Nick White (bottom, red shirt) is the 2019 5Star Preps Track & Field Coach of the Year. His Maryville team finished runner-up at the TSSAA state track and field events took place at Deana A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Thursday, May 23, 2019. (Photo by Danny Parker)
Track is on the rise at Maryville High School.
The bar for the already well-established program was raised from good to great this season as longtime coach Nick White guided Maryville to its best finish ever at the Large School state meet.
The Lady Rebels scored 63 points to tie Southwind for second place.
Maryville’s previous best at state was a third-place finish in 2008.
Powerhouse Whitehaven, which has won four of the last five state championships, took first again with 72 points.
“For us as a track program, it’s the first time we’ve brought the hardware home,” said White, the 5Star preps Track and Field Coach of the Year for 2019.
“You’ve got to have a lot of kids do a lot of different things (to finish second),” he added.
Indeed they did.
Maryville, led by senior sprinter Georgie McDevitt, scored in eight events.
A pair of freshmen Lady Rebels served notice that Maryville plans to be a force at the state meet in coming years.
Lily Lang won the high jump and Andie-Marie Jones scored big points by taking second in the 3200 and fourth in the 1600.
White said the Lady Rebels even left some points on the board in other events that could have vaulted Maryville even higher.
“We legitimately could have won it … if,” he said.
White said a confluence of factors have come together to push, specifically, Maryville’s girls program, to the next level: great athletes, great coaches and a new state-of-the-art track and field complex.
White said he has a coaching staff that’s second to none.
Will Jay made the move from West to Maryville this year.
Jay, a former University of Tennessee sprinter, worked with the Lady Rebels’ sprinters and jumpers.
He was instrumental in helping McDevitt become an elite sprinter.
“We brought Will Jay in and he adjusted her running style over the summer and she just exploded,” said White.
He also gave Jay credit for “taking Lily Lang from a 5-0 to a 5-6 high jumper.”
Assistant coach Landon Harris likewise steered Jones on the right course in the distant events.
“Coach Harris did a great job with Andie-Marie,” said White.
Assistants Kathryn Pickle and Bubba Hooker also helped coach the sprints and jumps.
And don’t forget the field events, said White.
“We had two throwers at the state meet for the first time since I’ve been here.”
Another big boost to the program was the christening earlier this year of Maryville’s new eight-lane track.
“It’s phenomenal,” said White.
“It’s a track-only facility with the same surface as Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee. The rest of it will be finished this summer, including four jump pits. It will be the best (high school) facility in Tennessee.”
White said the new track will help attract even more athletes to the sport.
“For us to get a facility like that is kind of an eye-opening thing for us,” he said.
“It helps people understand that track is an important sport at Maryville.”