Maloney just keeps getting faster for Oley Valley High School
In the Maloney family, running is something that the whole family enjoys. Father Dave was a track star at Boyertown High School in the mid to late 70’s. His daughters, Caitlyn and Stephanie, both ran ,so it’s no surprise that their younger brother David, a sophomore at Oley Valley High School, joined the track and cross country teams when he was 14 years old.
“I grew up around that, so I wanted to try it out when I got older,’ said Maloney.
With there being an age difference between David and his sisters, he really doesn’t feel like he’s in their shadow.
“I feel that would be totally different if we were closer together,’ said Maloney. “That would come up only if a lot if people knew that there was another Maloney. His sisters don’t really give him much in the way of advice, but when they do, they tell him to put his head into it. the mental part is the biggest part of running. They also tell him to keep pushing himself, especially when he wants to give up.
Taking advice from his father isn’t really that difficult because he knows what he’s talking about.
“I feel comfortable with it because when I do take that advice, it always turns out that he’s right,’ said Maloney. “He prepares me a lot about thinking about the race before it happens. Or while during the race, thinking about different tactics I can use.’
“You know that he has the support from his family, his sisters, everything,’ said Oley head coach Dan Schaefer. “Over the summer you know that he’s going to train because his family is into running.’
Coach Schaeffer knew that David had potential since middle school.
“He’s a good runner and the reason why he’s doing well this year is because he got stronger from last year,’ said Schaeffer. “He’s had a solid sophomore year because he’s been training all year long. It’s paid off this fall. His times have been dropping from his first race this year.
During his sophomore campaign, Maloney broke the school record for cross country (18:55) with a time of 18:40. Then a week later, he broke that record again with a time of 18:32.
“I was pretty excited about that,’ said Maloney. “It was great just knowing that if I would have raced against those guys from Oley last year, or the year before, that I would have been ahead of them. I’m hoping that I’ll break the school record this year.’
David wasn’t really that surprised that he broke the record. That was exactly what he was aiming to do. Before he finished the race, he looked up at the timer with 100 meters to go and saw that he was under that time and knew he had to be in order to break the record. According to David, he stepped it up at the end of the race because he knew the record was very possible.
“I’m looking forward to the next two years. if I keep this up, and keep workin hard, who knows what will happen,’ said Maloney.
Maloney’s improvement over time has been remarkable. His best time as a freshman was 18:05. He had a time of 17:40 this year, and he’s kept dropping his time in every race, depending on the course. At a meet at Wilson Maloney recalls the course being fast. But he was sick and thought that he did poorly. But he looked up and saw he had a time of 17:01.
“I was really shocked by that,’ said Maloney.
“What I think about the most is that I found something that I’m good at, and I put all my heart into it. I might have natural ability , but natural ability can only get you so far. What gets you further is practicing more and talking to your coach about things. My coach (Dan Schaeffer) helped me a lot, telling me where I should finish, and who I should run with from the other team.
Maloney was sick at the time of the Berks County Championship meet, still, he finished 20th to medal, and qualified for the district meet on Tuesday (October 21) at Hershey. David was disappointed with his performance (17:50) and felt that his time could have been better.
Schaefer knows that he’s a very fast runner, so the advice he gives Maloney is to stay out in the front part of the race ,and then to stay there.
“If you want to medal, or do anything, you have to be at the front part of the race,’ said Coach Schaeffer. “David has that ability, along with phenomenal finishing speed, to pass runnners like he did at counties, going from 23rd going into the last 400 meters, and he passed three kids at the end. ”
is goal for district isn’t so much to get a good time, but his coach has been telling him to start out fast and to stay in the top 15. The top 15 runners are guaranteed a spot in the state meet. “I really badly want to go to states as a sophomore,’ said Maloney. “I think that I have the ability too and I don’t want to look back once I graduate high school and doubt myself or think that I could have done better. I just want to try my best and go for it.’
Schafer felt that Maloney has a very good chance to medal at the district meet, and qualfiy for states.
“I’m excited for the years to come,’ said Maloney. I want to keep up my work with my running during the summer. I would like to see my team go to states in the future as a team. That would be exciting.’
Coach Schaefer knows that the future, not only for Maloney, but for the boys cross country program at Oley, is very bright for the next several years.
“We have a lot of upcoming young talent,’ said Schafer. “They just have to work hard and put the miles in this summer and it will pay off in the fall.’
