1/29/2024 0 Comments Grandview university footballYou can’t beat that, and that’s why you have six championships.”Īkinmoladun came from Tacoma, Wash. “And the culture that coach Dotson infused in his first and second year as a coach, it just permeated. ![]() ![]() “Once you create a strong culture, it’s very, very hard to kill,” Oladapo Akinmoladun said. They kept going until they accomplished something no other school in Missouri ever has: six straight state championships in track and field. Then they repeated the next year, the year after that, and the year after. ![]() The group did go back and win the whole thing the next year. “I remember, we were driving back with some new Drake on the radio, and I was like, ‘y’all we’re gonna come back and win this whole thing next year,” Dotson said as he stood on the Grandview track during the recent football game while surrounded by the now adult members of that team. Dotson could see the foundation building. There’s no official indoor high school track and field season in Missouri, but coach Dotson loaded the students in his car and drove them to Mizzou and KU to compete in indoor meets.ĭotson remembered leaving the state championship meet in 2010, driving a minivan with the state qualifiers as passengers after falling short of a state championship. I got here and I was like, these guys are athletes.”Īs soon as football season ended that year, they began training for track season and trying to raise money for the team. “They didn’t even know,” Dotson said of Grandview sprinters at the time. He saw the speed they had at the school and was amazed. He is still the current 100-meter record holder in Missouri in Class 3, with a time of 10.65 seconds.ĭotson had been coaching sprints at Bishop Hogan Academy and arrived at Grandview in 2010. “This was the mastermind, right here,” said Jaron Alexander pointing to Russell Dotson, who coached sprints at Grandview through the run of six straight state titles and later became head coach.Īlexander came from South Carolina for the induction ceremony. It would be carried on for six straight boys state championships, and nine total between boys and girls teams during a nine-year span. What they couldn’t have known at the time is the culture that they formed then was the beginning of a track dynasty at Grandview. Members of the 2011 track and field team reminisced on winning the state championship they won more than a decade ago now. Many of them traveled from around the United States to attend the event. The inductees were also honored during halftime at the first Grandview football game of the season. So was Steve Robertson, who served as Grandview’s Athletic Director from 2002 to 2019. ![]() Jaron Alexander, Oladapo Akinmoladun, and James White, from those legendary track and field teams were also inducted as individuals. As were both the 20 state champion track and field teams. The 1984 Grandview football team that went 11-2 and reached the state semifinals was inducted. Three teams and four individual Bulldogs were inducted into the Grandview Athletic Hall of Fame in an Aug.
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