Brandon Leslie’s cautionary tale

This column appeared in the Arizona Daily Sun.

Headline: Ex-Lumberjack runner shows you can’t give up on a dream

Brandon Leslie ran away from alcohol before it was too late. But not before his life took a major detour.

Leslie arrived on the NAU campus in 1995 with impressive credentials as a distance runner, including a third-place finish at a prestigious national meet his senior year of high school. He was another prized recruit for longtime coach Ron Mann.

But Leslie, who struggled making the adjustment to college, was back in his hometown of Gallup, N.M., within a year. No longer a student. No longer a Lumberjack harrier.

In a 2004 article in the Washington Post, Leslie, who grew up on the Navajo Nation, explained how…