to cross-country season and track season. He was running year-round. It may have been his passion and a stress release for Larry but his competitive juices were also an ingredient that became a major source of his training regimen. By his own admission, the extensive amount of miles that Larry was running and the intensity of these workouts may have been too much with the injuries that he experienced. 

Larry summarizes his career as a high school cross-country runner. “The one thing I feel was one of my greatest accomplishments was finishing as city champion in my senior year. I hurt myself during a race halfway through my senior year slipping on wet grass during a race and tearing my groin muscle. I ran the rest of the season but my times really suffered because of the injury.” Larry’s fastest race came in his senior season with a time of sixteen minutes and eight seconds for five kilometers, which at the time put him at the number four position on the Harper Creek leader board. With a name like Quick, it seems that Larry was destined to be a fast runner. He currently has dropped a few spots on the school leader board and sits in the number seven position. Having runners sneak ahead of him on the leaderboard has always been gratifying for Larry. To have an athlete that he has coached surpass his spot in the leaderboard has become a great source of satisfaction for him. 

As a cross-country runner, it really was a no-brainer that Larry would join the track team. Larry provides a summary of his high school career on the track. “I decided to run track starting my sophomore year. My thought was it would help me with cross-country. Gary Stoner was also my track coach. At that time boys and girls competed at different sites. Because boys and girls didn’t run together there wasn’t as much rest time between events.”  This lack of rest time between events would take its toll but also teach Larry a valuable lesson he would use later in his coaching career. As a coach, he limits his athletes to two, sometimes three events for each track meet.

Running became Larry’s bread and butter but his first passion was wrestling. He reflects on his time as a wrestler. “Dave Studer was my high school wrestling coach. I wrestled a few varsity matches in ninth grade. I was unable to complete the last half of my sophomore season because of knee surgery. I hurt my back my junior year and didn’t compete at all. Because of all of the injuries I decided not to go out for wrestling my senior year. I also wanted to focus on being ready for my senior track season.” Although wear and tear on his body took the steam out of Larry’s high school wrestling career he would return to what is perhaps his favorite sport later in life. 

Larry was blessed to continue his passion for sports at the next level. He talks about the recruiting process. “Western Michigan’s coaching staff and some D2 coaches in Michigan began reaching out to me during my senior year to come and run for their schools. Eventually, I decided to go run for Ferris State.”  Larry graduated from Harper Creek in 1983 and enrolled at Ferris State. Becoming a teacher and coach was not yet a career of choice for Larry, but this would change. “I started in the Building Construction Technology Program at Ferris State. I earned my associate's degree after two years and then had to decide what to do with this degree. One of the options was Trade Tech Education. I thought it would be fun to teach and possibly coach so I decided to continue in the Trade Tech Education program with hopes of teaching in a trade curriculum at a high school or career center.”

Larry’s vision for a future career was coming together but his athletic career continued on the injury roller coaster. Larry describes his time as a Ferris State athlete. “I ran track and cross-country at Ferris State when I was healthy. I had several knee issues. I had five knee operations while in college and have had fourteen total to date. I think that I have just been unlucky. I probably trained too hard and logged too many miles which was probably my downfall.”  Despite his bad luck with injuries, Larry was still able to compete for Ferris State.  “My best eight-kilometer time in college was twenty-six minutes and twenty-eight seconds. I had just come off another knee surgery during  the middle of my junior year at Ferris and the team doctors wouldn’t pass my physical.”

Larry refused to give up on his collegiate athletic career. He talks about a fork in the road for him as a college athlete. “The coaches and doctors at Ferris State thought that it was time for me to throw in the towel but I felt I had more years to compete so I decided to reach out to other schools. I had talked to some runners from Michigan State University about running there. I liked this option but I would have had to sit out a year if I had transferred there. A friend of mine from high school, Dave Carl, was wrestling at Olivet. He reached out to me and encouraged me to come to Olivet.”  Larry immediately felt as if Olivet was where he should go. “I went one weekend to visit and instantly felt comfortable with Olivet. I fell in love with their wrestling coach Jare Klein. Coach Klein taught me many things that have influenced me as a coach. I ran cross-country and track both years at Olivet and wrestled my senior year. It was a great experience being an athlete at Olivet. I changed majors when I went to Olivet and graduated with an endorsement for teaching physical education and history.” 

Larry graduated from Olivet in 1988 and just like that his years as a student-athlete were over but that didn’t mean he was done competing. He continued to run non-competitively and he also wrestled competitively for many years until his body had had enough. His path back to Harper Creek would navigate through a few twists and turns. Larry reflects on the transition from student to the workforce. “Coming back to Harper Creek to teach was never necessarily part of the plan. After graduating from Olivet I couldn’t get a teaching job so decided to go back to Western Michigan to get my special education certification a year later. I worked at Star Commonwealth as part of a grad assistant program to pay for my coursework at Western. I worked in residential treatment while at Star.” 

Earning his special education certification opened the door for Larry and his teaching career began. Larry gives details about the first few years as a teacher. “I taught at Mendon for a year as a high school special education teacher and then at Homer for a year as a middle school special education teacher. I was also an assistant wrestling coach while at Mendon.”  Larry’s love for athletics and coaching is what ultimately brought him back home to Harper Creek. “While teaching at Homer I also was an assistant wrestling coach under Dave Studer at Harper Creek. A year later the cross-country coaching position became open at Harper Creek as well as an assistant track coach position. I decided to quit teaching at Homer and return home to coach cross-country, wrestling, and track and fill in as a substitute teacher starting in 1993.”

Larry’s plan to spend his days as a substitute teacher for his home school district would be short-lived. He talks about how quickly things came together when he returned to Harper Creek. “I started a long-term sub job at the high school in the Emotionally Impaired classroom my first year back and eventually took over this position. Later this turned into a Resource Room. I would eventually transition to part-time special education and part-time physical education in 2014 before becoming a full-time physical education in 2018.”

Teaching for his alma mater was gratifying for Larry with coaching raising the level of satisfaction. Larry reflects on his time as the cross-country coach for the Beavers and the changes made to the sport during this time. “I was Harper Creek’s head varsity cross country coach for ten years, stepping down in 2002. When I first started we didn’t have a girl's team. The athletic director at the time, Ralph Kenyon, wanted to add a girl’s cross-country team. We had enough girls come out to field a team in my second year of coaching. Another change that was made to our cross-country program during my second season leading the team was the addition of a middle school squad.” 

Harper Creek’s cross-country program was able to grow under Larry’s leadership. There was also team and individual success. Larry highlights some of these. “Our girl’s team finished fifth in the state in 1997. In 2000, our boys won the league championship, as members of the Twin Valley Conference, the first championship in twenty-five years. Laurie Meyers, Nikki Sackrider, and Jenny Sackrider were all-state runners the year we finished fifth. Matt Sackrider was all-state his senior year and went on to run for Western Michigan.”

Just as he transitioned from football to cross-country as a high school athlete for the Beavers, Larry would transition between the two sports as a coach giving up cross-country and then joining the football coaching staff later. Larry talks about his time as a football coach. “Eventually, I transitioned from cross-country to football. I enjoyed helping out with football but took a break from coaching this for a few years when my son, Cody was in high school and college. I spent my falls watching him play soccer. Once he finished his soccer career, I returned to football. Mason Converse approached me during his second year as head coach and asked me to return to the coaching staff as the head junior varsity coach, a position I still hold.  I have served in this role for five seasons. Initially, I really didn’t know the nuances of the game,  but fortunately, I was surrounded by good assistant coaches who have helped me to evolve.”

Although not currently part of the wrestling coaching staff, Larry helped coach the team for more than a decade. He gives details about how wrestling continued to be a part of his life after college. “I helped Dave Studer as an assistant coach for twelve years. We had some pretty good runs in the late 90s and early 2000s. I also wrestled competitively until I turned thirty-five, something that I really enjoyed.” 

Larry’s coaching experience has been extensive with his involvement with Harper Creek’s cross-country, wrestling, and football teams, but his time as track coach is where he has left the biggest imprint. He gives us a glimpse into this journey that has evolved over more than three decades. “I just finished my thirtieth year as our head coach for the varsity squad. My first three years were a struggle. We didn’t win a single meet. I had a difficult time getting more than twenty kids on the team. Our first winning season didn’t come until 1999 when we finished second in the conference.” Larry’s first six years leading the boys were not easy but he has had his teams flourishing since the initial sputter. “We have grown since those early years with eighty kids on the team this year. We have had only one losing season since 1999. During that time we have had pretty good numbers come out each year. We were fifth in the state in 2001. We finished third in the state in 2013. Since 2013 we have been very solid, finishing top ten in the state every year. We finished third in the state in 2022 and second in 2017. Our boys have really dominated since 2012 with a record of forty-and-four at home. Since 2012 our duel meet record is seventy and eleven”

As good as his teams have been over the course of the last twelve years, this past year’s squad did something no other sports team has been able to do in the history of Harper Creek sports. Larry reflects on this year's group of boys and what they were able to accomplish. “This year we were state champions, the first Harper Creek sports team to accomplish this. At the start of the year, we knew we would have a good team. We were ranked second in the first week of rankings. This was somewhat of a surprise. I knew we were going to be good but not that good. We were really looking ahead to next season at a shot as state champions but eventually, senior captain Bronson Carpenter kept asking “Why not this year?” Our state meet was a true team effort.”  Larry has experienced great success through the years as an athlete and a coach and created some amazing memories but what his team was able to do this year is the pinnacle of his athletic career. “This season has truly been one of my fondest moments as a coach and as an athlete. It has changed my life. I had strived to be all-state in high school and all-American in college but fell short. My goal then became to win a state championship as a coach. It feels great to have accomplished this. The best part of it is that it was kind of a surprise because Parma, who we edged out for the championship at the state meet, had beaten us for all three meetings during the regular season. The reaction of the kids was amazing.” Larry understands that the credit for the team's success this year and every year should be shared with the athletes and the assistant coaches he has had by his side.

The run that Larry and his athletes made this year will be something that they can cherish for their entire lives. It was a true defining moment for them but Larry reminds us that something of this magnitude has an impact on many. “This was cool for our kids but it has also been great for the Harper Creek Community. I have had so many people who are currently part of the Harpe Creek Community and those who no longer live here, reach out and congratulate me. To give this to Harper Creek is pretty neat.” 

Larry has left his imprint on Harper Creek as an athlete, a teacher, and a coach. His story cannot be told however without another twist to what he has brought to the Harper Creek Community. Through the years while attending sporting events at other schools throughout Southwest Michigan Larry noticed that many of these venues honored military alumni with a display in their hallways. This is something that Larry decided he wanted to see at Harper Creek. Larry talks about this. “We were able to start the Military Hall of Fame at the high school in 2006. To date, we have almost three hundred names on the wall.”

Larry gives credit to perhaps one of his biggest fans. “My wife, Julie has been a big part of my success the last few years. She has kept me grounded. My faith in the Lord has strengthened with her help. The athletes that I have coached in this time have also helped with this transformation.”

The primary function of our school systems is to educate our children, teaching them the academics that they will need to carry them through, high school and the world that awaits them as adults. This will always remain the primary function of what we do every day in our schools, but Larry’s story reminds us that athletics provides an important element for our institutions. First and foremost athletics teach those who participate valuable lessons that will benefit them throughout their lives. Sports can provide these athletes with positive memories that they can cherish through all stages of life. Beyond what sports can do for the athletes who participate, they can also be a rallying point for classmates, teachers, and individuals in the local community. Athletics may not be the primary function of our school districts but the positive benefits they provide trickle through to all corners of the community.