Kim Carson is one of the most storied names in the storied history of the girls’ track and field program at Roosevelt High School. She won enough state and Drake Relays titles as a hurdler, Class of 1992, to earn a scholarship at perennial collegiate powerhouse Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she became an NCAA champion in 1996. Later she traveled the world as a professional athlete, an exciting but fragile and all too finite career.
The girl whose life was measured in fractions of seconds grew into a woman who lives at an altogether different pace. But without breaking stride, this spring she completed a long lap in her life when she returned to coach at her alma mater.
We caught up with Carson recently, which is more than most of her rivals during an illustrious career were able to do.
She is a member of several athletic Halls of Fame including the Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union, Iowa Coaches Association, Drake Relays, LSU and, naturally, the one at Roosevelt.
Today she works as a Judicial Education Specialist for the Iowa Judicial Branch, helping to train court employees. Formerly, she worked as a juvenile court probation officer.
But first and foremost, Kim Carson is a true blue (and white) Roughrider.
When Patrick Lewis resigned his post as girls’ track coach at Roosevelt last year to become an assistant at Grand View University, Rider Activities Director Todd Gordon knew who he wanted for a replacement.
She was sitting in the stands.
Carson’s parents both had long DMPS careers in school nursing, Drivers Ed and PE teaching, and coaching. Home was the natural place for her when she stopped running. In distance events the start and finish lines are one and the same.
“Yeah, I’m around Roosevelt a lot,” Carson said. “I go to the football games. I’ve got extended family going to school here. I knew Todd and I like him.”
She didn’t come looking for the job. It came looking for her. Some recruiting was involved, but it didn’t take much.
“You know, for me team is the thing. It’s not about kids winning races all the time and finishing first. It’s about kids who show up and train and try and make progress and improve. That’s what matters to me.”
She is easing into her new role and more inclined to crack a joke than a whip. Last week before she sent the girls outdoors to loosen up, Carson gathered them in the gym to make plans for a team outing to a bowling alley. They haven’t known each other long, but a rapport and a foundation are established and growing. Most of the girls on the team know little about Carson’s glory days because she doesn’t talk about them. They happened before these girls were born.
She’d rather talk about kids than kudos.
“I love these girls,” Carson said. “They have welcomed me and we enjoy each other. They work hard and there is so much else in their lives besides just track.”
Another girl Carson especially loves is her daughter.
“Bailey is in 8th grade at Callanan. She runs track and plays volleyball and she’s going on the (annual DMPS) trip to Kofu (Japan) this summer,” Carson beams. Track, eh? Following her mother’s lead?
“No, she is not a hurdler.”
But in a way, she is. Bailey missed much of 3rd-6th grades while being treated for cancer. Now, here she comes, roaring back into the race.
Carson also has a 6-year-old foster son, Brendan, who’s been with her for a year. The way she tells it, he’s the one in the house who’s hard to keep up with, not her.
This doesn’t look to be a standout team by Roosevelt’s lofty standards. Poor weather hasn’t been conducive to outdoor training and development as the program transitions to a new coach. Plus, there’s the old athletic adage that you can’t coach speed. But Carson is just settling into the starting blocks. She’s working on plans for a community road race later in the year as a fundraiser for both the boys’ and girls’ track programs at Roosevelt, for instance.
“The Roosevelt community is so supportive,” she said. “There’s nothing better to be a part of.”
After many years as a frontrunner, this alum from the Class of ’92 is comfortable back in the middle of the Rider pack.
