A young Blake Dircksen was such a dominant runner that his coach, Kent Graham resorted to one of his former athletes in an attempt to find someone to push the young star. Enter Bill Kenley: a then 38-year-old author, teacher, former high school cross country runner, and a world-class marathoner. In Kenley, Dircksen was able to find a companion, an athlete of his caliber. In Dircksen, Kenley was able to find a special talent to inspire him to accomplish athletic heights he had never before reached. The result of this relationship: a decades long friendship, an Indiana cross country dynasty, and an Indian chief tootsie-pop tattoo.
When Dircksen was beginning his senior season, he struck a deal with his training partner. The two parties had pushed each other for years and now – before Dircksen left the program behind – he and Kenley shook hands on a bet.
“The agreement was, if he was top 5 in state and I was under 2:50 for the New York City Marathon that we would go and get these tattoos. It was pretty funny how he sold his parents on it with a Power Point,” Kenley said
The tattoo of choice for the two, however, seemingly had little to do with running. Upon the miraculous completion of both their goals they elected to get a tattoo of the Indian chief from the tootsie-pop wrappers.
“If you look at the tootsie-pop there’s an Indian chief shooting at a star. It was on the back of our T-shirts, it was kind of our cross country only mascot.”Dircksen said. “The idea behind that logo was that ‘You’re shooting for the stars,’ but at the very least it was a reminder I was a part of something bigger than myself. It sort of time stamped a moment in my life that meant a whole lot,”
After the resounding success of Dircksen’s senior season, he set off, still a student athlete, in pursuit of a physical therapy degree. As the years led on however, Dircksen kept in touch with his former coaches and teammates despite his absence from his home state while attending graduate school at New York University. Kenley and Dirksen continued to maintain a relationship throughout these years, something Kenley says he holds with any former athlete that stays in touch with him.
“All my runners will always have a place here. They’ll always have a little bit of home here, if they want it,” Kenley said
As time moved forward, and NHS head coach Kent Graham grew older and neared retirement, the widely held belief was that Kenley would inherit the position. However, years and years of conversation drew to the natural conclusion that Dirksen’s education would be invaluable to the future of the program.
“There were a couple times I’d come back from New York and they’d just sort of pick my brain about running and where I was at with my studies,” Dirksen said. “I knew that at a certain point Coach Graham had to retire, and it was important to us to keep it in the family so to speak. As soon as [Graham] retired I wanted to be in the mix and be in on the conversations”
At the start of the 2020 season Bill Kenley, alongside his new assistant Blake Dircksen, would start his first year as head coach of the Noblesville Millers cross country team. That season saw one of the most talent-filled rosters the Millers had seen, led by a brand new era of Noblesville running as the new coaching staff settled into their roles.
“Kenley said from the beginning he could be that culture guy, that glue guy, that leader that the younger guys need. He just needed me to be the numbers guy,” Dircksen says.
That season saw great success for the Millers in their first year under their new coaching staff. The Millers competed at the state meet, and saw individual elite performances from athletes such as Travis Hickner, who finished 7th that year.
“That state race we got twelfth and we were hoping to do a little better but at that time we had no precedent, no expectations,” Dirksen said. “Our team now, as talented as we are, I would say might be less talented than that original team, but we’re starting to figure it all out with training and nutrition and the everyday small things that let us perform above our talent level.”
Over the years though, Noblesville cross country has cemented itself as one of the premier teams in the nation. The Millers are currently ranked as the 5th best team in the country and are ranked the best team in the state by Indiana Runner, a popular website devoted to Indiana high school distance running.
“If you look at the numbers, our program really is as good as anybody,” Kenley said.
On the backs of Kenley and Dircksen, Noblesville looks remarkably different to the program that once resorted to bringing in a 38-year-old man to keep pace with a young Blake Dircksen. But the two aren’t done yet. With a bright group of underclassmen in black and gold, Dircksen says there’s no telling what the future holds for the Millers.
“We had a 4:18 Freshman last year and a 4:36 eighth grader” Dircksen said “I’ll just say I’m ready to chase the 4-minute mile. It’s gonna be fun to chase that barrier for sure. The sky’s the limit for us,”
