August 2008 Advocate cover features silver medalist Darvis "Doc" Patton.
Darvis Patton, who graced our cover in 2008 right before his Olympic appearance, hopes to run in London 2012. If he makes team USA, this will be the third Olympics for the 34-year-old Lake Highlands High School graduate.
For Patton, whose friends call him Doc, the 2008 Olympics was a disappointment.
He recently told NBC5 reporter Brian Curtis that he thought he let his country down after an eighth-place finish in the 100-meter sprint and a painful-to-watch relay in which he and teammate Tyson Gay dropped the baton.
But things are looking up for Doc, his coach tells the reporter.
“Doc is doing great,” Coach Monte Stratton says. “He continues to amaze me.”
The trails are Friday and Patton is optimistic about his chances of making the U.S. track team, he tells NBC.
“I am looking forward to representing the United States once again.”
In our 2008 interview, Patton credited LHHS track coach Buzz Andrews with pushing him to succeed academically so that he could join the track team.
“I’ve always known I was fast, but the first two years of high school, I was ineligible for sports due to grades.”
Darvis "Doc" Patton had a rough run in the 2008 Olympics, following a spread in our magazine. Hope it wasn't the Advocate curse.
But early during his junior year, Patton said, Andrews spotted him.
“Buzz was like, ‘Uh uh. You are not going to fail anymore.’”
Patton started college at Garden City Community but later transferred to TCU. He has won three World Championship Medals and his relay team took home the silver in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
