The RoundHouse | 5/4/2018 12:22:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
Pastor Ngaiza treated his sons with shillings to buy a soda. The children called it pocket money and it didn't stick in the pockets of Edwin and Elvis Ngaiza.
 
Erick Ngaiza, the youngest of the three brothers, considered the shillings more of an investment than a quick buzz of sweet liquid. 
 
"He would never spend his," Edwin Ngaiza said. "We would say that we worked hard and we were going to spend it. He would keep his until, like, three years later."
 
This is how Erick Ngaiza, a sprinter at Wichita State from Tanzania, prepares for four years of mechanical engineering and physics classes, practices and bus rides to Lubbock, Texas, Cedar Falls, Iowa and Colorado Springs. This is how he takes 18 credit hours a semester, crams four hours of sleep into his day, speaks seven languages, compiles a cumulative 3.6 grade-point average and improves from a track hobbyist to an NCAA Division I sprinter.
 
 "I had this feeling that everyone is going to use their money, and I don't want to be like everyone," he said. "I am going to keep my money and I will probably use it later on in life and buy what I really, actually, want to buy, not just a soda. Or I could use it to help me if any emergency arises."
 
Erick Ngaiza, a senior by way of boarding schools in Tanzania, Mozambique, Swaziland and higher education in South Africa, competes for the final time at a home meet on Friday in the Shocker Open at Cessna Stadium. He may run, most likely in a relay, for the Shockers in the American Athletic Conference outdoor championships next week in Cincinnati. His goal after college is to run for his country in an international competition and he plans to keep training toward that dream.
 
His story is all about time, but not in the usual way for a sprinter. Most sprinters try to defeat time, compress it, shave it to their desires. Ngaiza works to expand time, to fill it with activity, to beat it with organization, discipline and goals.
 
"Very driven," said Edwin Ngaiza, an accountant who lives in Louisville. "When Erick comes to visit us, he would make his bed every day. Wash dishes. My wife is like 'Who is this kid?'"
 
Coaches and teammates think the same thing. 
 
"He's always doing homework when he's not on the track," teammate Denvoir Griffin said. "I look at his homework and it makes no type of sense to me. So, I'm thinking that if somebody can digest this type of math in their mind and still run at the competitive level he does . . ."
 
They marvel at his schedule, his ability to break down the technical aspects of sprinting and his ability to discuss their academic major as well as his own. They wonder how he manages to never spend his $12 meal money at a meet. 
 
"He seems very efficient with everything he does," teammate Jared Belardo said. "Money management. Very strict diet. He makes fun of us and says 'I don't eat pizza.' One time he came on the bus before a trip and he had a whole rotisserie chicken – and that's at 6 a.m. – and he ate the whole thing."
 
They might not know that he always saves the box after buying a pair of shoes in case he needs to return the shoes or sell them a few years later. He does the same with his PlayStation and uses the package when he takes the equipment on a trip.
 
"I like the idea of saving anything," Erick Ngaiza said.
 
Erick Ngaiza is a familiar Shocker track story in one way – he came to Wichita State as a walk-on and worked his way into a roster spot. He knew he wanted to follow the family path to the United States for college. Edwin, who played soccer and sprinted at Marian University in Indianapolis, helped research Wichita State. Edwin's path provided the map and motivation.
 
Erick Ngaiza swam, played soccer and rugby and ran track and studied karate throughout his early schooling. He wanted to study engineering. He chose Wichita State over Florida's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University because it asked him to play soccer and run track. Wichita State's engineering programs and the opportunity to try out for the track team won him over after a year of research.

His times did not impress Shocker coaches, who told him he was welcome to give it a shot.
 
"It was a risky move," he said. "No guarantees."
 
He chose track over other sports because he envisioned a training routine that fit more easily with his studies. He could run anywhere to meet practice goals, he reasoned. Swimming required a pool and soccer required teammates. Practice for meets at boarding school consisted of workouts in the days leading up to a meet and then a break.
 
"Track was kind of an every-other-weekend sport in South Africa," he said. 
 
Those thoughts, he discovered, did not fit NCAA Division I track.
 
When he arrived in Wichita, he worked out on his own, using YouTube videos as a guide and convincing his roommate, who was not on the track team, to join him in the Heskett Center to get in shape.
 
His first experience with the team came in the annual intra-squad meet that closes the first semester and signals the start of the indoor season.
 
"He was OK, but nothing spectacular," sprints coach John Wise said. "But he showed up every day. He kind of stayed on the team by hanging in there."
 
At this point, the reality of college life with hours of practice and competition piled upon studies hit Erick Ngaiza. Practice meant practicing with the team each afternoon for months before a meet. He organized his calendar for the semester, told teachers when he would miss class and exams and jumped into a new, busy life.
 
"I knew I would be sleeping four, five hours a day," he said. "I thought that if I can survive this semester, I will survive four years. I like staying busy."
 
He did more than survive. He got in better shape. He lowered his personal records to 6.99 seconds in the 60 meters, 10.80 in the 100 and 21.90 in the 200. He ran in last season's Missouri Valley Conference indoor and outdoor meets.
 
"With kids like that, sometimes, after a year they won't come back," Wise said. "They see the writing on the wall. He came back as a sophomore and he was a little bit better."
 
Along the way, he grew into a leader with his work ethic and reliability. He speaks English, French, Portuguese (from his time in Mozambique), Swahili, Siswati, Kihaya (the mother tongue from the village where his parents grew up) and Xhosa (from South Africa). Wise enjoys giving instructions in a team meeting, then turning to Ngaiza and asking him to translate the bus schedule for the Swahili speakers in the room.
 
"Kids are so wrapped up in their own worlds nowadays, they don't always ask questions about their teammates," Wise said. "It's a maturity that a lot of our kids benefit from being around. A lot of times we take (things) for granted as Americans. Then you see a kid who will do literally just about anything he has to, to be successful and achieve here."
 
Erick Ngaiza's day typically starts around 7:30 a.m. after a few hours of sleep. His brother worries about his lack of sleep. Early in the sophomore season, Wise learned about the rigors of the schedule and they strategized ways to work in 30-minute naps. It is better as a senior - he gets more sleep this semester than in previous years by an hour or two.
 
"If I get seven hours of sleep, I'll wake up after five hours and be like 'Am I late for something,'" he said. "It's not a good habit, but I've done it for almost four years now."
 
His first move in the morning is to check e-mail. He applied for roughly 60 jobs and internships in engineering and organizing that search is his priority.
 
"I like doing that early in the morning before employers get to their desk," he said. "I want to be first in line."
 
Moving close to Louisville, close to his older brother, is attractive. A company in Michigan offers the potential to work with a range of products and technologies.
 
"Right now, I'm probably interested in engines and designs," he said. "But I feel like once I'm in a work-place, a lot can change. Maybe oil and gas is my thing. Maybe energy conversion or engineering technology is my thing. I like working with new technology.  
 
Classes and meetings follows. He is taking four classes – 12 hours – this semester and senior projects dominate his time. He works ahead when track travel requires him to miss class. He often meets with classmates on Sunday evenings because it's his only free time to work on projects such as their computer-aided design of a sample holder for an x-ray machine.
 
Track practice at Cessna Stadium takes up most of his afternoon. By 9 p.m., he is usually settled in his apartment near campus to study. It is not unusual to study until 4 a.m. His parents often call on Sunday nights and the conversation is filled with academics. They know his deadlines and expect updates. Running fast is nice; grades are valued and those Sunday conversations are motivation to stay on task. 
 
"My parents are calling me Sunday, asking me 'Hey, how was that project?" he said. "I don't want to face those questions."
 
Edwin Ngaiza lived a similar life in college, studying accounting, working maintenance 20 hours a week at the student center and playing two sports. He understands why Erick, 10 years younger, is compelled to fill his days. He is tempted to tell his younger brother to relax a bit and enjoy college in different ways. 
 
"It's a hard balance," Edwin Ngaiza said. "There are times when you want to tell him to take time for yourself. The only thing – you would have to get a B instead of an A. Knowing Erick, that wouldn't work. Grades are so important where we're from."
 
In recent weeks, Erick Ngaiza tells Shocker coach Steve Rainbolt how much he will miss college track. 
 
"I would like to think that we've been a refuge, that we've been a place where he can go and cut loose a little bit, burn off some stress, have some fun," Rainbolt said. "He has loved it. He has told me that he is grieving that is coming to an end."
 
Erick Ngaiza may allot time for sadness when he exits the Cessna Stadium locker room for the final time as a Shocker. His next goal, his next opportunity, his next chance to learn and grow will come soon. 
 
"I always joke around with him that I'm being nice to him because I'm probably going to ask him for a job," Wise said. "Or we're going to name something after him when he is successful in life and comes back and is one of our big alumni. I always joke about that, but it's kind of half-a-joke, because it could very well be true."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.