Byron star athlete adding to family legacy with tremendous high school athletic career
BYRON, Mich. (BVM) — Every town or city has that one family that is known for their athletic genes. In Byron, Mich. that would be the Marvin family. The latest to add to the family legacy is Sarah Marvin, who has played multiple sports throughout her athletic career.
Marvin’s main sport is track and field, in which she throws shot put and discus. She began by competing in shot put around age 7, and added the discus a few years later while competing in AAU track.
However, her success as a thrower hasn’t stopped her from competing in multiple sports throughout her life. Growing up, Marvin did just about everything, playing co-ed baseball, soccer, basketball, football and wrestling. Perhaps surprisingly for some, she has continued on with several of those sports into her high school career.
Marvin’s introduction into all these sports is in large part due to her family. Her older sister, Jessica, was a state champion track and field thrower and star basketball player at Byron High School. Often, Sarah would look up to and emulate her older sister.
“We’re four years apart so we were never in high school together but it ended up being fine,” Sarah said. “We always trained together and in middle school I was the manager of the high school basketball team so I was always at practices with her. Watching her there and watching her win the state track and field meet was definitely awesome. I just always wanted her to do good and was very invested in how she did as an athlete.”
Sarah’s older brother of two years, T.J., also competed in track and field growing up, but his main sports were football and wrestling. So, Sarah decided to join him on the gridiron while also competing on the mat. Now, T.J. attends the University of Michigan and competes on the rowing team for the Wolverines.
But perhaps Sarah’s closest relationship comes with her twin sister, Becky. She is also a basketball player, shot put and discus thrower, and has tried out wrestling as well. For Sarah, Becky has of course given her someone to train with over the years, but their relationship has gone far beyond that.
“With Becky, it’s like having a built-in training partner,” Sarah added. “It definitely helps to have someone to go workout with and have someone to push you to get better and better.”
The kids all had to get their athletic genes from somewhere, and both of their parents have been very involved in sports throughout their lives as well. Sarah’s dad, Tim, was a multi-sport high school athlete who now coaches wrestling and track and field.
Her mother, Theresa, is a former athlete as well, specifically starring as a track and field thrower at the University of Michigan. Now, she is the head girls basketball coach at Byron High School, allowing her to teach the game to Sarah and Becky firsthand.
“It’s good 99.9% of the time,” Sarah said. “She’s a great coach and she’s helped our basketball program do so much. Every once in a while there are those moments but it’s been great pretty much all of the time.”
Overall, Sarah credits the support she has gotten from her siblings and more importantly her parents for her successful athletic career to this point.
“They do so much,” Sarah said about her parents. “Because they are both coaches they have the ability to but even if they’re busy they have always made time to help us do what we need to do to be the best.”
In high school, Sarah has been a star for the Eagles. It starts on the basketball court, where the 17-year-old has been an all-state performer the last two seasons. Last winter, she helped lead the Eagles to a program-best 23-1 record while averaging over 18 points and 13 rebounds per game. The team was ready to do battle in regionals when their season would heartbreakingly be canceled due to COVID-19.
“It was really tough,” Sarah said about not being able to finish out last season. “In the moment, we were the best team Byron ever had for girls basketball. It was just devastating and so surreal in the moment … We were really good last year and I think we had a really good chance to win a state title.”
A season later, Sarah is still left wondering whether or not she will be able to get back on the court with the Eagles. With the start of this season already being pushed back to the end of November, she is just hoping to be able to play in some capacity once more this winter.
“All we’re hoping for at this point is a little bit of a season,” Sarah said. “As a team, I think we’re capable of a lot and making a run in the playoffs is a big goal.”
While basketball was always her winter sport, for several years, Sarah was a football player in the fall. Through her youth, she not only got to play with T.J., but also two cousins that are similar in age. Sarah enjoyed the sport so much during her youth that she decided to continue on with it during her freshman and sophomore years at Byron.
Both seasons, Sarah started as an offensive tackle and defensive end on the junior varsity squad, and would often get called up to varsity during the postseason. The multi-sport athlete was also a punter, and became a team captain sophomore year.
Of course, a girl playing in the trenches of such a male-dominant sport is not something seen often. While opponents were typically surprised to see a girl on the field, Sarah didn’t think much of it, and was just happy to get to play a sport she loves.
“For me, I had a really good experience with it,” Sarah said about her football career. “I think because for the most part I played with the same group of boys that I also went to school with our whole life, it was just normal and second nature to them and second nature to me. They treated me like anyone else and it’s football so I wouldn’t have wanted them to treat me any differently.”
Throughout her life, Sarah has also competed in the male-driven sport of wrestling. To her delight, girls wrestling continues to emerge across the country. But when she was younger, Sarah would often be wrestling older boys. However, with her dad as her coach, and her brother often by her side, Sarah loved her time on the mat.
After taking a few years off from the sport, the Byron senior was convinced by her dad to come wrestle on the boys team in eighth grade. During her first two years of high school, Sarah and Becky competed again on the mat, this time getting to wrestle against girls in a state tournament.
While some might be surprised to see Sarah compete in these two sports, she has taken pride in it, and hopes to inspire other girls to follow in the same path.
“I definitely take a lot of pride in it,” Sarah said. “I think it is just really cool to be someone a girl can see playing these sports and think they can go do that. It’s really cool to witness girls wrestling up and coming and now I think it is becoming more normal for girls to play football which is awesome.”
Despite shining in all of these sports, track and field has always taken precedence. During her youth, Sarah won multiple AAU national championships between the shot put, discus and javelin, and the titles have not stopped as she has entered high school.
As a freshman, Sarah placed third at state in the shot put and discus. But as a sophomore, she took home state titles in both competitions, an achievement she is rightfully very proud of.
“Winning my sophomore year was great,” the senior said. “My freshman year went really well too but it went better the next year and it was really cool to win both shot put and discus.”
Of course, her junior track and field season last spring was canceled. But Sarah is eager to get back to it this spring, hoping to improve on her personal records and become a repeat state champion. She also has lofty goals of breaking national throwing records.
This summer, Sarah proved those goals may become a reality sooner than later. At the Rose Invitational in New Castle, Pa., the star athlete fired a shot put throw of 51 feet, 4.75 inches — the longest throw ever recorded by a Michigan high schooler.
“I knew it was over 50,” Sarah said about the throw. “Last year that’s what I was always chasing and then I threw 51. I was really excited and it was obviously a really good day.”
Sarah had another pretty good day this fall when she officially announced that she would be committing to join the women’s track and field squad at the University of Michigan.
So happy to announce that I am going to be a 〽️ Wolverine! GO BLUE! 💙💛Grateful-Thankful-Blessed💛💙 @ByronTrackField @byron_athletics @UMichTrack @UMichAthletics @michtrack @BrendanSavage @ArgusPreps @statechampsmich @TweetingTrack @milesplit @DyeStat pic.twitter.com/bsRaHWptAG
— Sarah Marvin (@sarahmarvin_23) October 19, 2020
She first began talking to Michigan after her sophomore state meet, but was also considering several other Division I programs including Stanford, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Tennessee. However, with her family history among other factors, becoming a Wolverine was always a top choice for Sarah.
“They’re a great option and I’m so excited to be there,” Sarah said. “I’m born and bred Michigan, my mom went to Michigan, my brother went to Michigan, so anyone would have assumed I was definitely going to Michigan. I was looking at some other schools but when it came down to athletics, academics and the coaching, it was Michigan by a landslide.”
Sarah is excited to be able to follow in the family footsteps at Michigan. However, for the first time, she will be apart from twin sister Becky, who will go on to throw at Tiffin University in Ohio.
“It’ll definitely be different and hard but I think we will both be fine,” Sarah explained. “She’s going to do great at Tiffin and she has so much potential. Hopefully we will be able to catch each other competing a few times.”
The 17-year-old hopes to make an immediate impact on the Michigan program and in the Big Ten conference. An individual Big Ten title and a national championship are some of her ultimate goals as a Wolverine. After the next five years are up, Sarah hopes to continue her throwing career in some capacity.
A bright future awaits Sarah as she heads off to Michigan. But the lasting impact she and her family continue to make at Byron High School is unmatched, and will only keep getting better in the years to come.
