Inductees

For the girls who ran cross country for Neosho High School in the early 1980s, running was just a way of life.

After all, their town in the far southwestern corner of the state had found its niche, with competitive running.

The NEMO Track Club was affiliated with the AAU, or Amateur Athletic Union. Ramping it up was the new high school coach, who challenged runners to join the 1,000-Mile Club in the offseason. And usually on Saturday mornings they met up at Camp Crowder over at the juco. And no one will ever forget Senior Hill and Cardiac Hill.

All of which led to the two most memorable seasons in program history, with the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proud to induct the Neosho High School Girls Cross Country’s 1983 & 1984 State Cross Country Teams.

Coached by Harry Lineberry (MSHOF 2022), the Lady Wildcats won Class 4 state championships both years, becoming the first in southwest Missouri to do so.

The 1983 team featured Deanna Cole Wood, Teresa Morehead Uhles, Tammy Townsend Holder, Dawn Davies Clark, Debbie Groh Haring and Becky Freund. They scored 64 points, 10 less than state runner-up Hazelwood Central. Townsend won the first of her two state titles (19:33), and Morehead placed sixth and Freund was seventh.

The 1984 team beat Lindbergh by 20 points (87-107), with everybody back from the year before – and added freshmen Amber Townsend Wong and Tracy Morehead Browning. Holder won state again, improving on her 1983 time by five seconds and beating a field of 146 other runners. Wong was 12th.

“I think, overall, our team showed that hard work and commitment pays off,” Tammy said. “None of us were extremely talented. We just worked hard and had fun doing it. Our ’83, ’84 seasons demonstrated what can happen when a coach knows how to train athletes, the parents back him, and the students are willing to put forth the effort and work hard.”

Most of the girls on the 1983 & 1984 teams had competed in grade school and junior high for the NEMO Track Club. Attending camps was big, too.

At one point, Holder was training with guys who were readying for the Boston Marathon. And Coach Harry Lineberry, hired in 1979, was on a membership drive for the 1,000-Mile Club. In essence, run 1,000 miles and earn a new pair of running shoes.

“We were very dedicated and, on most occasions, went above and beyond what coach asked us to do,” Teresa Morehead said.

Entering 1983, staying healthy was the focus more than winning state.

“During the season, Coach really watched us and could tell from our mile split recovery times (heart rate) when we weren’t rested,” Tammy said. “We were able to patch it together to get to state and then all ran well once we were there.”

Even better, the Lady Wildcats’ advantage was running on the hills of Neosho. Senior Hill stands not far from the high school. Cardiac Hill is out at the golf course, and was great for mile repeats. That helped at the hilly state course.

Best of all, Lineberry took the players to Wild Animal Safari east of Springfield as a reward after the 1984 title.

Eventually, Tammy signed with Oklahoma State but earned her degree from College of the Ozarks. She has taught at the collegiate level the past 25 years and is the Associated Professor of Agronomy and Director of Farms at C of O.

Teresa Morehead competed for Washington University, ran the Chicago Marathon in 1999 and has been a longtime elementary teacher in Kirkwood.

Becky, who earned degrees from several universities, was a special agent with the United States Secret Service for 20 years.

Amber ran on Johnson County (Kan.) Community College’s 1988 cross country team that placed third nationally, and was the 1993 NCAA Woman of the Year while at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She and her husband own Aloha Endodontics in California.

Deanna was a stay-at-home mom whose four children became Neosho runners, and she later earned a radiology degree from Missouri Southern.

Tracy is a licensed architect who works for JE Dunn Construction. Debbie was an assistant basketball coach at Maryville University and has worked for Thermofisher Scientific the past 15 years. Dawn is a nurse practitioner in Monterrey, Calif.

“Looking back, I think a lot of life lessons were learned by all of us,” Tammy said. “I think we all learned that we can push ourselves to endure more than we thought we could.”