TicketsDec. 8, 2010
This is the first in a series profiling the 2010 James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame class. First up is a look at current USA Track and Field standout David Payne.
By Dave Malaska
GoBEARCATS.com
Life is good for David Payne. The former Bearcat track star, now a star on the world track and field stage, was inducted into UC's James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in October. He's healthy, and gearing up for a whirlwind two years with next summer's IAFF World Championships in Korea with an eye on Olympic gold in the 2012 Olympiad in London. After a couple of years globetrotting, competing at sites as far-flung as Rio de Janeiro to Osaka, Japan and Beijing, he's settled into his new home near the Virginia shore.
But most of all, he's enjoying being wrapped around the little finger of Kaili, his year-and-a-half-old daughter.
Just six years after leaving UC, the local product is enjoying his life.
"I'm in a great place in my life. I've got my family, I've had some success. I've got the world championships coming up, then the Olympics, to focus on," says Payne from his Hampton, Va., home. "I've got a lot to be happy about."
At times, when he thinks about it, his life is almost hard to believe.
Back in the summer of 2001, Olympic titles were far from the mind of the recent Wyoming High School grad. Though he was a star track athlete and football player at Wyoming, not many colleges were calling with scholarship offers. Payne knew college was in his future, he just never thought that future included UC.
"I thought I wanted to go to an out-of-state school," he admits.
His mother, Cynthia Batte, however, convinced him to become a Bearcat.
He spent the next year working on getting his grades up, with occasional visits to UC track and field coach Bill Schnier's office.
"I didn't want him to forget me," says Payne. "I kept telling him that I was going to join the team and win conference titles."
Schnier didn't need reminding. He saw him run in high school, and was impressed. He also remembers Payne's first visit, with his mother in tow.
"I guess what I was telling them was getting them excited," says Schnier. "Cynthia was young and still in good shape, and she started talking about joining the team, too. She was pretty enthused about being on the team with her son."
"David, I think, was a little less enthused about it," he laughs.
Payne walked on to the team as a sophomore, and his promises of titles soon proved prophetic.
Three months after joining the squad, he ran away with the 110- and 400-meter hurdles title at the Southern Ohio Cup. By the time he left Clifton, he added three individual Conference USA titles, earned C-USA Outdoor Athlete of the Year honors to his resume and was named an All-American twice.
And he was just getting started.
He made a splash at the 2007 Pan American Games, taking the bronze medal in Rio, then got a late call-up to Team USA for the world championships in Osaka later that year when teammate and American record-holder Dominique Arnold was a late scratch because of an injury. Jet-lagged, arriving in Japan less than 24 hours before the race, Payne was soon the talk of track circles by posting a then-world-best time of 13.02 en route to taking the 110 hurdles bronze and a spot on the Olympic squad for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
There, Payne's ascent to world track stardom continued with his silver medal performance. He followed that up by winning the USATF national title in 2009 and another bronze at the World Championships in Berlin just months later. It's been like a dream, Payne says.
"I don't think I really ever thought I'd make it to the World Championships or the Olympics," he admits. "You know, you have goals that you set out for yourself, but you never know how realistic they are no matter how many people tell you how good you are."
"I guess I just got good at making it happen when it counted," he adds. Schnier explains that is just one piece of the puzzle.
"To go from high school to second in the world is quite a step. There's no question that David really thrived at UC. I saw him run in high school and there was no question about his ability," says Schnier.
But Payne's determination has played a larger part in his success, the coach adds. He showed it by first getting the grades to join the team, and by continuing to become a "pretty good student" by the time he left UC, according to Schnier. He also showed it in coming up big at the right times.
"David has a lot of traits that make him special," the coach says. "One of many is, it seems like the bigger the meet, the better he does. He's very focused in competition and rises to the level of competition. They call him 'Mr. Clutch,' now" he adds.
Another one of those traits: Loyalty.
Payne returned to train at UC in 2008, and has been in constant touch with his former coach and teammates.
"He's a very loyal Bearcat. Whenever he can say kind things about us, he does. Whenever he can encourage our athletes or help in any way, he does," says Schnier. According to Payne, that loyalty is natural.
"Most of the reason I've had the success I have is because of Coach Schnier and the university," says Payne. "From learning how to train to learning what it is to work hard, I owe a lot to UC. I trained there in 2008 and 2009. I also worked with Mary and Chris Wineberg, who were teammates of mine, who now coach there. There are so many people there at UC who I'm close to. We're like a big family." In fact, as he continues to dote on his daughter, Kaili, he imagines her one day running for the Bearcats.
"Mary and Chris' daughter is a couple months older than Kaili and we joke that they've got their scholarships all locked up," he laughs. "We should be getting that scholarship in the mail when she turns 17."