Muskegon High School track star Michael Piggee, Jr. finished a dominant senior season and next year will be a member of the Grand Valley State men’s track and field team.
(Photo courtesy of Leo Valdez)By Scott VanSickle
LocalSportsJournal.com
Michael Piggee, Jr., is a soft-spoken young man of few words, but his performances on the track have spoken loud and clear during his time at Muskegon High School.
The recent Big Red graduate recently finished off a dominant senior season on the track with an 8th-place finish in the Division 1 state finals at East Kentwood in the 110 hurdles, good for All-State honors. Piggee, Jr., along with teammates De’Ontae Chambers, Jamir Mathews-Foster and Ja’Mier Jefferson, placed 10th in the state in the 4x100 relay as. well. While Piggee Jr.’s running days are over as a Big Red, his fans can follow him next year as a member of the Grand Valley State men’s track and field team, which finished third in this year’s NCAA Division II Championships.
Piggee Jr. has a long list of accomplishments in the 110 hurdles in his 4 years at Muskegon. He is a two-time All-Stater with 8th-place finishes as a junior and senior, a 4-time state qualifier, a 3-time regional champ, a 3-time O-K Green champ and a 3-time Greater Muskegon Athletic Association champion. He’s also a 2-time state qualifier, a 2-time O-K Green champ and 3-time GMAA champ as a part of the 4x100 relay teams.
“I think we’ve got two new people (on the relay team) this year. At first, it was hard to see where everybody was going to be, but we finished in regionals and made it to state again this year, and we ran a good time,” Piggee Jr. said.
He also was conference champ in the 200 as a sophomore, was the GMAA winner in the 300 hurdles as a junior, and has also competed in the 100 and the high jump during his tenure at Muskegon.
But Piggee Jr. isn’t just a speedster on the track. He’s a 3-year varsity football player and played basketball for 2 years as well.
“He’s quiet, a silent assassin, and he was that way in football. Some guys have a lot of excitement and hype, but you don’t know if he’s down or riding high. He’s just cool Mike,” said track coach Shane Fairfield, who also coached Piggee Jr. in football. “He runs the hurdles and the 4x100 for us. He’s been our safety blanket in the 4x100. They’ve been to state 2 of the last 3 years, and they broke the school record with a 42.25 last year.
“But when the gun goes off, he’s a competitor. He loves competing, but he has a calm demeanor.”
And he also has an extensive family tree that has had athletic success. The Piggee name has a long history at Muskegon High, and Piggee Jr. has been able to pick up bits of knowledge, as well as support, from his extended family that has helped fuel his success. He credited his family with helping him along the way, especially his aunt, Joyce Piggee. And he’s also inherited the family trait of using an inner drive and strong work ethic to stand out athletically.
“He’s got that fire in him. He’s got that Piggee in him,” said hurdle coach and JV football coach Jeff Brown. “Every Piggee that I’ve ever met or been around has been an athlete, they have that inner drive in them. There’s something in them that wants to be great, to beat the next guy, to outwork the next guy.”
According to Fairfield, Piggee Jr. is a natural hurdler even though he had never ran the event until his freshman year of high school. After showing some promise in the preseason, Fairfield turned the newcomer over to Brown, and Piggee Jr. made an instant impact.
“My freshman year I didn’t want to do the hurdles any more,” said Piggee Jr.
Thankfully, Piggee Jr. stuck with it and became one of the best hurdlers in the state behind his natural talent, competitive nature and his drive to succeed.
“During conditioning in the early parts of practice (of his freshman year), he was joking around running through a lane of hurdles and he was a natural jumper. We showed him some drills and turned him over to Jeff Brown, and let him coach him in the hurdles,” said Fairfield. “He won his first race and it was natural for him. Once he does track only, there’s no telling how good he can be.”
And after winning that first race, Piggee Jr.’s work with Brown paid instant dividends.
“You teach the technique, but he’s a natural. There were some little technique things, the driving of the arms coming down fast, getting the three-step rhythm down and those type of things that he kept working on and kept building on and got better with every year,” said Brown. “We kept working the technique, working the technique, working hard. Not only us working him, he was calling us to get on the track so he could practice. During the off-season, he wants to practice, during the winter he wants to practice so he can get better.”
Brown says dedication to the sport and willingness to learn have only enhanced Piggee Jr.’s natural talents.
“To be coachable and have a kid that’s willing to work is what drives his success. His ability to say, ‘I’m going to go out there, I’m going to work, I’m going to be coachable, I’m going to take the little things and get better. Whenever there’s been a setback, believe me, the other kids are in trouble,” Brown said.
The then-freshman was conference and regional champ in the 110 hurdles while still learning the intricacies of the event. Brown and Piggee Jr. drilled in trying to master the basic technique of running the hurdle, and Piggee Jr. proved to be a quick study. He consistently got quicker each time out and posted a 15.14, his best time as a freshman, to win his first conference championship. As a sophomore, he broke 15 seconds early in the season en route to a top-10 finish at the state.’“The first thing is the three-step rhythm. You have to drive that trail leg down, plant it in the ground and be able to push forward and keep that rhythm. Drive that arm over, stay high above the hurdles, and the main thing is to remember that you’re running the hurdles, not jumping the hurdles,” said Brown. “When you’re running the hurdles, you’re getting over the hurdles as low as you can get, and keep that three-step rhythm. Get up and get down, get up and get down.”
It was an injury sustained during his junior year on the football field that really got Piggee Jr. focused on track. Piggee Jr. dislocated his shoulder in a season-opening loss to Rockford in his junior year and had to watch from the sidelines as the Big Reds claimed yet another state championship. Due to the injury, he traded in his basketball shoes for indoor track spikes to prepare for his junior campaign, which saw him become a dominant hurdler. With the exception of semifinal heats, Piggee Jr. won every 110 hurdle event until the state finals race where he turned in his third-best time of the season with an All-State 8th-place finish. His regional title-winning time of 14.33 is a career best for Piggee Jr. as a Big Red.’“(The injury) made me focus more on track because I had to sit out the whole year where we won the state championship,” Piggee Jr. said. “So I just wanted to focus more on track when that happened.”
Piggee Jr. nearly replicated the same feat in his senior season, but clipped a hurdle in the O-K Green championship heat and was edged by Reeths-Puffer’s Mason Darke by .05 seconds. After that defeat, Piggee Jr. finished out his prep career with two of his best times ever. The Muskegon senior won the regional title again in the hurdles in 14.5 and posted a season-best 14.48 in the state finals to earn another All-State 8th-place finish.
And Piggee has a simple goal for his time in Allendale as a Laker hurdler, which closely resembles what he’s been able to accomplish at Muskegon.
“My goal is to be great and to finish strong.,” said Piggee Jr.
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