More than a coach: the journey of Marshall’s Marie Sample
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MARSHALL -- Long before she guided Marshall High School to a state championship or earned a spot in the Minnesota State Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Marie Sample was a young girl growing up on a pig farm near Lake Andes, South Dakota.
It was there, she says, that she first learned the value of hard work.
“I grew up on a pig farm near Lake Andes, South Dakota. That is where I learned how to work hard,” Sample said. “I was going to school, and had a track coach and basketball coach that said, ‘You have to get out of here.’ I was the first one in my family to graduate college and they told me I have talents and to go on and do something.”
She did exactly that.
Now entering her 15th season as Marshall’s head cross country coach, Sample has built one of Minnesota’s premier programs. Since taking over in 2012, she has led the Tigers to numerous state meet appearances, highlighted by the program’s first state championship in 2023. Earlier this year, her accomplishments were recognized with induction into the 2026 Minnesota State Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
But the journey to becoming one of the state’s most respected coaches didn’t begin with running.
Sample accepted a basketball scholarship to Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota.
“I played basketball because I did not think I would be a very good runner,” she said. “My best mile time in high school was a 5:25, and I had a love for basketball at the time.”
That decision ultimately changed her life in more ways than one.
Because the women’s basketball team lived in the only coed residence hall on campus, Sample met her future husband, Dave, a distance runner.
“A couple of days later, he asked me to go on a walk,” Sample recalled. “We became friends, and he took me to meet his dad, which is where I really got started in running. He taught me about my faith, and how if you work hard at anything, you can make a difference in the world. He told me I would go on to do great things, and said, ‘Let’s do this,’ so we started running together.”
At first, keeping up wasn’t easy.
“He would take off, and I would just follow him,” she said with a laugh. “I worked really hard to keep up with him, and eventually that is what I did.”
The improvement came quickly. After an invite to a meet the next winter, Sample won the mile at a meet in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and discovered she had far more potential than she ever imagined.
She went on to become a three-time All-American in both cross country and track and field before competing professionally. Her running career eventually included an appearance at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston.
After her competitive career, Sample turned her attention to coaching.
She began working with Marshall’s junior high program before moving up to the junior varsity level. In 2012, she was promoted to head coach of both the Tigers’ cross country and track and field programs.
While wins and championships have followed, Sample believes the program’s foundation extends well beyond times and trophies.
“I learned how to serve others, how to love others, and how to build people up,” she said. “Those all go right along with how we run our program.”
That culture reached its pinnacle in 2023.
Marshall had qualified for the state meet year after year, often competing against the state’s largest schools, but the championship had always remained just out of reach.
“We used to only have two classes of cross country,” Sample said. “Because of how great our fall sports are, it is hard to get kids to come out for our sport, especially with how challenging it is.”
She believes the 2023 group finally broke through.
“That was the year we finally got over the hump,” Sample said. “We had gone to the state meet 12 out of the last 14 years, competing against the biggest teams in the state. At several times, we were ranked among the top teams in the nation but could never get the title. To be able to go to the state meet that year and win it was special.”
The victory carried even greater meaning because one of her daughters, Ally, was part of the championship team.
“All three of our daughters ran, but to get that state title with Ally on the team was incredible,” Sample said.
She still vividly remembers the decisive moment of the race.
“With about half a mile to go, our three seniors just kicked it into another gear,” she said. “They passed multiple runners, and that ended up making the difference.”
What made that team unique, she said, was its selfless approach.
“The kids didn’t care about individual places,” Sample said. “Everything was about what was best for the team.”
Although the Hall of Fame honor recognizes decades of success, Sample says the award is about much more than victories. Instead, it serves as a reminder of the lessons she learned from her father-in-law years ago.
“This recognition all ties back to my father-in-law,” Sample said. “When I met him, I was a freshman in college and trying to figure life out. All of the values he taught me, we brought to this program, which has led to the program’s success. How he lived his life, and how he treated others, is what I wanted to give back to people.”
For Sample, the greatest legacy isn’t measured in championships or accolades. It’s found in the values she passes on to the next generation of runners, the same values that transformed a basketball player from rural South Dakota into one of Minnesota’s most accomplished high school coaches.