Clearing hurdles quickly

At first, running track was just something Nate Burch did to stay in shape for football.

And then ...

“I just wanted to play football, but thought I might as well do track as well,” said Burch, a Coeur d’Alene High senior. “At a point, track was going better than football, so I thought I’d keep doing track because it was a lot of fun.”

Burch didn’t compete in track as a freshman, but it wasn’t long into his sophomore year when Coeur d’Alene assistant coach Linda Lanker noticed something about Burch.

“When I first saw him in the gym, I thought he looked like Ronnie Ash, who was in the Rio Olympics (in 2016),” Lanker said. “That summer, we’d been together at a meet and I told him he reminded me of Ronnie and asked if I could teach him to hurdle. I told him I wanted him to go home, YouTube Ronnie, and see if you want to try this.”

Then ...

“I thought it was really complicated,” Burch recalled. “I’d always thought there was no way that I’d want to try that. I’ve gotten a lot better at it because Linda’s really helped me with that. But at first, when she told me to try it, it was never on my radar. The first few times, it wore me out. My feet were all over the place. I was just trying not to hit the hurdle.”

But with time and practice — a lot of practice — Burch has evolved in the event.

Burch was second in the 110 hurdles as a sophomore and junior at state. His time of 14.47 seconds at the Pasco Invitational last Saturday is the top time in the state.

“I’m a lot better in the hurdles because Linda made me do it,” Burch said. “And I found out I was really good at it. I just kept trying it.”

Burch showed his ability on the football field this fall, and was named the 5A Inland Empire League Defensive Player of the Year at defensive end in a vote of league coaches. Burch had 82 tackles, 60 solo, with nine sacks and four forced fumbles.

“It was great that (Coeur d’Alene football) coach (Shawn) Amos kept him in that position that he was so good at,” Lanker said. “Nobody was better at tackling the quarterback than Nate. It just made sense, and it was a great decision on coach Amos’s part to keep him in a spot he was so familiar with. And then he had an absolutely fabulous season, and it was fun to watch him. I would have been more worried about him getting hurt if he was carrying the ball and they were coming at his knees. It was the perfect position because he was strong and aggressive.”

While he had thoughts in high school of playing football in college, Burch is focused on track and field now.

Burch, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was adopted at 8 months old when his adoptive parents lived in Boise, before coming to Coeur d’Alene when he was 8 years old.

“I don’t remember much about living in Haiti,” Burch said. “My (adoptive) mom had some family in Coeur d’Alene, so we moved to be closer to them.”

On Saturday, Burch won his second straight title in the 110-meter hurdles at the Pasco Invitational, winning in 14.47 seconds. He ran a 14.65 in the prelims to advance.

“I just make sure to get the same warmup that I do every day just to be consistent,” Burch said. “Every time in practice, Linda has a saying that goes ‘1-2-3 jump.’ It goes with my steps and when to go over the hurdles. She’ll say that, and it’s stuck in my head now.”

Lanker added it’s more of a rhythm practice.

“It’s more like 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, keep that lead leg down,” Lanker said. “Keep that body going forward. The whole thing is more of a motion, but (Nate) got it down pretty quick. To go from a 16.4 to a 14.1 in two seasons, that’s something I’ve never seen before.”

Lanker, who also coaches at the Community Colleges of Spokane and the national level, has been coaching the sport for 40 years.

“I’ve shown that video to some of the top athletes and they’ve never seen that,” Lanker said. “They’ve never even heard of someone making a jump like that. What was fun for me was to see him improve so quickly.”

The key so far this season has been workouts over the winter where Burch was practicing indoors in Spokane on higher hurdles.

“The college height is three inches above the high school level,” Lanker said. “I taught him over the winter how to go over those higher hurdles, and it’s helped his form and everything. He was really committed to coming and getting his technique down.”

It wasn’t until the Kootenai County Challenge at Timberlake High where Burch started running some of his better times of the year.

“He had to run in the gym almost daily,” Lanker said. “We’d had three practices outside before our first meet in Lewiston (March 21, then the school went on spring break the following week). He’s a little bit behind where he wanted to be, but a 14.6 at Timberlake was really, really good.”

Burch’s time of 14.23 in the 110 hurdles is a school record. His time of 14.12 in a Junior Olympic meet in North Carolina was a personal best.

Burch has signed with Community Colleges of Spokane, where he will continue to be coached by Lanker.

“Going there, I can get my grades up and then go somewhere else,” Burch said. “It’s close by, so I can still be at home with my family.”

And a few more training sessions with Lanker, an assistant in Spokane.

“We’ve got a good program and it will help him because the schools that do want him are checking with me about him,” said Lanker, who added that Washington and Arizona State have shown interest in Burch. “Jeshua (Anderson, a former Washington State star who Lanker has trained in the past and is now the sprints coach at Washington) is very interested in him. If Nate gets his A.A. degree, then he’ll get to go on. He’ll get a good scholarship and save his parents quite a bit of money. Once he gets his A.A., there will probably be a few coaches fighting over him.”

Burch said his experience at the USATF Junior Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., last summer helped his confidence as well.

Burch advanced to the semifinal round, but did not place at the meet.

“It really helped a lot,” Burch said. “Being on a big stage, I know what to expect when competing at that level again.”

Lanker added that the goal is to reach nationals again, this year in Florida in June.

“He needs to have a huge qualifying time, but what he was running last summer (14.12 seconds in Greensboro) would do it,” Lanker said. “I think he can break 14 seconds, and if he does that, we’ve got some people that are going to step up and get him there to compete.”

Wherever he winds up, Burch — who became a U.S. citizen last summer — is grateful for whatever happens next.

“It makes me feel very blessed that I’ve got the opportunity to do this,” Burch said. “I’ve just got to keep working and I’ll get there.”

Then again, Burch does have a few ideas.

“Someplace hopefully sunny and warm, with not too much snow,” Burch said. “I’ve been doing a lot of gym work and I’ve been going over to the college a little bit during the spring. Getting to be outside a little bit would be nice.”