Marshall, 60, has been a cross country and track and field fixture in Missouri for almost four decades, including 25 years at Jefferson City High School. But this amazing run is coming to an end, as he's announced his retirement effective at the end of William Woods' track and field season this weekend.

"It's been good all the way through," Marshall said. "Like any long-term situation you get into, professionally, there are ups and downs. But I really can't complain, it's been a fun ride all the way around.

"It's something I grew to love in high school, and before I even got out of high school, I knew this is what I wanted to do for my career. You get into it and you love it as much as you thought you would, so it's tough to walk away from something you really enjoy doing.

"But you come to the realization that you can't do it forever."

Great coaches like Marshall have one thing in common, besides knowing their craft inside and out --- they care.

"Like any coach," he said, "and it doesn't matter what sport you're coaching, you grow to love the activity of relationship building. And you like being able to motivate people to do things they didn't think they could do.

"Then long-term, you like to watch the product as they go to college, then become parents and contributors to society ... maybe you played a small part in that, too."

Marshall's tenure at JCHS, from 1985-2010, coincided with a remarkable stretch of athletic success, most notably in the 1980s and 90s when the school stockpiled 19 state championships, a staggered 82 top-four finishes, and more district titles than you could shake a baton at.

"You don't realize how good something is until you're gone from it," said Marshall, who was the head cross country coach and an assistant in track and field. "When you're in the middle of it and you watch baseball (state championship) banners being hung, football banners, track ... I don't know, it's almost like a fairy-tale time when you look back on it.

"The success that was going on was just incredible. It blows my mind when you write an article and throw some of that stuff out there again --- it's like, 'I was there,' you don't realize until you look back and put it into perspective how phenomenal it was."

Marshall continued.

"You felt like if you didn't win a district title and get into the Final Four," he said, "you were in the minority. We were almost competing with each other.

"But the friendships and camaraderie of the coaching staffs --- everybody was rooting for each other, and coaches were cooperating with two- and three-sport athletes. Kids just wanted to do something all year long in some capacity, sports-wise.

"The culture has changed, we're in a different place than we were when I was there."

Marshall had a big hand in so much of that success --- 34 district titles (Jays and Lady Jays) in cross country, with 16 top-four finishes, four second-place finishes, and two state championships.

In track and field, he helped the teams roll up simply staggering totals --- 44 district titles, 24 top-four finishes and nine state championships.

Wow, just wow.

"It was fun," he said, "I was glad to be a part of that era. I feel sorry for the people over there now, they don't really now what it was like."

Marshall --- who was inducted into the Missouri Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame in 2005 --- did have several heartbreaks at the state cross country meet, or his gaudy numbers would have been even gaudier.

"It's hard to be the best and not finish first," he said. "There was that, 'Gosh darn it, we didn't get there again,' feeling. I started to wonder if having the state meet in your own backyard (Oak Hills) put more pressure on you, like having 100 people, family and friends, there for each kid.

"It was probably a little more pressure than they'd probably seen all year."

Marshall "really thought he was done" when he left JCHS after the 2009-10 school year, but he was lured to Westminster in the fall of 2010 to "help out a friend." Then ... "The next thing I know, I was coaching college for eight years," capped off with the last two years at William Woods.

The biggest difference between coaching in high school and college?

No hesitation.

Recruiting.

"The part to me that lessened the value of coaching," Marshall said, "is that you're competing at a financial level. You're trying to recruit kids and they're getting recruited by other schools, and it becomes like you're trying to sell a used car.

"They'd say ... Well, this school is giving me $2,000 more.

"I didn't like that part of it, the negotiating game, trying to compete with other schools. That's why I'd probably say I like coaching high school more, it's more purist. The money part kind of changes the purity and the innocence."

All in all, it's been a great ride for Marshall ... or a great run, if you will. Besides building hundreds and hundreds of relationships and winning so much hardware, there was another source of pride.

His teams were always good.

"Consistently, we were in the upper tier and trying to win championships," he said, "whether it's conference championships in college, or district, sectional and state championships in high school. That remained a constant, we were good enough to challenge for championships on a regular basis.

"I take pleasure in the fact that there weren't too many valleys between the peaks."

That's not to say Jim Marshall hasn't endured more than his share of valleys in life, because he certainly has.

(PART II: On Sept. 27, 2011, Jim Marshall's only son, Cody, died of a heroin overdose. Cody Marshall was only 20. The last six years, Jim has been on a crusade around Missouri to help other families avoid the same type of tragedy ... hopefully.)