Ben Murphy
Sports Scene
Frankenmuth cross country runner Bobby Steele is showing that with a little community support and determination, anything is possible. Steele, a junior running in his second season of cross country, has been blind since birth.
“He is an amazing young man,” Frankenmuth head coach Mike Snyder said. “We keep telling Bobby that he’s an inspiration to the people that watch him run. Words don’t express how much inspiration he gives when you’re watching him run.”
Blindness isn’t the only obstacle Steele has had to overcome to become as a member of the team. In order to practice or compete in meets, Steele, who also ran track as an eighth grader, requires a guide to be connected to him with a bungee cord along the way.
“He alerts me to hills, turns, and different degrees of turns,” Steele said of his guide. “Or if we have to slow down, or if we’re going over a dip in the ground.”
Snyder received written approval from the MHSAA to allow Steele to use a guide, though he says no official has ever asked to see the letter.
Steele has improved immensely since he joined the team a year ago. Last season, he needed only three guides to help him practice and compete. Now, according to his coach, he has gotten too fast for his guides from a year ago and has had as many as nine guides this season.
“It’s amazing at what he can do with a bungee cord and a guide,” Snyder said. “He gets used to the guides; they have to run with him a couple of times in practice so they can get used to each other before a meet. We have nine guides this year. People are stepping out to help, which is wonderful because Bobby is starting to run faster. The three original ones can’t keep up with Bobby anymore. It works really nice; everyone cheers for Bobby at the end. He is a special runner, and our team is really starting to bond with Bobby which is nice.”
Typically guides have been assistant coaches or community volunteers, which is something Bobby’s father sees being a big part of the story as well.
“I think that the lesson I would take from this is that there are a lot of kids with disabilities, and that if they have people that take as much interest that they have in Bobby you would probably see more stories like this,” Jeff Steele said. “People took an interest in him, and they want to make it work. He’s certainly able and physically able, he just can’t see… We’ve always treated him as just another kid and it’s certainly worked out.”
It was because of the encouragement of his dad that Bobby got back into sports, after not competing in cross country or track as a freshman.
“It was my father’s idea,” Bobby Steele said of joining the sport. “He basically came home one day and was like, by the way you’re doing cross country. I was like, I don’t know about that. That was last year.”
This year, Snyder has challenged his runner to run a time of under 20 minutes, if not this year, then next season. Steele, who also rejoined the track team last spring and plans to run all year round, could be well on his way after setting a personal best time of 23:24 at Friday’s meet, which was more than two minutes faster than his previous best time.
“I’ve been improving steadily so far, but to improve by that degree the fourth meet of the season, it felt good,” Steele said. “Getting under 20 [is a goal, so is] getting better and continuing to get stronger. I’m not going to be able to run my best every day, but if I work at it, it will get easier. If you want to do something, just keep working at it, and you’ll probably get better.”