Colleges

Confident is an understatement

Walter Dix's quiet ways mask the FSU sprinter's very certain approach on the track.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published May 27, 2005

Florida State freshman Walter Dix might have been a bit awestruck as he settled into the starting blocks and glanced at his competition and his surroundings.

The 100-meter invitational at the prestigious Texas Relays on April 9 had drawn a largely professional field. Of the six collegians, he was the youngest at 19 and, perhaps even more important, the greenest.

Then he saw Oklahoma junior DaBryan Blanton, the NCAA indoor champion in the 60-meter dash, bring the crowd of more than 22,000 at Mike A. Myers Stadium to its feet with a blazing 10.07 wind-aided time.

A tough act to follow on this stage for your typical youngster.

Well, not if you're Walter Dix.

"I had prepared myself physically to run a good time and I felt the sky was the limit," he said. "Halfway into the race, I'm staying with the professionals and I thought I had more left. Then I pulled away from them and when I crossed the finish line, I knew I'd run a good time."

Good? Try 9.96.

That's merely the fastest 100 in the world under any conditions this year. While the brisk tailwind meant the time would not count toward automatic NCAA qualification or for consideration in the school record book, those marks would come soon enough.

He enters the NCAA East Region track and field championships in New York today and Saturday as the favorite in the 100 meters (10.12) and 200 meters (20.41).

His qualifying 100 time is tops in the region, tied for third in the nation and second in FSU history. His 200 also is first in the region, sixth nationally and fourth in the school's record book. He is expected to run the third leg of FSU's 4x100 relay team, ranked second in the region behind Florida's quartet.

"And Walt is only going to get faster," coach Bob Braman said. "A lot faster."

As it is, you don't need much more time than it takes to hang up on a phone solicitor to recognize that Dix isn't your typical sprinter.

His father, Washington, is a former track athlete and high school coach in Broward County. For Walter, track was more than a mere diversion before the start of football. (He didn't get into football until he got to Coral Springs High.)

"I was always around the sport, going to track meets, and I fell in love with the sport watching it," he said.

That has given him an old-school appreciation for track and an old-school approach to to the sport.

He doesn't perform to the crowd after a winning performance, rejecting actions such as chest-thumping so commonplace these days by sprinters who try to taunt their rivals. Hundredths of a second separate first place from also-ran.

"The ones I've seen do that, most of them don't last long at the top," he said. "The best ones, like Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, they never did that kind of stuff."

So, when his team lost in the 4x100 relay at the district meet last year and the winning Boynton Beach anchor runner got a bit demonstrative, another youngster might have reacted in kind.

Well, not if you're Walter Dix.

"Walter didn't do anything but go get in the blocks for the 200 and then he threw a 20.54 back at him," Coral Springs coach Brantley Barr said. "He didn't say a word. He let his feet do the talking. That's just the way his parents brought him up."

"I'm like that with everything I do," Dix added. "People say I'm quiet in the classroom. I just do my work. The same thing with football. I never went out and talked (trash) to the receiver. They just knew when they went up against me, I'm going to do the work in the classroom, I'm going to make the play on the field, I'm going to win the race on the track. I don't need to say anything."

That's not to say Dix lacks confidence.

"Walter doesn't show it, but he doesn't feel there's anybody on the planet who can beat him," said FSU assistant coach Ken Harnden, a former NCAA champion hurdler and a two-time Olympian for Zimbabwe (1996 and 2000). "There's got to be that attitude.

"When you line up at the NCAAs, there's eight guys on the line who all are as talented as the next guy. At that point, it's execution, but it's also the minds - I'm better than you and I can prove it. That's something you can't teach. You can't put in what God left out. That's something God put in Walt."

[Last modified May 27, 2005, 00:40:18]