Sam Polio knew others believed in him and now he has resurrected his running career at Centre College

Sam Polio was third in the Class-A Cross Country State Championship as a high school sophomore at Owensboro Catholic but his junior and senior years his times did not improve even though he was training harder.

He was on a recruiting visit to Centre College his senior year when he found out why his times were not improving — he had cardiomyopathy.

“Basically it is heart failure,” said Polio, a Centre College senior.

Some cases can be mild and require little treatment. But the condition can cause breathing difficulty, leg swelling and several other symptoms.

“I am not sure if it was viral or genetic. One of my brothers (Willie) had the same exact problem. Luckily I went to the same cardiologist and he knew we had the same thing,” Polio said.

“Toward the end of my senior season my times got worse. I pulled both hamstring muscles the first race of the season presumably because my blood flow was not right. I didn’t know what was going on. I could not breathe very well. Physically I could not train and perform.”

“They put me on the same medicine as my older brother. I took that for a couple of years and got better.”

Centre cross country coach Lisa Owens had persuaded Polio to join the Colonels and said he never missed a practice or competition even when he could not compete.

“He always had a smile on his face, too,” she said. “There were days I didn’t know how he did it. He didn’t know if he would ever be the same and allowed to be back running.
Then about a year ago he got cleared to begin training. He had not raced in three years and had put on a little weight but he worked his butt off last spring.”

“Over the summer we worked out a specific training plan and he wanted to do even more. I told him I was proud of him and I wanted to see him have a great season. I remember him saying he started feeling like a runner again but he was worried his racing mentality would not be there. I told him you are born with a competitive drive and once he got his body back, the race instincts would kick in.”

It did.

His first meet this season he finished the 5k race in 16:01 and was Centre’s top finisher. The second meet on a 6k course he finished in 20:04 and was second on the team. Last week at the Rhodes Invitational he was 10th overall in 26:40.5 on the 8K course.

“I am just happy to be back running with the team but I definitely still am competitive,” Polio said. “I still feel an obligation to compete the very best I can. Coach Owens always believed I could come back and be an instrumental part of our team.”

“Making nationals and being as helpful as I can is the goal. I am very happy with my times. It’s hard to tell how fast I will progress but I am happy with the way things have started off and am excited to see where it goes.”

Both of Polio’s parents are Centre College graduates along with his brothers, Willie and Joey, who were both national qualifiers for Owens.

Polio admits knowing his brother, Willie, overcame the same condition to become a successful runner gave him optimism during his down times.

“I was going through this while everything was shut down with COVID. I was not practicing and seeing my teammates. I was not doing great in my classes. I was not running well. It was tough,” Polio said. “There were several times I thought about quitting or transferring. But then I would think about my teammates and coach Owens and know I needed to stick this out. I knew they all believed in me.”

“Willie helped me along the way to believe I could get through. He came back his senior year and ran really well. He was really the one who got me to go to the cardiologist once I told him how I felt. But Joey also helped. He’s an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon. He helped me with my ankles. It just took a lot of people to get me where I am now.”

Polio, a biology major who plans to go to medical school, will compete in the 5K and 10K during track season in the spring.

Owens thinks he’s a “great comeback story” with huge gains still to make.

“Just to watch him almost win his first race back was so emotional for me,” Owens said. “He is going to lead our team to qualify for (Division III) nationals. I really think he has a chance to win a conference individual championship. That’s why it is such a great comeback story.”