Learning How To Run
Margis makes transition from soccer to cross country
There’s an old sports phrase that often applies in life. “The ball is not always going to be hit to your forehand.” It basically means, things don’t always go as planned. Life is about making adjustments.
Although she’s not a tennis player, Hannah Margis understands this better than most her age.
“I used to live in Genoa, which is close to Texarkana. Whenever I lived there I played soccer,” said Margis. “There’s a lot of running in that sport. When I moved to Junction, at our school they don’t have soccer so I just kind of fell into track and cross country because I’d always ran track in junior high and middle school. It was just something I enjoyed, a sport they had that I was good at.
“It was difficult. I had to find a new sport but it’s worked out.”
Margis ran cross country as a senior for the Lady Dragons. She finished in the top 90 at the 3A State Cross Country Championships with a time of 27:37.50. She credited the coaching of former Lady Dragon, Shelbi Carpenter, who ran at Henderson State, for a rapid improvement in the sport.
“She took us under her wing. We’d meet before school at 5:30 in the morning and she would help us run before she had to go to work and before we had to go to school,” said Margis. “That really got us determined. One day we needed to do sprints and one day we needed to do distance. That’s something I didn’t know. There’s a lot of speed stuff in there, too, that I didn’t know until last year.”
For Margis, cross country was a learn-as-you-go project. Longlimbed at 5-foot-11, she might’ve done better with more training and competition.
“At Junction, I’ve been the only girl on the team for the past three years. It’s pretty fun. I have to run with the guys so it pushes me a lot harder. It’d be nice to have some
girls with me on the bus and stuff but it’s fun anyway,” she said. “This past year I recruited my best friend and another one of my friends. They ran a few meets but they didn’t stick with it through the whole season.”
Margis grew fond of cross country but it never replaced her first love.
“I did enjoy soccer quite a lot. I was pretty good at it. I just really loved the whole idea of the sport,” said Margis, who considered transferring to El Dorado when her family moved from Junction City.
“It would’ve been a difficult transition my senior year because every one has already got their friends. I had my friends in Junction, so. I really did think about it. I thought about it pretty seriously especially with all the AP classes and stuff that El Dorado offers. So, I thought about it for awhile but I just thought it would be better to stay at Junction.”
That’s not to say she’s completely given up the sport.
“For the past three years, I’ve spent a month in Nicaragua in the summer. Soccer in Central America is very popular. So, I get to play with the kids there. So, I guess last June is the last time I got to play soccer,” said Margis, who admitted the skill level is rather advanced in that part of the world.
“They’re intense. Even, like, 10-year-old boys, they’re running around and stealing the ball. I thought I was good until I played with them. That’s all they do down there. They just play soccer. Soccer and baseball is their thing.”
In cross country, Margis found a new thing for herself. Of course, academically, no adjustment was necessary. At Junction City, she sported a 3.9231 grade point average and was Senior Class President. She was also president of the student council and FBLA president.
“I enjoy leading people, I guess,” she said. “I don’t like to be bossy, though. During homecoming, we have to set up the whole homecoming parade – the scene for it. I had to learn to use my voice to tell people, ‘Get on this. You have to build this.’“
Margis moved to Junction City in the eighth grade. In short order, she earned the respect of her classmates.
“When I first moved to Junction, I wasn’t the president the first year I lived there. But then I was like, ‘I want to be president. I kind of want to do this.’ I put in my application and I was president every since ninth grade.”
What does that say about her personality?
“I’m pretty respected, I guess. I get along with, pretty much, everybody. It’s a small class but there is a lot of tension between groups. I guess I can fit in wherever I need to. I guess fitting in is the wrong word. Fitting in is like … blend in. I can talk to anybody. I just like to make everybody feel comfortable in their own skin.”
The oldest of five siblings, Margis has maintained her grades while working two jobs - at Walgreens and Planet Fitness. Working, she insists, was her own idea and not her parents.
“They’ve never told me I need to get a job. I enjoy not having to ask them for money. I have five siblings so I know they could put their money elsewhere. I’m trying to save for college because U-of-A is very expensive. I’m trying to save up for a car. I just enjoy making my own money. I don’t like to ask people for things,” she explained.
“I’ve found ways to balance work, sports and my grades. I try to keep those things up because I knew to get into a good college, I would have to maintain all of those things. I think I found a good balance.”
As she said, Margis will attend the University of Arkansas. She plans to study broadcast journalism.
“Hopefully, the next Diane Sawyer,” she said when asked where she sees herself in 10 years.
“I’ve always been interested in writing and that kind of thing. Last year I took a journalism class and I got to study the different types of journalism and how they affect people and how you get your voice out there. And then, Brittany (Williams, formerly a reporter for the El Dorado News-Times), she helped me publish an editorial I wrote about homelessness in the community. I really enjoyed doing that but in broadcast journalism I feel I could reach more people and do more, like, current events because it’s like a nightly thing.”
Margis became hooked into writing as a 10th grader while competing in the South Arkansas Community College’s Writers Ink contest.
“I wrote a poem and a short story. I placed in the poem and I was featured for the short story. That kind of fueled my love for writing and I got more into it, trying to find ways I could do something with that throughout my life,” she said. “I didn’t want to try to write a novel. Anytime I try to write fiction, it’s really difficult for me. I have a pretty big imagination but when it comes to putting it on paper, I just can’t do it. I got into the journalism class and tried writing editorials and I just love it.”
Margis admitted fiction isn’t her favorite writing category these days. She did dabble in the world of make believe when she was younger, though.
“When I was little, little, I was writing all those imaginary stories about different things,” said Margis, who described the first character she created.
“It was this girl named Millie the Mermaid. She was just a little mermaid. It was kind of an Ariel kind of story. She was just swimming in the ocean living her life. She had friends. It was just the little basic first grader story.
“What little girl doesn’t want to be a mermaid?”
Like her writing, her reading has evolved.
“I just like to read real stuff,” said Margis. “(Fiction) is fun at school but I’d rather read something real and informative. I think I get that from my dad, honestly. When I was little, I remember stacks of books of autobiographies and that kind of thing. So, I probably got that from him.”
The whole traveling-to-Nicaragua-every-summer-thing also came from her parents. She went, for the first time, with her parents for a week when she was 13. Since then, at age 14, 15 and 16, Margis spent a month each summer without her parents as an intern in Nicaragua.
“I was an intern with an organization, Voice of Hope. They have a Christian ministry down there. We also play with the kids and we build churches and homes,” she explained.
When asked if it was dangerous, she frowned.
“It hasn’t been until this past month. They’ve had some unrest with the government. So, there’s been a lot of fighting. But, up until this past year, it’s been a very safe place. We’ve been able to walk around downtown, just strolling down the street like we would in El Dorado.”
Will she go back this summer?
“I really want to but with all the unrest, I don’t know if it would be a good idea.”
Although she has yet to earn that broadcast journalism degree, the seeds have been planted. There’s a story and she wants to tell it.
“I want to be in the field. Like, Nicaragua, nobody is talking about the unrest that’s down there. I think it’s really important to be a journalist and, immediately go to the source and share the story,” said Margis, who shrugged when reminded of the danger.
“I don’t really get scared of things. I guess that’s kind of a personality flaw, really. My mom gets scared of that a lot because I just kind of jump into things and I’m all in, like, I don’t really think about the consequences.”
Kind of sounds like a young Diane Sawyer. Margis also has the look of a young person eager to attack the world. Life isn’t going to hit everything to her forehand and she wouldn’t have it any other way.