Matthew Edison leaves football behind, earns No. 5 spot on cross country team

Kokomo Perspective August 25, 2020

Western senior and former football player Matthew Edison decided to switch gears and join the cross country team for his final high school fall season.

Edison ran with his track-and-field teammates over the winter to prepare for the spring season. However, after the cancelation of spring sports due to COVID-19, he decided to try cross country with his track teammates and help the team with another strong year.

“Coming into senior year I kind of wanted to try something different. I had built some great relationships with some teammates in track … I decided that I wanted to try cross country. I would get to run with those same guys. They were very, very good last year, and I decided I wanted to see what we could do,” Edison said.

Going from football to cross country was a big adjustment for Edison, he said, after not waking up at 5 a.m. for hours of weight training and practicing in full equipment anymore. Although he still had to fight the heat of the summer, Edison said it has been a big change.

So far, Edison has loved running cross country and building better relationships with his teammates and coaches. Although he did not regret his decision, he said he still missed playing football.

“I love football. It’s always been my favorite sport. A lot of the teammates that I have from football. I still hang out with them in the hallways and stuff at school. I miss seeing them every day, but I also am just really excited to see what relationships I’m going to build during the cross season as well,” Edison said.

The Panthers won the first three meets of the season in the Clinton Prairie Invitational, Northwestern Combination, and Logansport Invitational.

Currently, Edison has been running about fifth on the team and has been consistently improving and earning a new PR each race. He was hopeful to continually close the gap between him and the top runners.

“I try not to be content with anything. I try to continue to push to new levels. I want to play my role on the team. So as long as I can get the best time that I can and kind of help

push the other guys to get those times too that they need to hit, then I’m doing my job,” Edison said.

Additionally, Edison set another goal for himself to beat his father’s (Doug Edison) high school cross country time of 17:12 at Northwestern.

As a team, Edison said the Panthers were hoping to take the conference title this season.

“In years past, they went into that meet thinking that they could win it, and it just hasn’t gone right. Something’s been off. Something’s been wrong. So with me being on the team and my new teammate Drew Caldwell who just transferred here from Blackford, hopefully we can kind of make that push to kind of takeover that conference title,” Edison said.

After conference, the team’s ultimate goal was to participate in the state meet. After earning a team spot in semi-state last season, the Western boys have been determined to take it a step further this year and make the experience a first for the school, according to Edison.

“They made semi-state last year, and it just wasn’t really good enough. We’ve never had a team at Western go to state for cross country … We wanted to make school history. I think that’s part of what really brought me on board was that goal of, ‘Hey, we’re going to go to state. We’re going to go to do this. We’re going to make some history at this school and leave our mark,’” Edison said.

The Panthers will run in the Eastbrook Invitational on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 9 a.m.