Stars and Stripes has selected an Athlete of the Year for each of the respective fall sports played across each of DODEA’s Europe and Pacific theaters. Check out our site this week to read profiles for golf (Tuesday), tennis (Wednesday), cross country (Thursday), volleyball (Friday) and football (Saturday).

TOKYO – If William Beardsley wishes to be remembered for anything, he says it’s not for all the times he posted and records he shattered.

And the St. Mary’s senior has many in his portfolio. He holds records for the DODEA-Pacific Far East meet, the Asia-Pacific Invitational and is the lone Pacific runner to ever break 14 minutes on the Tama Hills Recreation Center 4,417-meter course.

All of that is in addition to his track and field exploits as a junior, when he broke the Pacific and Far East meet records in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. The latter record had stood for nearly 40 years.

Beardsley says there are “a lot of factors” regarding how he’d want to be remembered, but “the main ones are discipline, competitive mindset, never being satisfied. Being content for five minutes, then thinking of ways to get faster,” he said.

For all that, Beardsley has been named Stars and Stripes’ Pacific boys cross country Athlete of the Year.

Beardsley, who has committed to the University of Michigan for the 2024 Big Ten fall cross country season, will depart holding every Pacific cross country record there is at the high school level.

-- His time of 13 minutes, 47.9 seconds on Oct. 28 in the Kanto Plain finals is the fastest ever on the Tama Hills traditional course.

-- On Oct. 20 at the Asia-Pacific Invitational on Guam, Beardsley clocked 15:24.5 – nearly 1½ minutes faster than his time the previous Oct. 23 in the same event.

-- Just three days later, in temperatures about 30 degrees cooler than Guam, Beardsley was timed in 15:18.2 in the Far East meet, topping the old meet record and the course record at Gosser Memorial Golf Course, Misawa Air Base, Japan.

To watch him warm up for those events is like watching a running scientist at work – he keeps to himself and does a stretching and warmup routine similar for every race.

“Nobody outworks me,” Beardsley said. “When I get to the start line, I know I’ve done the work, so it’s all execution at that point.”

Along the way to his record-breaking season, he did take time to talk to former Pacific record-holder Danny Galvin, Yokota Class of 2016, and fellow Far East champion Jane Williams, a Matthew C. Perry senior, during the Far East meet.

“He said he really likes watching me,” Beardsley said of the conversation he had with Galvin. “It’s good to know that people watch me run, they come to watch me run and I have that support.”

Beardsley says he’s been running since virtually the time he could walk. “My dad used to play soccer and he took me with him, so I was always running,” he said.

If there’s one thing that stands out about Beardsley to his coaches, it’s “his dedication,” Lucas Vinall said.

“He averages over 100 kilometers a week,” Vinall said. “If you look back at his history, no injuries, he doesn’t take time off; dedication is what gets the best to the top.”

So, what does Beardsley say he sees himself doing with his running in the future?

“I want to be running in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and one day be a European champion in cross country or track,” he said.

THE BEARDSLEY FILE

Age — 17.

Place of birth — Tokyo.

Sports played besides running — Basketball, soccer, cycling.

Favorite school subject — English.

Least favorite school subject — Economics.

Athletes he looks up to — Mo Farah, British-Somali distance runner; Stephen Curry, NBA guard and distance shooter.

Favorite artist — Kendrick Lamar.

Favorite TV series — Peaky Blinders.

Favorite movie — The Hangover.