REIGNITE RUNNING Edmond couple hopes to spark track in schools
Don and Shellie Greiner know they will never fully understand why.
Why their son Simon experimented with drugs with some buddies two years ago. Why a hallucinogen triggered in him what experts term a substance-induced psychosis. Why he took his own life only three months later.
The Greiners have spent a year and a half trying to make sense of what happened to their Simon, an All-City runner at Edmond Memorial High School, then an AllAmerican at Tulsa.
They have been trying to make sense of what comes next, too.
“One of things that something like this does for you, it makes you realize you’ve got only so many days, weeks, months and years,” Don said.
“We don’t know what tomorrow brings,” Shellie added.
Don nodded. “Let’s get after it,” he said.
Out of that embraceevery-moment mentality came the Simon Greiner Track and Field Program, a flame that the Greiners hope will reignite the sport in Oklahoma City Public Schools. On the weekend high school track is at its height -the two biggest classes are at regionals while the four smallest are at state -- there is evidence their efforts are paying off.
Kids will be competing because of the Greiner Program.
They believe Simon would love what is happening.
The second of Don and Shellie’s three children was a free spirit from the start. He entered the world smiling, and when he started running, it only added to that happiness. He loved being on the track with his friends. He relished pushing his body beyond its limits.
Still, he never took running seriously. He was as likely to befriend
his competitors as beat them.
But beat many of them, he did. Simon was undefeated on the track his senior year of high school, then earned All-American status by his sophomore year of college.
He remained a free spirit, though, sometimes walking around campus barefoot. What clothes he had, he bought at second-hand stores, and at one point, he decided to live in his car for a week just to see what it was like.
“He had this interest in people who were of limited means,” Don said.
So it was that Simon started volunteering at an urban public school in Tulsa. He had wanted to go to medical school, but after shadowing a few professionals, he realized that wasn’t for him. But working with kids? He loved that.
Those who knew him best believe he was figuring out what he wanted to do with his life.
But late in his senior year at Tulsa -- an injury had forced him to give up running -- Simon and some buddies decided to experiment with a natural hallucinogenic.
His parents say he was never the same.
Don and Shellie have since learned that some people have a brain chemistry that flips like a switch when certain drugs are introduced. For Simon, the drug he tried in the spring of 2016 caused a psychosis that affected his mood, his behavior, his personality. Worst of all, it made him suicidal.
On Oct. 3, 2016, he killed himself.
Amid the emotional fog of the days that followed, Shellie realized that some family and friends might want to make a donation in Simon’s name. She and Don had long been involved with Fields & Futures -- the non-profit renovating athletic fields in Oklahoma City Public Schools was founded by fellow Putnam North alum Tim McLaughlin -- so they started a fund for running shoes for kids in need.
The response was so great that the Greiners decided to do more. They asked Fields & Futures to manage the program, then added partnerships with Cleats 4 Kids, the non-profit providing athletic equipment for kids in need, and Red Coyote, the Oklahoma City-based running store. They wouldn’t just provide shoes for athletes. They would help with stipends for assistant coaches, the cost of training for all coaches, and the fees and costs for special events.
The Greiner Program launched last fall with the cross country teams at U.S. Grant, John Marshall and Northwest Classen. Even though the sample size is small, the results have already been positive.
At U.S. Grant, for example, participation was up last fall to 44 runners from 26 the year before. The retention rate for both boys and girls teams was above 75 percent.
Neither was higher than 66 percent the season before.
U.S. Grant coach Tim McCoy said the Greiner Program changed things.
“It honestly gave us hope to have an actual program,” McCoy said in his season-end report. “Usually, I am in fear of where we will be allowed to race, if we were going to have enough money to feed our kids each meet, who will be coaching next year with me, and the worst was worrying if they were going to cancel our program.”
Yes, the Greiner Program provides shoes, funds and support.
But really, they give stability.
That’s what Don and Shellie Greiner hope to do at more schools in the coming years. They want to expand the reach of their program to help more kids have more opportunities.
“Life puts you in different situations,” Don said. “What are you going to do with them?”
They decided to try to make something good out of the worst thing that’s ever happened to them. They believe this is what they’re supposed to be doing with their tomorrows.
“It feels like the right thing to do,” Shellie said. “We’re going to see what we can do with it, and right now, it feels like we can do a lot.”