Bumgarner finds success, passion while running away with state titles
Sitting at home using the family computer one night three years ago, Ben Bumgarner shared a moment with his father that he will never forget.
Scrolling through an extensive list on the PennTrackXC.com website, Bumgarner remembers, when he stopped scrolling to admire his name.
Months earlier, it was about his name being left off a list – the Waynesburg eighth-grade basketball team roster – that led him to searching on the computer to see where his name fell on this list of ranked freshman runners throughout the state.
“I just asked him what I did wrong,” Bumgarner recalled saying to the coach after found out he wasn’t going to put on a red and black Raiders basketball uniform during the winter.
“I’ve done every sport out there but have never been a guy who went after the goals or did all the scoring. I don’t know if it was some kind of fear, but whenever I had an opportunity on the basketball court I always passed it up.”
After scrolling through more than 450 names, Bumgarner looked to his father when his name finally appeared on the computer screen.
The eyes didn’t tell a story of being No. 400-and-whatever. They told a tale of an athlete who was proud of cracking the top 500. It was all the motivation Bumgarner needed this time.
“I’ve never been that good at anything sports related,” Bumgarner said. “One day after my freshman season, my teammate, Drew McConville, approached me and asked if I would be interested in participating in an indoor track club with him. I would’ve probably never have done it but I went home and talked to my parents. It’s one of the best things that could have ever happened because I truly found a sport that I’m passionate about.”
Bumgarner’s passion, dedication and appreciation of running enabled him to make huge strides, from a kid looking to lose some weight in his freshman year to the overwhelming emotions that surfaced in the final stretches of state championships where he had to look behind him to find the closest competition.
Winning the PIAA Class AA cross country state title by more than 12 seconds last fall and also capturing gold in the 3,200-meter run at the Track and Field Championships in Shippensburg this spring, the latter capping an unforgettable senior year, earned Bumgarner the Observer-Reporter Boys Athlete of the Year Award.
“Coming down the home stretches and seeing the crowd ahead and not many in sight behind me was unbelievable,” said Bumgarner, a Penn State recruit. “It is truly amazing to think that something I eventually began to dream about actually happened.”
Dreams started to become reality when Bumgarner, with permission from his parents, accepted McConville’s invitation to become a part of the West Virginia Flyers Indoor Track Club. It was an opportunity to work throughout the winter and meet someone who would change his life.
Justin Simpson, co-owner of the indoor track club and a three-time West Virginia state champion in the early 2000s, saw something special in the Greene County resident.
“We can see where kids are going to excel,” Simpson said. “That comes with having a spark or just being extremely talented. I didn’t see the talent at first, but his work ethic was unbelievable. The thing with Ben is when he is into something, he takes to it 100 percent.”
It wasn’t just long Sunday runs – 12 to 14 miles – that Bumgarner finished without struggling.
It wasn’t about keeping a seven-minute pace on those runs with state champions from West Virginia and Maryland. Bumgarner didn’t have a problem keeping up.
“It was all the ancillary stuff that you have to do,” Simpson said. “A lot of freshmen and sophomores will do some of the additional stuff but not all of it. Ben immediately did all of it. He was eating right. He was sleeping right. He was taking care of his body. And he wanted to know why he was doing each and every thing that he was doing. He wasn’t just taking what I said and doing it blindly. You could see at a young age that he wanted to become better at the sport.”
Bumgarner’s devotion never ceased. He continued to average running 70 miles per week while racking up first-place finishes in both cross country and track & field.
Not only did Simpson, who was hired as the head track and field coach at West Liberty University in January, help with the day-to-day task of turning that experimental freshman looking to try something new into a state champion, he helped Bumgarner through the recruiting process that ultimately ended with Penn State.
“It’s just been beyond valuable to have him as a resource,” Bumgarner said. “Any doubts I’ve had about myself, and I’ve had plenty over these last three years, he has helped me make it through them. There were points where you don’t feel like doing it and it’s hard because you aren’t going to see immediate success. Running is my passion in life.”
From leg injuries as an undeclassman that sidelined him for weeks to heartbreaking finishes when he was on the second-place end, Simpson strategized, regrouped and prepared for his ultimate goal – being called a state champion.
“We set a goal for cross country pretty early,” Simpson said. “He came up over that hill and was clear of the field. I never get emotional but I could see a direct shot of the entire final straightaway. I was with his parents. Seeing Ben leave out a lot of emotion in the last 50 meters is something I’ll never forget. When you are a state champion in Pennsylvania it really is something special. There are so many good runners throughout the state. I’ve coached a lot of champions, but never from Pennsylvania and nobody who wanted it as much as Ben.”