Discover how the Stark Metro Panthers are making their mark beyond academics and leading the way in high school success. Learn more here!
Below: In the last two years, Metro Classical Academy have produced the most prolific scoring basketball player in the region (Amari Foluke (left with basketball) and the state 100-meter and 200-meter sprint champion (Jaydon Marley, right in a regular season meet), despite long being viewed as a topflight academic school only. Photos courtesy of Metro.
It’s a school, whose academic reputation precedes itself rather positively: Metro Classical Academy in the city’s Midtown area. Last year U.S. News and World Magazine ranked Metro as the top public high school in the state of Missouri, with the more affluent and heralded Ladue and Clayton, finishing right behind third and fourth. In 2018 and 2020, Metro garnered the top honors also.
Fast forward over to the athletic events, where for years Metro’s signature success was the Lady Panthers basketball program on a state-wide level, which culminated in the Panthers winning consecutive state titles in 2006 and 2007. The girls track and field programs also had local and state-wide success at various junctures, but for the most part, the boys programs languished in the Public High League shadows of the likes of Vashon, Career Academy and Gateway in various sports. Such is not the case anymore.
The Panthers closed out the spring school year, as the hottest PHL athletic program with some of the league’s best and brightest performers. That was a mere carryover from the previous school year (2022-2023) when Metro’s boys basketball standout Amari Foluke, completed one of the most storied individual runs in league history when he won the entire region’s scoring title with a 31.0 point average.
As it turned out, Foluke would not be the only recent Metro champion of sorts for long: A couple of months ago at the state track and field meet, Jaydon Marley captured state titles in both the coveted 100 and 200-meter dashes to become the first Metro athlete in 12 years to win an event at the state track and field meet. Marley’s blazing 10.72 seconds recording in Missouri Class 3 stacks favorably with champions of higher enrollment in the state and Midwest region.
On the girls side, Metro’s Leah Macon-Ford placed third in the100-meter finals and distance ace Lucy Luetkemeyer placed fourth in the 3,200 meters. For good measure, Metro’s boys 4×800 meter relay team of Keteylan Cade, Ben Keoslkeria, Martin Galburt-Ruiz and Sam Estrada made it to state but didn’t medal, although they did break a school record in that event by 10 whole seconds, 8 minutes, 15 seconds.
Save for the Metro heroics, the other Public High League medal winners at state were few and far in between: Vashon’s Jacobi Green who won the discus with a throw of 168-feet, 11 inches and Career Academy’s Angel Mimes who took third place in the 200 meters.
“Jaydon and Leah were both excellent leaders to their teammates on and off the track and (they) also excelled in the classroom,” said Metro coach Keith Custis. “Jaydon was the first Metro athlete in 12 years to win a state title in any event, and then he did it again three hours later. His 200 meter race was as perfectly run a race as I have seen in person. What was most amazing was that it was his sixth race in two days.”
“Coming off the curve, I gave it everything I had left in the (finishing) kick,” explained Marley.
But track and field weren’t the only banner sports for Metro this past spring. The girls soccer program was a legitimate state contender and posted a 16-2 record, in losing 2-1 to Elsberry in the playoffs. Goalie Molly Elliot was credited with 11 shutouts and the trio of Eva Malone, Indya Nea and Janya Clark produced prolific offensive numbers: Malone with 33 goals, 17 assists, Nea with 22 goals and 19 assists and Clark with 22 goals and four assists.
“I’m so happy with the success that Metro has been able to have athletically across the board,” said Metro athletic director Tenelle Bufford. “Our girls soccer team was number 1 in the state (Class 1, small schools) rankings and were a couple of games from making it to state. Our boys soccer team took home a district title this year. Our girls basketball team made it to the sectional rounds. Our track teams had (several individual and relay teams) success at state. Our coaches have done a wonderful job of building a culture that has kids willing to try our for track and field. And they are taking that talent and making us a formidable team. As an alum of Metro and now serving as the AD, I am so proud of our growth outside the classroom.”
Likewise Bufford credits the community with supporting the school beyond academics and consequently helping broaden its image.
“The community really comes together to make sure our student athletes know they can succeed and carry over the expectations academically into the athletic realm,” he explained. “We aren’t just a bunch of nerds and artists”
Indeed, Foluke, who became the first Public High League boys basketball player to win the entire metropolitan area’s scoring championship since Albert Thomas way back in 1988, is now at Hampton University. He was also a key member of the track and field team, getting a medal at state in the triple jump. But he drew raves for his character as well as his athletic prowess, as evidenced by comments made by Jason Julian, a the founder of Urban K-life, a local mentorship and discipleship program for youths.
“He (Foluke) is an amazing young man simply as a person,” said Julian. “He is very coachable and teachable and extremely respectful. He works very hard and it shows in the results, both inside and outside of the classroom.”
That’s the point that Bufford is stressing about the new-era Metro students.
“We are athletes as well who were able to put together a brilliant sports campaign this past year,” said Bufford. “It’s a privilege to be around these kids. They make us all look like we know what we are doing.”
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