DeMaat Maurer, Joan (2018)

Joan is a 1980 GRCH alumna who excelled in Swimming, Cross Country, and Track. She began her high school athletic career as a sophomore on the girls swim team. (GRCH was a 3-year high school at that time). She was the City League champion in the 100-yard backstroke and a member of the 200-yard medley relay team that placed 7th in the State Meet. As a member of the track team, Joan was City Champion in the 880-yard and mile runs and set a City League record in the mile. She was also the Regional Champion in the mile run and placed 5th in the State Meet.

Cross Country coach John Warners convinced Joan that her talent for running would be enhanced by participating in Cross Country, so during her junior year she ran on the boys Cross Country team because girls Cross Country was not yet a sanctioned MHSAA sport. Joan ran at several invitational meets as a “top 8” runner on the boys team. She is believed to be the first girl to earn a letter in a boys sport at GRCH. She barely missed qualifying to run at the State Meet, in which the team finished second.

As predicted by Coach Warners, Joan’s Cross Country experience paid off during her track season in her junior year. She set a new record in the mile run, was Regional Champion, and finished 3rd in the Class B State Meet in the mile run. She was named the MVP for girls track.

In Joan’s senior year, girls Cross Country finally became an official MHSAA sport. The first-ever girls Cross Country team at GRCH had a fantastic season, losing only one dual meet in the regular season and that one to a Class A team. Joan missed that meet due to an emergency appendectomy with three weeks remaining in the season. Resuming competition only 10 days after her surgery, Joan recovered well enough to help the team win the Regional Meet and the State Championship. She finished 2nd in the Regional Meet; in the State Meet, Joan finished in 5th place, helping the Eagles become the first Class B Girls Cross Country Champions in MHSAA history. Joan was chosen by her teammates as the Most Valuable Runner of the “Black Pack” and was named to the Class B All-State Team. Her performances also earned her the honor of representing Michigan at a national AAU Cross Country meet in New Jersey.

Joan’s senior season in track also culminated in a State Championship. She won City League, Regional, and State championships in the 880- yard and 1-mile runs. She set City and State records in those two events. Her record in the mile run was the first sub-5-minute mile by a female runner in the state of Michigan. Joan and her teammates won the State Class B Championship, edging the second-place team by 2 points. Joan was named by her teammates the MVP for Girls Track.

In 1980, Joan was chosen by the GRCH varsity coaches for the honor of the Female Eagle Athlete of the Year.

In addition to her competitions for GRCH, Joan was a member of the Junior Olympic Track and Cross Country teams. This involved competing in meets in Michigan, as well as across the Midwest and the nation. In her junior year, Joan finished 2nd in a national Cross Country meet held in Kansas City.

Joan earned a scholarship to Indiana University to continue running Cross Country and Track. Unfortunately, injuries prevented her from continuing her running career. She joined the swim team at Grand Rapids Junior College (now Community College), where she finished in the top 10 in the NJCAA national meet in the 1650-yard freestyle.

Joan returned to GRCH as the coach of the girls swim team, building the team roster from 6 swimmers to 20 in two seasons. She then continued her coaching career by joining her husband, Tracy Maurer, in coaching swimmers at East Kentwood.

Joan and Tracy now live in Southern California, where they are the proud parents of six children, Jessica, Todd, Ross, Brett, Chadd, and Scott. Jessica serves in the US Army and Brett in the US Navy. Joan’s favorite memories of GRCH include representing our school in Cross Country and Track meets, along with the two state championships in her senior year.

Joan’s Favorite Bible Verses

So let us run the race that is before us and never give up.

Hebrews 12:1

I can do all things through Christ, for He gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13