Maria Jo Williams Story

Just Another Runner’s Story May 2026 Written by Gale Fischer  

Somebody is Always Watching

“Having influence is not about elevating self, but about lifting others.”

—-Sheri Dew

All athletes have the potential to inspire and serve as role models. Running can offer the opportunity to lead by example in a way that is different from most sports. A daily routine of running is often on display for others to observe, not in an arena or on live television, but out on the streets and neighborhoods of our communities. Anyone who sees a runner out on the roads, including every driver or passenger in a car that passes a runner and every child playing on the playgrounds and in the yards surrounding the streets that a runner traverses, could be the next person who is inspired to embrace physical activity. It might be a one-time observation, or it could be a scenario of a driver seeing the same runner at the same time, Monday through Friday, on the same stretch of road as they make their daily commute home from work. One does not have to be a non-runner to draw on the motivation of other runners. As a long-time participant in running, I always take notice as I drive along roads, seeing individuals embracing our sport. I feel that every runner has an intriguing story that can uplift many. Positively influencing others might be something that we never think about as runners, but the impact we have on friends, family members, acquaintances, and complete strangers is real, even if we are completely unaware of it. Being a positive example is something that this month’s featured runner, Maria Jo Williams, loves about our sport.

Running has been a part of Maria Jo’s routine for much of her life. “I started running when I was about twelve years old,” she explained. “There was a 5K race in my hometown of Colon. I hadn’t trained and just decided to sign up. I finished in second place. This kind of hooked me.” Maria Jo continued running after this initial experience, with it becoming a big part of who she is. “I kept running on my own after this race, and later I joined my school’s cross-country team in 7th grade,” Maria Jo said. “I also joined my middle school track team in that same year. My events included the 800-meter open, 1600-meter run, and 3200-meter run.” 

Running became an important part of Maria Jo’s life almost immediately. “I loved it and was running year-round,” she added. “I would find local races to sign up for every summer. I continued with track and cross-country through high school.” Maria Jo attended Colon High School for her freshman and sophomore years before transitioning to Vicksburg High School to finish her high school and athletic career. She experienced success with her teammates while at Vicksburg. “We qualified for the state cross-country meet in my senior year at Vicksburg,” Maria Jo recalled. “We had an awesome team. At that time, cross-country was a 3-mile race. I was lucky not to have any major injuries in high school. My fastest race for cross country was 21 minutes.” 

Maria Jo graduated from Vicksburg High School in 1993. Her days as a student athlete may have been finished, but this didn’t keep her from enjoying running. “I continued to run on my own until I had my first child, Leslie, a few months later,” Maria Jo noted. “I started running again about five months after Leslie was born.”

Like many who have been running for years, Maria Jo has had to battle setbacks. “I have run consistently since starting back after Leslie was born, other than taking a year off to deal with a herniated disc in 2019,” she explained. “I had to do a lot of lifting for my job, which contributed to my back injury.” 

Maria Jo enjoys running on her own and what it does for her mentally and physically, but connecting with other runners is also something that keeps running exciting for her. “Through the years, I have run several 5K races, 10K races, and half-marathons. I have run one full marathon, the Sunburst Marathon in 2015,” Maria Jo said. “I’d like to try another someday. The local races provide opportunities to run with and interact with other members of the running community, and kind of help to keep me motivated. After all of these years, races still get me excited and give me the jitters. One of my most memorable races was a first-place overall finish for a 5K in Coldwater for the Branch County Coalition Against Domestic Violence race in 2018. This was very exciting for me. My favorite half-marathon was the Falling Waters Half Marathon near Jackson, which I ran in 2017. Through the years, I have done much of my running with others. I ran with a group from Branch County for many years until I moved to Battle Creek in 2023. I ran for a year on my own when I first moved to Battle Creek, before finding others to run with. I also had to take some time off when I first moved to Battle Creek because of my back.”

Maria Jo’s herniated disc has never fully healed. She talked about continuing to run while managing this injury. “For many years, I dealt with my back injury and was still able to run, but in the last few years, I have been receiving injections in my back every three months to reduce the pain. This has helped, but the doctors want me to have surgery on my back. I am scheduled for a surgery consultation in June.” Maria Jo wants to hold off on surgery as long as possible, but understands that it may be necessary one day.

Maria Jo always seems to find a way to keep running. She talked about what draws her to the sport. “I have run for almost 40 years. It’s really an addiction. Part of it is I want to hold on to that level of fitness. Running makes me feel strong and energized. Even when I struggle to breathe and my body hurts, I feel awesome. Running has always been enjoyable, even when I was a child and not doing it as a regular activity. I can remember the joy of running as a kid, when playing tag and other games on the playground with my classmates. I like to run the roads and trails, but also like to do speed work on the track. I prefer running in the morning. It feels better to start my day with a run.” 

Maria Jo feels happy to have played a part in the fitness journeys of some of her family members. “My daughter ran cross country in high school,” Maria Jo recalled. “It was awesome to watch her compete as a high school runner. My son would sometimes run with me when he was younger. As adults, they still run. My daughter is more consistent with her training, but my son doesn’t train much and just shows up to race. It is neat to see my kids enjoy an activity that I am passionate about. My husband and his sister don’t run but have started walking. They come with me to races and sign up to walk the 5Ks.” 

Maria Jo likes to get others involved in being active, not just her family. “I feel that as runners, we influence others who see us out on the roads running,”  she said. “I’m always striving to influence others to run and to be active.” 

Running can provide many positive outcomes for participants. As Maria Jo reminds us, the benefits that are received from running can extend to non-runners as well.

Everyone has a story.  Stay tuned next month for another runner’s story.

Dave Studer Story

 For the Love of the Game

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

—-Mark Anthony

A career of working with our youth can provide contentment and joy spread out over multiple decades. Even with the moments of fulfillment, teaching, coaching, and mentoring can be exhausting. For many in our profession, retirement planning begins as we near the thirty-year mark. The rewards are much appreciated, but there comes a time when a new chapter must be written, and a change of pace is needed. Harper Creek varsity wrestling coach Dave Studer has taken a unique approach in his career. He has almost doubled the thirty-year mark with Harper Creek. His love for his craft is what keeps him coming back year after year.

Dave is unique among our employees in many ways, but perhaps what sets him apart most from the rest of us is his age. At 82, he may have a few decades or more on most of us, but his years as a teacher and a coach have kept him young. He reflected on his childhood. “I was born in Port Huron, Michigan, in 1944, the second oldest of six siblings. We grew up in Port Huron, went to school in Port Huron School District, and graduated from Port Huron High School, which at that time was a three-year high school for 10th through 12th grade.”  

Dave was small in stature compared to the other athletes attending his high school, but he didn’t let this deter him from participating in sports. “I played football my sophomore year, but found a more suitable sport for me after this,” Dave said. “A friend of mine encouraged me to try out for wrestling. At this time, there were no divisions for high school wrestling in Michigan. We had a really solid team that competed with some of the state’s bigger schools. I had some very talented teammates who pushed me to be a better wrestler. They always dominated me during our practices, but this only helped me achieve success during our competitions. I went undefeated in our league, the Eastern Michigan League, for my entire three-year career.” Some of Dave’s high school teammates and coaches were successful in their sport beyond the high school level. “For my last two years, we had an excellent coach, Anthony Benito, who had wrestled at Bowling Green,”  Dave explained. “He was a small guy but tough, and he knew what he was doing. I had teammates who competed for Miami of Ohio, and another for Eastern Michigan. Two who graduated a year before me went to wrestle at Michigan.” Dave competed at the collegiate level after high school. “I wrestled in the 95-pound weight division in high school and was recruited by coaches from Western Michigan, U of M, and Eastern Michigan,” Dave noted. “I considered going to Michigan, but decided to go to WMU because I was unsure if I could handle the academics at Michigan.” Dave graduated from high school in 1962 and went to WMU to compete in the 123-pound weight division.

Dave was a dedicated athlete in high school, but he quickly found out that competing at the DI collegiate level required a higher level of commitment. “I found out in college that the coaches and team owned my time,” Dave explained. “Between off-season conditioning and the regular season, we were preparing for the competition year-round. We couldn’t even go home for Thanksgiving. The dorms were closed for the holiday weekend, but our coaches would find people we could stay with. When I was in college, the only athletes who used the weight room were the wrestlers and the track team's throwers. The football team never used the weight room. At that time, it was believed that bulking up would hurt the skill level required for football.” 

Dave enjoyed participating in athletics during his high school days and wanted to continue in this capacity as an adult. “Ultimately, I wanted a career as a coach,” he said. “I would coach Little League Baseball when I came back home from college each summer. When I enrolled at WMU, I decided to major in physical education and minor in health and psychology.” 

Dave finished at WMU in 1968 with everything completed except for student teaching. “I was working for the government in the Job Corps Division, so I decided not to do my student teaching,” Dave noted. “Harper Creek was looking for a fill-in wrestling coach in 1968 as the middle of the school year approached. The AD contacted my college coach for references, and he gave them my name. I received a call to come coach for Harper Creek. This was supposed to be temporary, but it turned into a lifetime career.” 

Because of the opportunity presented by Harper Creek, Dave was doing what he wanted to do. He was in his element. “I continued to coach and work for the Job Corps but eventually quit the Job Corps to do my student teaching in physical education at Harper Creek High School,” Dave recalled. “My first season as wrestling coach was a success. My athletes wanted to win but were kind of soft. I brought some of my Job Corps kids to practice with them to help build their mental toughness. Through the season, they learned to become tough. We won the regionals meet that year. It was exciting as a first-year coach. I can still remember the names of all of the kids on this first team. The development of each of them as wrestlers carried over to other sports.” 

After Dave took over as wrestling coach, Harper Creek administrators also wanted to hire him as a teacher. “After I began coaching, I did my student teaching in the physical education department at the high school,” Dave explained. “The next school year, I started my first teaching position, traveling between Beadle Lake, Sonoma, and Wattles as the district's first elementary PE teacher. Other job duties included running the 6th-grade camp for Beadle Lake.” Dave met his wife, Julianne, while working as Harper Creek’s district elementary PE teacher. Julianne was a sixth-grade teacher at Beadle Lake at the time. “Julianne was an outstanding teacher and has received several awards as a teacher,” Dave said. “We were married in Las Vegas in July of 1975. I have one daughter, Julie Ann Sims, and a son, David G. Studer, and Julie has a son, David R. Studer. We have four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.”

Wrestling has always been Dave’s passion, but he spent his teaching career coaching three sports seasons each year. “I was the JV football coach my first year of teaching. I coached football for about three years,” Dave shared. “I was also coaching boys' tennis in the spring. When Harper Creek added a girls’ tennis team for the fall, I quit football and started coaching girls’ tennis. I coached tennis up until I retired from teaching.” Dave enjoyed his role as boys and girls tennis coach and the success his teams experienced. “The last girls’ tennis team I coached had two girls receive full-ride scholarships,” Dave said. “Marie Cameron went to Grand Valley as their number one singles player all four years, and Nicky Schwarz attended Saginaw Valley, where she was their number one singles player all four years. In their senior year, they met at their college conference finals, where Nicky won.” Dave’s tennis teams won more regional championships through the years than his wrestling teams have won, with three for the boys’ program and two for the girls' program. “My last ten years of coaching tennis, the boys' team went to the state meet every year, and the girls went eight out of my last ten years,” he noted. “I had some success coaching tennis and really enjoyed it.” 

Dave started his tenure at Harper Creek as the district elementary PE teacher, but the bulk of his teaching career was spent at the secondary level. “After leaving the elementary schools, I split my time between the Middle School and High School, teaching physical education,” Dave explained. “Eventually, I was just teaching at the high school. I have also taught health and psychology. I taught weightlifting classes. I started the Bigger, Faster, Stronger Program at Harper Creek. For several years, I also taught gymnastics classes at the high school. Eventually, the equipment began to deteriorate and became unsafe. The district couldn’t afford to get new equipment, so gymnastics was dropped.” Dave is a firm believer that the skills involved in gymnastics are important for development in all sports. Through the years, he has incorporated the tumbling components of gymnastics into his wrestling practices.

For the bulk of his career, Dave’s schedule spilled over from the school day to evenings and weekends with athletic practices and competitions. He even took on a hobby beyond teaching and coaching that consumed much of his time. “I had always had a desire to raise cattle,” he explained. “Julianne and I owned a farm near Marshall, where I was able to raise a small number of cattle, but over time, this farm became too small. Eventually, we found a bigger farm near Albion and bought it. I still raise cattle today, but on a much smaller scale. For several years, I was teaching, coaching three sports seasons, and raising cattle.”

After more than three decades, Dave was ready for his life to slow down some, but not to go on full pause. “When I retired from teaching in 2001, I had spent about 35 years in this role,” Dave said. “I gave up coaching tennis, but still wanted to coach wrestling. I have seen over the years what wrestling and athletics can do for the development of kids. You are on your own on the mat, but you still have teammates. It gives me a sense of satisfaction to see young kids mature and graduate from high school and become active members of the community. I tell the kids that if they can wrestle, they can do anything in life. I’m grateful that I can still do this. I will be 82 in May. I know that coaching has kept me young. What I have noticed is that there is a community in wrestling. The kids compete on the mat, but they are a community off the mat.”

Like many coaches, Dave has witnessed the impact of his sport on future generations. Athletics teach our kids specific skills aligned to their sport, but the common thread for all sports is the life lessons that are learned that mold young athletes into productive adult workers, dedicated spouses, and loving, supportive parents. He has seen many of his former athletes come back to Harper Creek to make their mark on our community. This list includes Beadle Lake 2nd Grade teacher, Nicole Schwarz, one of Dave’s former tennis players. Former wrestlers for Dave who currently work for the district or have in the past include Joe Yurisich, who has served as teacher, administrator, and coach; Jim Robinson, who has coached and filled the role of maintenance supervisor for many years;  Larry Quick, who has been a teacher and coach for his alma mater since 1993, as well as Tony Evans and Joe Ramos who have come back to their home school to coach.

Dave’s passion for teaching and coaching has been the driving force for his years of dedication to Harper Creek, but there are other factors. “Next year will be my 60th year of coaching,” Dave shared. “I will keep doing it as long as I feel that I am making a difference for my athletes. My expectations for kids have never changed. I have had opportunities at both the high school and college level to leave, but I have always enjoyed it here and never really had any desire to pack my bags. I have had a lot of support from the administration, staff, and community here at Harper Creek.” 

Going to work each day is an integral part of life for most individuals in our society. If you hate your job, then your life will be one of misery. If your job does not bring you joy but is still tolerable, then your life can be manageable. If you are lucky enough to have a passion for your job and benefit from the joy that it brings you each day, then your life is blessed. Nearly 60 years into his career as a teacher and coach, it appears that Dave’s chronological age does not match his biological age. The joy that his job has given him is likely a major ingredient in Dave’s recipe for slowing the aging process. This joy has also kept him coming back every year for nearly six decades.