2021-22 Tony Curnutte Memorial Male Sportsman of the Year: Terrill completes amazing run
Jul. 15—CANNONSBURG JB Terrill entered his senior season as Boyd County's distance-running stud with an individual state championship medal already in his pocket.
"Sometimes you see athletes, if they achieve it before their senior year, it takes a lot to push them their senior year," Lions coach Becca Chaney said, "because they get that senioritis; they get that, 'Well, I've already accomplished that' kind of thing."
If there was any question that Terrill would retain the drive to achieve at a high level, it dissipated on Oct. 29.
Terrill finished 12th that day in the Class 2A state cross country race at Bourbon County.
Being one of the top dozen runners among schools of his size in the state would be near the top of most any athlete's resume.
Not Terrill. Boyd County's senior distance runner had gone to Paris expecting to compete to win.
He didn't, and that stuck with him for seven months until his next crack at a state stage.
"This is the level where I didn't perform in cross," Terrill remembers thinking, he said, as he prepared for the state track and field meet, "so I need to prove it again at track."
And, as if to add additional pressure, Terrill had tweaked his hamstring in preparation for the Class 2A, Region 6 meet two weeks earlier. That took him out of contention for the mile he had hoped to run at State.
Terrill still had the 800-meter crown he won in 2021, and it was all coming down to that event again. But he had come in second, to Russell's Davis Brown, in that event at the region level. and even with two weeks to prepare for that race in Lexington, Chaney wasn't sure Terrill would be as ready as she would like.
"As a coach, sometimes, you're like, 'I know what is in my plan for you to do to be ready;' I had to let that go a little bit and listen to doctor's orders and what they were doing with him therapy-wise," Chaney said. "I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous because he didn't have all those workouts that I thought he needed.
"It was a very iffy time. There's not a day that went by that we weren't kinda like, 'Auuugh, is he gonna do this?' Not that we didn't have confidence in him — it was just playing at the will of his injury."
Terrill's result wasn't just a win to defend that state title. He set the 800-meter Class 2A state meet record of 1:54.02 he'd sought all season as the capper to an outstanding distance career at Boyd County.
"He just felt like he had so much to prove in that race," Chaney said. "It was awesome to watch."
And not without just a little extra drama, courtesy of a final push from a familiar source.
"Davis was trying to pull up on him, that last turn of the last lap," Chaney said, chuckling, of Terrill's friendly rival, "and the announcer, he did us a favor, because when he said, 'Davis Brown pulling up,' I think JB just lit on fire."
Terrill's level of achievement — two individual event track state titles, two individual region track crowns and three region cross country first-place finishes, in addition to moonlighting as Boyd County's soccer leading scorer as a senior — and his demeanor while doing it garnered him one final high school accolade: The Daily Independent's 2021-22 Tony Curnutte Memorial Male Sportsman of the Year
'He worked towards this'
Splitting his focus between cross country and soccer in the fall, Terrill punched in a team-high 18 goals as a senior to pace the Lions to their second-ever 16th Region Tournament title. It wasn't by happenstance.
"He wasn't like this as a freshman. He worked for this," Boyd County coach Logan Price said. "It wasn't like he was just some stellar (athlete), bigger and faster than everyone. He worked towards this."
Though Terrill agreed he considers himself a runner first, he good-naturedly grinned at a characterization of soccer as his "secondary sport." He viewed both as important — and saw the pitch as a welcome mental and physical respite from the grueling nature of distance running.
"Soccer's relieving in the fact that I can go out there and practice and I can see when I'm doing good right away, whereas running, you're practicing, and you're like, 'This sucks!'" Terrill said. "But soccer, I'm there with the guys and it's fun and we can see our teamwork getting better."
'He just got wins everywhere'
Viewing his participation in both sports as meaningful made for a wild week, when the home stretch of the cross country campaign and the soccer postseason converged.
In the span of seven days, Terrill competed in four tournament soccer games and ran two cross country races.
On Oct. 9, Terrill won the Area 7 crown at Mason County. Instead of heading back east down the AA Highway, he charted course on Ky. 11 and Ky. 32 south-southeast to Rowan County, site of the region soccer tournament.
Having already warmed up by running five kilometers in 16:24.50 in Maysville, Terrill was ready to go in Morehead and scored the first goal in the 10th minute of Boyd County's 5-1 region quarterfinal victory over Menifee County.
"And he won Homecoming King that week too," Price cracked. "That guy, he just got wins everywhere at that time."
Terrill pronounced himself "gassed" at the end of the fall, but "I knew I had it in me and I knew I was capable of it and I needed to be there for both my teams," he said.
Those weren't his main goals or motivations as a senior, though. Those lay on the track — and in his future.
'I know you can go faster'
"All year, my main goal was to break that state meet (800) record," Terrill said. "I think that really drove me, and then signing to Louisville, I got to see what a lot of my new teammates are gonna be, and seeing where they're at and where I stack up against them kept me wanting to get faster and faster."
That was beneficial for Terrill as well as his teammates. Terrill getting "faster and faster," dating back to his underclassman days, was, in fact, an imperative for Boyd County to continue its ascent into one of the state's elite boys cross country programs.
It also meant Terrill had to navigate the potentially sticky situation of becoming the program's top runner as a sophomore, and surpassing a senior in the process.
"During that time in our area, our boys were pretty much the top runners," Chaney said, "so if they weren't trying to beat each other, down state we were not gonna fare well."
Isaiah Caperton, the defending region champion and All-Area Runner of the Year entering his senior season in 2019, knew it.
"Isaiah I think practically told (Terrill) one time, I remember, 'Don't be afraid to beat me; that's gonna make us better,'" Chaney recalled. "When that opens up that conversation, coaches just jump on it. Absolutely, our team is only gonna be better if everybody's trying to beat each other."
Terrill incorporated that ethos in his own leadership style.
"I've had that a few times this year with guys," he said. "Like, if I'm struggling at a practice and they're right behind me and I know they can go faster, I'm like, 'C'mon, guys, I know you can go faster.' I don't want them to feel like they have to let me win every time."
That also pairs with a certain painful camaraderie that distance runners share. It's not uncommon to see runners in rival shirts chewing the fat after races — once everyone has caught their breath.
"I think it's just the fact that we all know we feel horrible right now (after races)," Terrill cracked. "We're all in so much pain, and we don't care about getting in people's heads, we're just there because you're gonna run your race no matter what. So why be mean to other people when you can just congratulate them for such a good job?"
'I want to be great'
Boyd County, which posted its fourth consecutive top-five finish in the Class 2A state meet this past year, will say good-bye to three Division I-bound runners. In addition to Terrill, Gavin Brock is going to Morehead State and Grant Chaffin plans to walk on at Marshall.
It's a safe bet no northeastern Kentucky team has boasted three Division I boys distance runners in the same class since Boyd County sent Chris Bruner, Rex Trimble and Jimmy McGuire to Morehead State in 1984.
The Lions were already growing before Terrill showed up, with the likes of Caperton and Elijah Miller running at the forefront. But Terrill and company took Boyd County to a new level.
"It's been awesome. I love walking into meets and there's other teams all looking at you like, 'Ahhh, that's Boyd County," Terrill said. "It's just a great feeling to know that I'm a part of that team, that we've made a name for ourselves. People not close to us know who we are and know what we're here to do. We came to win. We like to have that competition behind us."
That competition at the high school level is now behind Terrill, who wore a Louisville T-shirt to an interview at his old track facility in June. His legacy and impact, however, aren't going anywhere in the immediate future.
"I know a couple kids in classes below me that have said, 'I want to run at the level you are,' and I'm like, 'Thank you, and I know you can,'" Terrill said. "I like to encourage the kids that talk about that, and I like to make them know that you can do just about anything if you put effort into it and work hard."
Price would be the first to attest to that.
"It wasn't one of those things where (Terrill) just woke up and was great," Price said. "He woke up and said, I want to be great."
Past Tony Curnutte Memorial Sportsmen of the Year
Year Honoree
2021-22 (female) Sophia Newsome (Boyd County)
2020-21 Athletes, coaches and administrators of the COVID-19 era
2019-20 (male) Jason Mays (Ashland)
2019-20 (female) Olivia Hensley (Boyd County)
2018-19 (male) Noah West (Lawrence County)
2018-19 (female) Savannah Wheeler (Boyd County)
2017-18 (male) Blake Gamble (Johnson Central)
2017-18 (female) Montana Fouts (East Carter)
2016-17 (male) Geordon Blanton (Johnson Central)
2016-17 (female) Sara Hieneman (Russell)
2015-16 (male) Braden Brown (West Carter)
2015-16 (female) Destiny Goins (Boyd County)
2014-15 (male) Connor Messer (Raceland)
2014-15 (female) Megan Hensley (Ashland)
2013-14 Taylor Wheeler (Boyd County)
2012-13 Logan Salow (Ashland)
2011-12 J.J. Jude (Johnson Central)
2010-11 Chandler Shepherd (Lawrence County)
2009-10 Stephen Metcalf (Ashland)
2008-09 Tyler Boyles (Raceland)
2007-08 Randy Keeton (Lawrence County)
2006-07 Jeremy Sheffey (Boyd County)
2005-06 Julie Ditty (Russell)
2004-05 Ivan McGlone (Russell)
2003-04 Brandon Webb (Ashland)
2002-03 Megen Gearhart (West Carter)
2001-02 Arliss Beach (Ashland)
2000-01 John "Hop" Brown (West Carter)
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