Pushing forward

It was shortly after three in the afternoon when 16-year-old Derek Jensen got the call. He was at school at the time and he was outside teaching the younger children how to play a game called flicker ball, a football passing game, when Mr. Moore, his high school principal and his track coach grabbed him and told him he had a phone call.

It was shortly after three in the afternoon when 16-year-old Derek Jensen received the call. He was at school at the time and he was outside teaching the younger children how to play a game called flicker ball, a football passing game, when Mr. Moore, his high school principal and his track coach grabbed him and told him he had a phone call.

Mr. Moore was strangely silent as the two walked back to the school and Derek noticed that he was very serious, but it wasn't until he was told to take the call in Moore's office that he knew something was wrong.

It was his father on the phone calling from Las Vegas telling him that his mother, an indestructible, active woman, had gone out on a walk and had passed away unexpectedly from dysrhythmia and a buildup of scar tissue on the heart.

Her name was Lari.

"I was just blown away. I didn't know what to think. I could barely talk," remembers Derek. "It seemed like I wasn't even crying. I was so struck, and then I sat down and calmed myself down. Then I realized what happened and I fell apart."

It was April 19 when Derek received the phone call, a little more than one month ago nearing the end of his junior year at Noxon High School and directly in the middle of the track season.

Derek and Lari have always been close. Having a budding three-sport star as a son, Lari was a fixture at sports games both home and away.

This past fall, when Noxon had one of their best football seasons in recent memory, Lari was at every game to watch Derek play center.

Then, when Derek joined the wrestling team for the first time this year and went to state in the 215 lb. weight class, Lari made it to every meet within six hours of Noxon where she would happily tell everyone around her "that's my son" and after every win "it's his first year of wrestling."

And then when track season started Lari was always there cheering on Derek in the sport that she had excelled in growing up, placing second at state in Nevada in the 100m dash and placing at state in the 110m hurdles.

"She always came to support me in everything I did," explains Derek. "I look back at the pictures and videos from the track meets and I see her there sitting next to me and we're talking. That's all I have now."

The track season was shaping up to be a great one for Derek. After missing out on a trip to state in the shot put last year by one place, Derek was near the state lead in the shot put this year and not just eyeing a trip to state, but a first place finish.

However, the promising season could have easily been cut short after he received that phone call. Not only were questions raised whether he should continue on with track, but whether the family would continue living in Noxon.

It was three years ago when the family moved to Noxon, a decision that came about when the group had visited the North Shore Campgrounds, north of Trout Creek. The attraction was immediate. The Jensens planned on staying at the campground for a few days, but ended up staying for weeks.

Then, after Lari retired from the Fire Department in Las Vegas, she became the driving force in the family for them to move to Noxon in August before Derek's freshman year.

It was this beautiful location where Lari went on a walk with her dog after lunch on April 19. She walked there often and was most likely playing catch with the dog in the water near the North Shore where she was found sitting peacefully in the middle of the road.

"It was peaceful. She was out doing what she loved and where she loved to be," says Derek. "That was the first place where we came to start enjoying this place...and for her it's where she left it."

Still the ties to Las Vegas are strong. Brian, Derek's father still works there as a firefighter (he's set to retire in June) and was there when he took the call from the Sanders County Coroner the day Lari passed away.

"The first decision we made was just to stay here," says Brian. "I told him that if he ever wanted to go back to Las Vegas I would understand, but he really enjoys school at Noxon. He's been successful at athletics at school and he really likes it and there's no reason to leave."

The second decision was to keep pushing forward, both in track and life.

"We have to stay focused and keep moving ahead. That's what I would want if (Lari) were here, and I know he expects no less. As bad as we feel, there's nothing we can do to change it and falling apart won't make it any better," says Brian.

So with this in mind and needing something other than his own grief to focus on, Derek joined the track team for the track meet in Libby.

That weekend he would go onto break his own personal record in the javelin and set the state-high mark in the shot put for Class C at 45-5, only five days after he lost his mother. It was a mark that stood for almost a month until it was broken during the District Meet.

"There are no words that can describe how I felt about how he did there," says an emotional Brian.

For Derek, the record didn't just come from him.

"I know that when I pumped out that 45 it wasn't all me there," says Derek.

Now Derek has his thoughts on state. After finishing first in the shot put at the District Level, Derek punched his ticket to the state meet for the first time this past weekend by placing fifth at the Divisional Meet in Missoula.

It was a struggle for Derek who didn't come close to his best mark and saw another thrower launch the shot past his personal best, 45-5, leading Brian to think that with everything happening off the track, Derek was putting too much pressure on himself.

However, he's still heading to state where he has his eyes on a bigger prize, the state trophy.

It's a victory that would be even more special to Derek and his father as they struggle to keep everything afloat after having a hole ripped in their family.

"If I would win that," says Derek pausing to compose himself. "It would definitely mean a lot."

"Ever since I started track it has always been to make her and my dad happy, to make them proud, so I've always kind of dedicated it to her and it means even more now," says Derek.

For Brian he'd love the trophy, but for him it's what Derek has already done that makes him proud.

"I would be proud of him, not so much of the medal, but just for the fact that he stuck with it and didn't quit; he didn't give up; he didn't fall flat on his face and he didn't let the odds overcome what he set out to accomplish," said Brian.

It's both perseverance and determination that Derek undoubtedly inherited from his mother. In school she was known as "Sugar Ray McSwain," because she never lost a fight and when she was sixteen she rescued a family from a burning car, the moment in her life where she learned that she wanted to be a firefighter.

As for what she would say to him now for fighting onto state there's no question for Derek what Lari would say and how she would feel.

"She loves to watch me get out and do my thing. When I succeed in what I'm working at, it just means as much to her as it does to me. That's just how she is."