by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
Joshua Justice Dick is a track and field athlete at the University of Oklahoma. He specializes in the 800 and the mile.
Joshua was part of the Men’s Big 12 All Conference Indoors Distance Medley Relay (DMR) Team. Four runners compete in legs of 1200, 400, 800, and 1600 meters, respectively. He was also named to the Academic All-Big 12 Second Team Men’s Cross Country last fall of 2019.
Joshua competed in the Big 12 Indoor Meet last weekend. The team placed fourth and his
DMR team placed eighth. Now is a transition period from the indoors to the outdoors season. “I take a handful of days off because my indoor season is over and I need to let my body recover and heal form the season,” said Joshua. “Then I start gearing back up for the outdoor season!”
“I ran 1:52.37 in the 800m this past indoor season and my goal is to break the 1:50 mark in the outdoors,” added Joshua.
Joshua graduated from Tahlequah HS, OK in 2018. He was on the State Champion Two Mile Relay Team.
Joshua is Cherokee from Tahlequah, OK. His parents are David and Renita Dick.
“My parents have been a huge part in influencing me with my athletic career,” said Joshua. “They never pushed hard at my sport but they taught me the value of hard work and the benefits it will provide me in whatever I do in life. With that knowledge I translated that to my training and decided to work at my sport and become the best version of me I could possible be.”
“Joshua has been a leader of his life,” said mom Renita Dick. “He is humble and likable and his teammates looked up to him. He received the Most Valuable Runner award every year voted by his teammates.”
“In the spring of 2017, one week prior to the State Track Meet was the Regional Track Meet in Tahlequah, OK. The meet started at 9 am, with the Two Mile relay race being the first event. At 9:25 am, the team heard that one of their teammates on the track team had committed suicide and they found him that morning. Nathaniel, who ran the third leg on the relay team, was that guy’s best friend. Nathaniel did not want to run the rest of the day, nor the following week. Joshua knew they needed him in order to be State Champions. Nathaniel went to Joshua and told him that he could not run in the State Meet. He was just too upset. Joshua told him that he understood how he felt, but had one question for him,” added Renita.
“What would Isaiah want you to do? He would be with you the entire race,” said Renita what Joshua told his teammate.
“Nathaniel changed his mind, and the team became the State Champion in the Two Mile Relay in the spring of 2017,” said Renita.
“At a meet in Arkansas, the head coach was introduced to me,” said Renita. “He told me that Joshua was different. He was well liked by all divisions in track: the sprinters, jumpers, throwers, and long distance people. They all loved hanging out with Joshua and they all get along with him. That is very unusual because for example, the jumpers hang with the jumpers, sprinters hang with the sprinters, etc…”
“Another person that has truly helped me take my running to the next level is Clay Mayes,” said Joshua. “He helped coach and train me my senior year of high school. He always made the struggles in life seem so simple and easy to overcome. His training also taught me that the steady and consistent person always ends up shining in the long run and to not stress for short-term results. Stay confident and just run, ‘if it’s hard make it easy, if it’s easy make it easier’. This is a quote he would say often through difficult interval sessions but it is also something that I carry with me through my day-to-day struggles of life as a college student. He is a man that helped me, some small town kid kick-start his life into living a dream.”
Clay Mayes was the coach of Joshua at Tahlequah HS, OK. “I met Joshua over the summer of 2017,” said Clay Mayes, currently the head cross country coach at the University of Antelope Valley (CA). “The young man approached me for a training program. If Joshua did not ask me for help, he would have found some way to be successful regardless. The young man knows he wants to be successful, with time, and persistence, nothing will stand in his way as he does that at the collegiate level.”
“Previously to helping coach Joshua, I had a handful of high school athletes I coached for free. So, I was always cautious with who I coached. For my wife’s insanity, and my own, it was a process on who to coach, and who earned that time of day. Bearing that, I also wanted to make sure Joshua could contribute to his community with his future success as a premier athlete and spokesman for his community,” added Clay.
“I had one requirement and it was for Josh to write an essay on why he felt he needed to be successful as a runner,” said Clay. “Being detail-oriented, Joshua did so quickly, and diligently.”
“Lo’ and behold, by month seven into the training program, Joshua led the state with an indoor 4.19 mile (4.17 1600m equivalent) from Pitt State’s meet. Not only did Joshua lead the state, but he was beating top competitors with ease, like taking down Missouri’s best in an 800m for his fourth event of the day with a speedy 1.55 800m at one premier outdoor track meet.”
“Like Joshua did at the high school level, it’s only a matter of time before he transitions into a top collegiate runner. I can’t think of a better person to represent the native community, and the community of Tahlequah than Joshua himself,” added Clay.
“I’m just some small town kid who grew up in the country, living in a football-glorified town and culture,” said Joshua. “I ‘chose the wrong sport’ according to some people, but in my eyes running is what I love and I believe that distance running teaches me more about myself than any other sport out there. In a town full of peers who glorified alcohol and marijuana I stayed away from it because I knew the dreams and goals I had as a teenager in high school. It felt as if nobody else could see what I did.”
“That all changed when I met Clay Mayes. I sought him out and asked for his help in taking my running to the next level and thank God he said yes. I think we clicked from the start and it made training and living a healthy lifestyle that much easier. With this path I took I was able to receive multiple athletic scholarships from across the nation and make it out of a small town where most kids in high school stayed.”
“Now I’m traveling the nation representing my home state of Oklahoma while running track,” said Joshua. “I believe that my sense of belief in myself and pure will to not give up or give in to temptation is what got me to where I am today. Competing in my first Big 12 Championship was amazing and is something most people might only dream of and I don’t ever want to take it for granted.”
“I give advice to other student-athletes like myself to never give up,” said Joshua. “Yeah it’s hard! Its not easy taking the road less traveled, and when doing this you will be out-casted from ‘the cool kids’ and start being left out of certain activities but you have to realize that it’s for the best. So don’t give up because you are fighting for something more than just yourself, and whether you know it or not, somebody is watching, somebody is hoping to see you fail, and somebody is watching because you might inspire them to be not just a better athlete but a better human. Eyes are on you so let your light shine with everything you’ve got and be the real you!”
“Joshua is always striving to be better, both in running and in life itself,” said Renita. “He surrounds himself with successful, good leaders, which has taught him how to be a good leader.”
“He analyzes his thoughts and focuses on how to achieve his goals,” said Renita. “His leadership skills have made him to be the person he is today. Nothing is good enough and he wants to be better. Running in the Olympics is his ultimate goal! I believe we will see him there!”
Photo Credit: OU Sooners Athletics
