by Jaiven Hale is Mandan and Hidatsa from his dad Jay Hale and San Carlos Apache and San Felipe Pueblo from his mom Kyonia Hale. Each tribal culture has empowering running traditions.
Jaiven is a freshman at the University of Antelope Valley in Lancaster, California. His older brother Avery transferred from Kansas University to compete with his younger brother at UAV. Middle brother Chace is a sophomore medical redshirt runner at KU.
Jaiven was the 2017 NDHSAA Class B Individual State Champion as a junior in 16:02 and placed third in the state final last season in 16:15. Last year was the seventh straight team state championship for the Eagles. It was also the 13th crown in the past 15 years with the other two being runner-ups.
Jay and Kyonia Hale, parents to three current college runners and three daughters, live in New Town, North Dakota. Jay was a part of three NDHSAA Class B State Cross Country Championships teams in 1985, 1986 and 1988 in high school. “I also placed 12th my senior year and was All State,” said Jay. “This was one of our runner up team finishes.”
Jay has assisted head coach Brian Anderson in the New Town HS boys and girls cross country and track programs the past six seasons. He has also been an assistant high school basketball coach in the surrounding area and New Town.
There have been a few stigmas in Indian Country with outstanding athletic programs. One stigma exists that native kids will be lonesome and go home sooner than later after arriving on campus. Another stigma is that big time national college programs won’t recruit in the northern plains. After several years of consecutive state championships, New Town student athletes are only recently going to out of state colleges. There are a number of student athletes in various sports who have competed in state and regional colleges over the years.
The Hale brothers are trailblazers since they are going far beyond the borders of North Dakota to compete in college. College coaches are also trailblazers that believe in native athletes to recruit them to their institutions. “Clay Mayes reached out to me and talked about me running for him so I accepted his offer because I had nowhere else to go,” said Jaiven.
Clay Mayes is in his second year as the head coach the University of Antelope Valley men’s and women’s cross country and distance track programs. The NAIA school is in Lancaster, California. Mayes was a Big 12 All Conference 10,000 meters runner in 2009. He was also the head coach in the same positions at Bacone College leading the cross country, and indoor and outdoor track programs to national competition finishes.
The University of Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. The population of the city of Lancaster is close to 160,000.
“The sheer talent of the native community was easily able to make waves at the national level in no time,” said Coach Clay. “I have said to our assistant coach, Jackson Thomas: ‘Jaiven might be the or one of the most talented men I’ve ever come across.’ I also ran at University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, and I’ve seen my share of national champions, but I’ve never seen as much talent as I’ve seen in the native community.”
Coach Clay continued: “This past Saturday, Jaiven ran a 25.03 8k, which is a strong time at the national level, but that is not what impressed me most. What caught my attention most was Jaiven’s ability to stay grounded, humble, and focused for future races. I don’t have any set goals in mind for Jaiven, as I don’t think there is anything he cannot obtain with what he already did as a true freshman. I look forward to him becoming a role model for his community and the native community as a whole in the U.S.”
“My strengths that I bring to the team are my music, my swagger, and my smile,” said the charismatic Jaiven.
There is also a very serious side to this elite runner. “My tribal core value is my family especially my great grandfather who is 86 years,” said Jaiven. “My great grandfather inspires a strong work ethic and a healthy competitive nature. He also possesses a wicked sense of humor. I bear and carry one of his three Indian names. He is a great storyteller and a wealth of information about my Mandan and Hidatsa family and ancestors. Through my family’s love and support I push to succeed. I am their legacy. And my other Grandpa Ray is from the San Felipe Pueblo tribe and was a really strong man, was very traditional and a well respected man and treated everyone else with respect. A hard worker never a quitter had a lot of courage.”
“I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2001 and moved to the Northern Plains in 2004,” said Jaiven. “We lived in Parshall, North Dakota for eight years where I did my early running then moved to New Town in 2012. That’s when I began running in the 7th grade placing in the 40’s and 8th grade I placed in top ten. New Town High School placed in the top five throughout my high school career.”
“I placed in the top five in XC in my high school career, won a individual title my junior year in XC, have 6 team titles with the boys, and me and the boys broke the most team titles my senior year with the New Town Eagles now having 16 titles. For track I placed top eight throughout my high school career in the 1600 and 3200 and only once for the 800. I ran on the 3200 relay team and won that with my good friends Ricardo Chase, Addison Red Fox, and Robert White including two team titles,” added Jaiven.
