Marquand-Zion's Stafford signs with MAC, completes track career at state championships

In front of Marquand-Zion High School lies a baseball field overwhelmed by weeds and neglect. On the backstop chain-linked fence held together by rusty poles, rests a message of encouragement made out of paper cups to one of the small school’s six departing seniors.

“Good Luck Kaylee”

Over the course of this eventful week, Kaylee Stafford graduated, signed a letter of intent with Mineral Area College, and went to Jefferson City to compete in the Class 1 State Championships as a discus thrower.

"I didn't really think I was going to go to college for sports," Stafford said. "It's always been a really big dream of mine. I've always said that I wanted a banner hanging in this gym. Now I have one [from appearing in state last year] and I'm working on my second one. So to put Marquand on the map has been exciting."

Stafford said she is aiming to reach the 30-32 meter mark in the state meet.

"I hit it a couple of times in practice," Stafford said. "I've gotten close to it at sectionals but just not close enough."

Marquand-Zion, a school serving a town of around 200 people, didn't establish a track and field team until the 2021-22 school year when Stafford was a junior. Drew White, a teacher at Marquand-Zion, established the program, where Stafford was one of the original four to make up the Track Tigers. She picked up the shot put and discus from scratch and built a state competitor from the ground up.

"I had no idea about any of the techniques or anything that went along with it," Stafford said. "We started doing it and realized that we were pretty good at it. We started learning different techniques, and then districts, and sectionals, and state came around."

Stafford finished ninth at state in the shot put last year in her first season, an event that is considered new territory for Marquand-Zion athletics.

"It was very exciting but also overwhelming because I was going into it, not knowing anything about it," Stafford said. "I was playing the sport for fun."

Stafford won the Class 1 District 1 championship in shot put (33-01.25) on Saturday, May 6, in Scott City. She didn't qualify for state in the shot put but she did advance in the discus by finishing fourth (93-03.00) in the Class 1 Sectional 1 meet on Saturday, May 13, in New Haven.

"I could say that we just took a lot of what we learned last year from track and field and just kept building on that and working hard this year at it," Stafford said.

Marquand-Zion had only two sports prior to establishing cross country and track. The Tigers were not known for success in either sport. Stafford played on the girls' volleyball team and the boys' basketball team throughout all four years. It took her until her senior year to win her first volleyball match. She didn't win her first basketball game until Dec. 3, 2021, when the Tigers defeated Viburnum 57-47 in the seventh-place game of the 2021 Valley Tournament, snapping an 82-game losing streak that dated back to Jan. 22, 2018.

Stafford ended her basketball career with two plaques from the Mississippi Valley Conference Tournament; third place in 2022 and second place in 2023. Both awards still stand out in the small school's trophy case.

"It was really exciting and honestly my team last year and this year worked really hard at it," Stafford said. "We busted out butts in practice and our coach told us we either do it this year or we're not going to do it. So we really pushed to work hard and play hard."

Playing basketball with the boys led to her working towards getting stronger for success on the track and field stage.

"I've always been really tough at everything I do," Stafford said. "Playing on the boys' team was kind of like a confidence boost because I knew I could play with them and so going into track and field, we just did a lot of extra weightlifting and stuff like that."