Brandon and Erin Marsh have always been there for each other, from Olympic trials to Red Octobers to their greatest loss

That was more like it. The Marsh children got their athleticism from their father, who was a three-sport star at Portal High School in eastern Georgia. Unlike his kids, Jake never made a career out of any of those sports, but he did pass on some valuable lessons.

The biggest was perseverance, and they saw it first hand. Jake was diagnosed with tongue and throat cancer in 2017. After he beat it, the cancer returned to his kidneys, and traveled all the way up to his head.

He was in serious pain, but that didn’t stop him from living. Jake traveled to Erin’s and Brandon’s events when he could barely walk or speak. He attended Angels spring training in March of 2021, and died on April 6, 2021 at the age of 50.

Two days later, Erin had to compete in a home meet at Duke. Brandon flew in from Arizona. The night before, they snuck onto the track with Sonja, and decided to race. The first heat was Brandon against his mother. He was wearing slides instead of sneakers, and when he took off, his slides went flying.

He kept running, and as Sonja tried to catch him, Erin began to laugh. It felt good.

“That was obviously one of the hardest times of our lives,” she said. “But nothing was more important to me than being with them in those following days. We all tried our best to keep good spirits about it all, because life doesn’t stop when something crazy happens.

“We all deal with it in our own way, but I think that we’ve all done a good job at living, still.”

In June of that year, Erin competed in her first Olympic trials. In July, Brandon made his big league debut with the Angels. Both days were bittersweet. They wanted their dad to be there. But his absence has brought them even closer.

Erin travels on the road sometimes, and stays in Philadelphia for most of the postseason. The baseball schedule is less forgiving, but Brandon has managed to catch a few track meets in person.

After the Phillies lost to the Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series last year, Brandon flew down to Santiago, Chile. He was not in the best mood, but Erin was competing in the Pan American Games, and he wanted to support her.

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