High school cross country season ends for some teams on Saturday with state finals at Michigan International Speedway near Brooklyn.

Many others finished their season last weekend at regional meets.

But still other runners ran their last meet of the season — and some for their entire high school career — eight days ago at Grand Woods Park of Delta Township.

The meet was the James Clyde JV Invitational, named for a 2009 Waverly graduate who ran despite cerebral palsy.

“Coach and the rest of the guys thought I was an inspiration,” he said. “That day in October six years ago, I didn’t expect it. They took off the T-shirt and it said James Clyde Invitational.”

Waverly cross country coach Robert Lurie talked Clyde into coming out for cross country as a freshman.

“When I was in high school, I was looking for a sport that I could do with some success,” Clyde said. “Cross country wasn’t on my list.”

Clyde still went out for the team, but then had to sit out his freshman year because he didn’t pass a physical due to hernias.

“But I was with the team, I went to every race, and then I started up the next year,” he said. “I came out, started running and was terrible. I was the last runner on the team. But little by little, I improved.”

Cerebral palsy severely limits Clyde’s use of his left hand, and affects the left side of his body to the extent that he walks with a limp.

“Especially as I’ve grown, there’s a lot of pain associated with it — constant joint and back pain especially — and my knees are terrible,” he said. “You fight through it like anything else. In cross country, every race is a fight. I consider life like a big cross country race. It’s a marathon and not a sprint.”

Clyde especially enjoyed being a part of a team.

“I like to do what I’m not supposed to do,” he said. “Thinking back on it now, with my physical condition back then, I wasn’t supposed to be doing this. But it was blessing, something I couldn’t have foreseen.”

He went on to attend Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, and now works helping Spanish-speaking applicants get passports.

Clyde has been back to the junior varsity meet named for him every year except 2012 to give a short speech before he helps pass out awards to the top finishers.

“I run when I can, and I always love coming out and saying a little something,” he said. “They’re an inspiration to me.”