FITNESS AUTHOR
Jacqueline Knox
PHOTOGRAPHY
Courtesy of Mike Rodgers
ATHLETE
Spotlight
MIKE RODGERS n His journey from high school football to professional sprinter.
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othing compares to the roar of the crowd in the stadium, as the best of the best speed past during the most anticipated race of a meet. For Mike Rodgers, these 100 meters of glory are his everything. The 36-year-old professional sprinter has a personal best of 9.85 seconds in the 100-meter dash. This record, which he locked in at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in 2011, is the 14th all-time best men’s 100-meter in the world. But this is not where his story begins. Even though he may not have always known it, Rodgers was born to run. For Rodgers, it all began on the high school football field. A varsity corner and wide receiver at the time for Berkeley High School (which is now McCluer SouthBerkeley High School) in Ferguson, Missouri, Rodgers thought football was the path he wanted to take. But others saw potential in a sport he didn’t even think about. It was his driver’s education teacher, Rod Staggs, who first introduced Rodgers to track and field. Staggs happened to also be the track coach at Rodgers’ high school. He had seen Rodgers on the football field and
JULY 2021
approached him about coming out for the track team. At first, Rodgers said no, but a very persistent Coach Staggs kept on asking. Eventually giving in, Rodgers joined the Berkeley track and field team his junior year of high school, competing in the 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter, 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay. “I was getting smoked in the open races in the beginning of the year,” Rodgers says. However, his coach kept encouraging him.“He was like, ‘You have so much potential if you just put forth a little effort.’” With Coach Staggs’ encouragement in mind, Rodgers began focusing on the open races right before that year’s district track meet. Once he did that, Rodgers excelled in the sport. That year he won the Missouri State Championship in the men’s 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter and the 4x400 relay. After high school, Rodgers briefly attended Iowa State University but soon transferred to a small school in St. Charles, Missouri called Lindenwood University, where his previous high school coach — Coach Staggs — had just gotten a job. After the transfer, Rodgers joined the track and basketball teams. Rodgers was excelling at both,
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