St. Joe's Prep track star Miles Green has dominated the 400
The junior is the top-ranked Pennsylvania runner in the 400 and 400 hurdles
Owen McCue Kenroy Wallace pleaded with Miles Green's father to let him train his son in track.
Green, in fourth grade at the time, went to Wallace to train for football in 2007. But Wallace, who was about to start an AAU track club, thought Greenwould fare much better on the track.
"Miles was a lanky kid who just was athletic," Wallace said. "He hadn't quite grown into his body nor did he realize his potential. . . . I saw exactly what he would be now."
Green, now a junior at St. Joseph's Prep, has trained with Wallace ever since. Green runs for Wallace's AAU track club, the Athlete's Academy. Wallace works with Green as the sprints coach at St. Joe's Prep.
"It feels right at home," Green said of running for Wallace. "I've been doing AAU since fourth grade all the way up until now. Me going from that to high school, it just felt like I was in my own backyard again."
Green was the lone sophomore to medal in the 400-meter at last year's PIAA championships. He ran the race in 48.19 seconds to finish fourth.
He is the top-ranked Pennsylvania runner in the 400, which he ran in 48.13 to place second at last week's New York Relays. He is also the state's top runner in the 400 hurdles, which he said is his best event. He ran a 53.43 at last week's New York Relays to finish second.
"He is just remarkable, his tenacity," St. Joe's Prep coach Curt Cockenberg said. "It is like a shark going after guppies or something. He is a guy that is not afraid to go up against the top athletes."
While Wallace said he always saw Green as having the most potential in the 400 and the hurdles, Green began his track career as a sprinter.
That changed in 2012, during the summer before Green was in seventh grade. With other members of the team qualifying for nationals in the sprints, Green needed to find another event, so he could qualify for the meet.
Wallace steered Green toward the hurdles.
"I embraced it and I started getting good at it," Green said.
Green eventually qualified for the AAU Junior Olympic Games, where he was seeded 59th out of 60 runners in the 200 hurdles. He finished 10th, just two places out of getting a medal and making the finals.
"At that point he cried and he said to me, he never wants to have that feeling again," Wallace said. "Since that point he's never looked back."
Green burst onto the scene as a freshman. In March 2014, Green won the freshmen 400 at the New Balance Indoor Nationals.
Later that season, Wallace persuaded Cockenberg to let Green anchor the Prep's 4x400 team, which placed fifth at states. He had the fastest split on the team.
"That's when I really started to get put on the map," Green said. "Beforehand, I knew I was good, but I didn't believe, really believe, I would be that good. I knew I was good and had some talent, but I think when I won the freshman 400 I knew this was the real deal. I found out what I can do now. I want to compete on the national level."
Green has enjoyed the familiarity with Wallace since arriving at St. Joseph's Prep. He is turning into the dominant runner Wallace once predicted when Green was just a long-legged fourth grader.
"We kind of continued what we started," Wallace said. "It has blossomed from there."