Junior speedster Ronald Darby of Potomac High School in Oxon Hill Maryland may be a diehard Redskins fan, but that hasn’t affected his success on the track or on the field! He is currently a top high school prospect receiving recruiting calls and letters from top programs like Florida, Notre Dame and Cal! He isn’t sure where he wants to go yet, but he would like to be able to compete on the track wherever he may end up!
Asked about his future athletic career he says, “Football is my main sport and I really love football, but I would also like to do track in college. Football is my #1 goal. I want to be blessed enough to stay healthy and be playing on Sunday one day.”
Ron, as he likes to be called, grew up watching arguably the fastest football player ever do his thing, Darrell Green!
“When I was young, he was still playing and I would watch him and how fast he was. My Dad liked him. I wore his jersey and I wanted to be like him, especially the way he ran people down.”
Well, with the speed that Ron has, he can run anybody down! Already this indoor season he has the fastest 55m dash and 200m dash times in the nation! Both performances, 6.28 and 21.28 came at the Hispanic Games back on January 8th in the Armory in NYC for which he was named AT&T Armory athlete of the week!
But running fast and winning are not new to Ron; he has been running fast a winning for a little while now. In fact, last summer he won the USATF Junior Olympic Intermediate Boys Division 100 and 200 in Sacramento, California. He runs for the 747 Track club coached by Jimmy Harper.
Along with having a great club to train with during the summer, he also has a Hall of Fame coach during the high school season in Coach Stan Mullins. He credits Coach Mullin’s workouts and practices with helping him to achieve so much success.
“Coach Mullins knows what he’s talking about. If you listen to him, it helps. My favorite workouts are ladders and whenever we run fast. I especially like doing block work and working on my drive phase.”
But he says the ultimate secret to his success is the constant desire and determination to win! “To win every time! I worked on my drive phase this summer and got stronger.”
I asked Ron what his motivation is and what his goals for the rest of indoor are and then outdoor: Again, he said, “Winning! I don’t like losing! I try to do the best that I can. My goals for the rest of indoor are to win my events in every meet from here to the end of the season and to break the state record in the 55m dash. For outdoor I would like to go sub 10.4 in the 100 and run around 20 seconds point for the 200.”
Having only started running track his 9th grade year of high school, now just a Junior, the incredible amount of success by Ron Darby is pretty amazing to see, but after talking to him for just a few minutes, you realize that it simply a byproduct of hard work and focus.
That hard work and focus as culminated in an invitation to Japan! Next week, on February 2nd, Ron will be traveling to Japan to take part in a USA v. Japan indoor track meet along with a select few other athletes!
Here’s hoping that wherever he goes to college to play on Saturday in the fall with the hope of playing Sunday after that, that he will be able to get in some track meets in the spring to see just how fast he can go!
3 Things to Get to Know Ron Darby:
1 – What is on your iPod right now? – Lil’ Wayne and GoGo! (local music)
2 – What is your favorite video game? - Madden. How good are you? – Decent
3 – What is your favorite movie? – None!
