Zac Mendenhall running the last lap in a 4 x 800 m. race.

Zac Mendenhall is fast. Really fast. Fast enough to place 5th at the 2007 Wells Fargo Region Championships, with a time of 2:02.42 in the 800m.

Seem a little slow to you? Well, no fears, by now he's cut that time to around 1:58.00. Whoosh!

He sped by fast enough to get the attention of the Down Under Sports organization, which has invited him to represent Arizona while participating in the Australian Down Under Sports Tournaments.

Down Under Sports is run by International Sports Specialists, Inc. (ISSI). According to their site, was founded in 1989 and, "is based on the dreams of New Zealand native George O’Scanlon who fell in love with American football (gridiron) during his youth. His desire has been to promote gridiron to the people of New Zealand, as well as to Australia where he lived for many years and in doing so ISSI has had the opportunity to share the land Down Under with tens of thousands of individuals from across the United States. From the first Down Under Bowl in 1989, when four states produced a handful of teams, to 2007 when ISSI sent All-State athletes from almost all 50 states to participate in the Down Under Bowl and International Games, the goal has been the same; to use the common language of sports to bridge the continents."

Being chosen by Down Under Sports is indeed an honor. Athletes such as Jake Plummer, Ahman Green and Rob Morris have all participated in Down Under Sports events in the past.

Since 1989, other events have been added, including track. Which is where Zac comes in.

Zac, who is 18, was chosen because of his outstanding achievement in track, both as a member of the 2007 Wells Fargo Region Champion 4 x 800m relay team, and individually.

Last year, of course, Zac was a Junior at Prescott High School . This year, as a Senior, he is currently ranked in the top ten in Arizona's 4A-1 State rankings for the 400m and the 800m.

We caught up with Zac just before he was about to participate in a track meet against Independence High School. He interrupted his warmups to answer a few questions, like how did he get chosen, and what is he going to do?

Zac explains how he was chosen, "They take the list of members who have made it to state for more than one event, usually, and I made it for three last year, and won state in the 4 x 8, and came fourth in the 4 x 4 in state, so they take the list of state qualifiers and then they go from there."

Zac gives a quick rundown of the schedule, "We leave June 30th, I run in two meets down there. I'll be in Australia for 8 days, and I'm also going to be doing a lot of tourist attractions down there, just to benefit the trip of going down. The first meet is going to be international, the second meet is going to be kind of a state vs. state down there, and we're competing with everybody from the US and many of the eastern world, down there. After the eight days in Australia, we have four days in Hawaii, just as a second vacation for going down there and competing. It's going to be about a 12-day trip, I'm really looking forward to it."

At about that point, Zac glanced at the rest of the team, and realized that he had to go. "I'm pretty excited, definitely," he said quickly, as he ran to join the others, "and will give it my all!"

After he left, Zac's mom, Robin Olson, was there to fill in some of the finer details. At one time, Zac was a terrific soccer player, she confided. But, after a serious knee injury which required surgery, Zac found that while he could still run really fast, he had problems with lateral moves. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Zac decided to go out for track.

"He's broken school records here that were held for 21 years at Prescott High School, he's holding 9th fastest and 3rd fastest in school history for those relay teams," Olson said. "He was the only junior last year on the team, the others were unfortunately seniors, and have moved on. So, he's trying to put a team together this year, and have done quite well with that."

What about after Zac graduates? "He plans to go to Yavapai when he leaves here - actually, he already takes Yavapai classes now," Olson said. "But he'll leave here and go to Yavapai for at least a year and then transfer to NAU to become a teacher of some sort, maybe come back and teach some form of history class and do some coaching in this area."

Obviously, a trip like this costs a fair amount of money, and the family was not informed of his selection until the beginning of March, which makes raising nearly $4000 pretty challenging.

"We've raised almost $3000 - thank you to the Prescott Unified School District staff, especially the transportation department and maintenance - that's where I am employed," Olson said. "They have been tremendous. We're also having a yard sale this Saturday, the 12th, at Prescott High School. They're allowing us to use their lawn to do a yard sale for that. We've done car washes, and done lunches at work, where the staff there makes lunches and sells them. A great group of people that really want to get my kid [to Australia]... they've watched hiim grow up there, I started working there 16 years ago, so they've watched Zac grow up to be a nice young man and doing lots of good things."

Olson stopped a minute to express her appreciation, "I mainly want to thank everybody that has helped him reach his monetary goal." Then she looked a little anxious as she said, "If there's anybody - I'd love to find a sponsor for the last remaining thousand, but we'll raise it no matter what. The Prescott Unified, especially the transportation and maintenance department, they're pretty determined that he's going. So, we'll make the money, we have another month to raise it."

Olson explained that this is truly their home town, she's an alumni of Prescott High School, and is proud that her son will graduate here, too. But in the meantime, is she worried about him going across the world by himself?

"He's an independent, strong boy..." Then Olson confessed with a smile, "Yes, I'm worried as a mom, about him going all the way to Australia, but he's a good kid. It'll be fine."

Editor's note: If you would like to contribute to Zac's trip, please contact Robin Olson at 772.9179 or send an This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed