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player ready...It was the kind of news Billy Bund didn’t want to hear. The worst kind of news to anyone who practically lives and breathes running.
Sit and do nothing.
“Today’s my last day of being on active rest for 10 days,” said Bund, who recently graduated from Lake Forest High School. “I’ve been trying to sleep, which I need to work on. Trying to give my mind and body a break. After today I get to start training again.
“It’s kind of driving me nuts, but I know that if coach told me to do that, I know it’s best. He’s a genius. I’m doing whatever he says.”
The genius in question is Michigan assistant track and field coach and distance guru Alex Gibby, who saw enough in Bund that the Wolverines have given him a scholarship to run track and cross country in Ann Arbor this fall. Not too shabby for a relative newcomer to the sports.
After playing football and baseball as a freshman, Bund was coaxed into trying out for cross country. The rest, as they say, was history. Bund became one of the school’s most successful runners completing a solid high school career with a fifth place finish in the 1,600-meter run (4:14.84) at the state track meet this spring.
“Once I set foot on the track, it became how I connect to the world in a way,” said Bund. “It fits me well. I had no idea it would lead to something. I just wanted to be like the guys I looked up to. But I had a lot of great help from coaches and teammates. It just happened.”
Success came almost immediately or Bund. But it may have been the way he handled adversity that made him so attractive to Michigan coaches. A stress fracture in his left foot caused him to miss two months of his final track season. Still, he was able to clock a 4:20.27 in the 1,600 at the sectional meet to earn a berth at the state meet.
He would shave nearly six seconds off that time a week later at state, and combined with a fifth place finish in the state cross country meet (in a school record 14:17), took home all state honors in two sports in the same year. And that was after missing several weeks early in the cross country season due to a nagging hip injury.
Bund has realistic expectations heading to Michigan in the fall. He’s not sure how he will fit in with the team or even what races he will take part in once spring arrives. He does know that he fits the mold of a scholar athlete and has the 31 ACT to prove it.
“I’m a person who likes a challenge,” said Bund. “I feel like Michigan, with the guys on the team and the coach and the program put me in the best position to succeed. I can’t wait to be developed into the student athlete they’re helping to create.
“My plan is to give it my best. The only thing you can control is the effort you put into something. I’ll do everything I can and see what happens from there.”