Owen Buie has played a lot of roles at Paris.

Buie has run cross country and played football in the fall, has participated in track and baseball in the spring and is preparing for another winter of basketball. The senior signed on Nov. 21 in the Paris High School gym to run cross country and track at Quincy University.

Buie has a loaded high school running career as he just finished his third straight trip to state cross country with the team. He also has competed in the 4x800 relay the past two state track meets. After his senior track season, Buie believes he found a good fit at Quincy with its smaller size for an easier transition and plans to study history and education.

“It feels like home,” Buie said. “I met the team, and everybody is amazing. Coach (Ryan) Palm and coach (Doug) Savage, they’re all just amazing. The campus was just what I was looking for.”

His father and cross country head coach Doug Buie has coached his son all four years of high school since he was a freshman in track. Unlike his other athletes, Buie went along on his son’s college visits as a father and liked how the coaches connected with the athletes.

“It’s hard to distinguish happiness between a coach and a father that your kid is going to run at the collegiate level,” Doug Buie said. “He’s really found a great home in Quincy. We set a couple of visits, and it was a great experience.”

Doug Buie said he is excited to see what his son can do when he focuses on one sport. Owen Buie has remained busy during the year and encountered an especially demanding schedule in the fall. He practiced football for two and half hours and then cross country after that and would have cross country meets the morning after a football game Friday night.

“It wears on the body,” Doug Buie said. “His potential, we haven’t even unlocked yet. The older you get, the more playing time you get playing football so some of the injuries mount up. We’ve had some injuries the past couple years with some tackles to the legs. Most football athletes have the time to rest it up.”

Doug Buie said Paris 8-man football head coach Cody Carney has helped Buie improve not just his strength but speed and he “couldn’t be more thankful” for Carney. 

Owen Buie said he has one year of youth running experience before running track in middle school and increasing his mileage with high school cross country. At the time, he said he didn’t think running was his sport because he thought he was more of a football player. Buie said he is grateful to his father for helping him become a more committed runner.

“It really stems from my dad running marathons,” Owen Buie said. “He got me into it. He would take me running with him sometimes when I was younger so I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Owen Buie beat his personal-best 5K time by 20 seconds at his most recent and final state cross country race with a time of 19:22.3. He had his season-best time on that same Gans Creek course at the previous year’s state meet. 

Buie said he ran about 250 miles over the summer and admitted it was tougher because of his dual-sport responsibilities. He said he dealt with “a couple bumps and bruises” from football that prevented him from running in some meets, but he managed to stay healthy. 

“There’s a lot of lactic acid that builds up after games,” Owen Buie said. “Practice days are the most difficult because we go from a grueling two and half hour football practice to a two hour cross country practice right after.”

Doug Buie said he is happy for the program because his son’s teammate and friend, Landen Chapman, signed to run at Columbia College a week prior. He said seeing multiple Paris runners going to compete in college shows how much time they have dedicated to the sport, and his son said it was fun doing it with others.

“Getting to run with people,” Owen said when asked what he enjoyed most about the Paris program. “It’s amazing how much this program has grown and being able to go to state our first three years as a team has been amazing. It’s been great to be able to run with someone like Landen, who pushes you every day at practice.”