Cottrell Williams never considered running track and field.
Ken Osmun had no plans to run cross country or track.
Duane Raffin had other ideas — and both men are forever grateful.
Williams placed in the top five in three events, leading Holly to the 1971 state Class B track and field championship.
Osmun didn’t run until his junior year of track. He joined the cross country team as a senior. Osmun would go on to run
for Oakland University, finishing 11th as a senior in the 1990 NCAA Division II cross country meet.
Williams said that Raffin went through his sister, Gail, to get him to come out for track.
“He saw me running in gym or something,” Williams recalls. “I wasn’t going to run. He talked to my sister. He said,
‘Please talk to your brother and get him to run.’ She pretty much talked me into running. I was more of an introvert type of
a person. I really didn’t want to run.”
Osmun was playing intramural basketball when he caught Raffin’s watchful eye.
“I was not much of an athlete, I didn’t think,” Osmun said. “He saw me running up and down the court. He said, ‘You’ve
got to come out for track; you’re pretty fast.’ I did intramurals just for fun. That year, I came out for track and did pretty well.”
Those accomplishments were achieved, in large part, because Raffin believed in them before they believed in
themselves.
