Before the 2025 Class 2A cross country state championships, Covington Catholic head coach Jeremy Mosher asked Joe Mayer what he wanted to hear as he came around the final turn with about 600 meters to go.
Mayer told Mosher to ask him who wanted the win more, the same thing his dad, Dan, said as Joe headed toward the finish line to win the Class 2A, Region 4 individual title as a sophomore.
“That’s something I’ll never forget. That was a really cool moment,” Mayer said.
Mayer pulled away from Thomas Nelson’s Daniel Filiatreau for a 10-second victory, earning the lone individual title of his high school career almost five months after his dad unexpectedly passed away.
Mayer, the oldest of six children in his family, has shown incredible strength at home, in the classroom and on the track in the last year. He is one of six recipients of The Enquirer’s Courage Award, to be presented at the High School Sports Awards show on Tuesday, June 16.
Joe Mayer surrounded himself with community after his father’s passing
Mayer graduates as one of the most accomplished runners in school history. He only won one state title, but earned nine top-three finishes at state meets and was member of three state championship relays and eight team state titles.
For all of his athletic accomplishments, his relationship with the sport added a somber layer when Dan suffered a heart attack while out on a run on June 10, 2025.
“That was a hard thing to deal with for a while because running has given me so much, but it can be destructive in an instant. It was hard to come to terms with the idea that something I cared so much about and devoted so much time to could just turn on me like that,” Mayer said.
Dan’s passing came at a usually joyous time for Joe. Having recently finished his junior year, he was attending his friends’ graduation parties, but a knee injury kept him from running in a few postseason meets. That knee injury persisted into his senior year, leading to subpar race efforts and uncertainty about how he would perform in the postseason.
As much as his coaches needed him to be a leader and extension of the coaching staff, Mayer leaned on his community for support.
“The relationships I’ve built, the people I’ve met, the way I felt loved for four straight years, unconditionally and constantly, it’s amazing. None of the numbers or PRs or anything like that absolutely does not happen without that culture that starts with the people at the center of CovCath,” Joe said.
Mosher added: “Coaching high school athletes really is a calling. You’re going to see them on the best day of their life, you’re going to see them on what feels like the worst day of their life. For many of them, they get disqualified or whatever else. Some of them, you do see them on the worst day of their life. I think with Joe, the thing that’s made him a great runner is that he’s so even keel. He doesn’t get too high and doesn’t get too low. It’s preternatural.”
Joe Mayer mirrors his father’s best attributes in caring for his family
While balancing a 3.99 grade-point average, being the class president, an AP scholar and a member of the National Honor Society, Joe became the man of the house.
He added his name to the family Costco membership to pick up groceries when needed. He made sure everyone was home when they needed to be and always took part in the family prayers, even FaceTiming in if he was out of the house.
“It’s been really uncanny how kind and helpful he’s been, but it’s neat that (his siblings) have seen him continue to work hard this year,” Joe’s mother, Elizabeth, said. “I did tell the kids right away that we would not despair, that we were going to live with joy and gratitude, and I’ve reminded them constantly that this is how we’re going to choose to live, and he’s really risen to that challenge.”
He has mentored all his siblings but fostered a deeper relationship with his brother, Michael, teaching him the importance of faith and work ethic.
Those character attributes come from his father.
Dan, who received a Catholic education at Newport Central Catholic, Bellarmine University and Xavier University, took Joe to daily mass before school twice a week. When Joe got a speeding ticket, Dan gave him a stern talking-to but drove him to a track meet and prom the next day.
Dan lost his mother, Karen, when he was in high school. The way he responded to tragedy set the standard for how Joe has lived in the past year.
“He chose to grow and to be someone who touched everyone he met and day in, day out, embody the values that we wanted to instill in his family,” Joe said.
At graduation on May 18, Mayer spoke as the student body president about being a model of unconditional love to everyone you meet. Just a few days later, after Rowan County seventh grader Walter Boone completed the 3,200-meter run at the state meet, Mayer took a few minutes to congratulate him on his effort.
It’s not uncommon for him to support up-and-comers in the running community. He made a habit of attending middle school track meets and talking to future Colonels.
“For a kid like him to come up to the younger ones, I think they really liked that he would go to those middle school races, just to see the new kids that are coming up and encourage them,” Elizabeth said.
As Joe heads off to college, he won’t be far from home and family. After receiving Division I interest during his high school tenure, he chose to forego college athletics and enroll at the University of Kentucky. He won’t leave the sport entirely, looking to participate at the club and intramural levels with some of his former Covington Catholic teammates.
It’s just the latest example of his maturity and prioritizing what matters most.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Joe Mayer a model of courage for family, teammates after his father’s death