Back in January, when Revac Banfield arrived home disappointed at his performance in an indoor track and field meet in Spokane, a handwritten note sat in his bedroom.
It was from his mother, Camara Banfield, who like her son, was a high school state champion sprinter. She chose to convey her words on pen and paper in order to better speak from the heart, urging her son to find his joy and to do what makes him happy.
The Columbia River High senior kept the letter.
“It helped me realize,” he said, “that very terrible loss for me wasn’t the end of the world, as it felt like it was at the time.”
As the reigning Class 2A state champion at 100 and 200 meters, Revac Banfield is open about his struggles dealing with pressures and expectations on the track.
Last spring, outsiders wouldn’t have guessed the pressure-packed season Revac felt on his way to becoming Columbia River’s first state champion in the sprints by way of setting school records.
But clearing mental hurdles is all part of his own state championship path.
Mom’s golden legacy
When her children were old enough to begin extracurricular activities, Camara Banfield never pushed them to track and field. They eventually found their way there — with genetics on their side, too.
As Camara Jones at Mountain View High, she won state titles in the 100, 200 and 400 meters with school-record times that still remain today. Her 1990 state title-winning time in the 400 set a large-classification state meet record (54.58 seconds) that stood until 1998.
As a junior in 1989, she scored 36 of Mountain View’s 45 points to help the Thunder capture the Class AAA state team title. It was the first state title in a team sport for Evergreen Public Schools at a time when the district had only two high schools.
“It was phenomenal,” longtime Mountain View track and field head coach Bob Procive said.
It’s been 35 years since Procive last coached the athlete he calls the best to ever come through the school — across all sports, he said — behind a top-notch work ethic and unmatched speed.
“There were times she would do the workouts with the guys,” said Procive, who is in his 36th and final season as the Thunder’s head coach. “She really pushed herself. … She was tough.”
When reflecting on her track and field career that ended with a gold medal at the 1995 World Championships, Camara spoke of the mental space a track and field athlete can be in. Without hesitation, winning on the track was fun, she said. But other aspects? Not so much.
“It’s a crazy, mental place to be, and it’s kind of lonely, honestly,” said Camara Banfield, a Clark County Superior Court Judge since 2021 and former criminal prosecutor. “It’s not like other sports — it’s kind of lonely.
“But I love what track did for me. I love what I learned about myself.”
At Oregon, she earned All-America status four times, won three Pacific-10 Conference titles and set a conference and school record in her specialty — 400 meters.
She was inducted into Oregon’s Hall of Fame in 2008.
But before winning gold in the women’s 4×400 relay at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, she called home from a payphone to ask her mother a familiar question.
Is it OK to lose?
Renewed passion, joy
That question is now transposed into a sentence that provides comfort to her son, Revac, and daughter, Olivia, a sophomore sprinter and long jumper at River.
It is OK to lose.
“I do take it to heart; it’s not something I just listen to and move on with,” Revac said. “I actually believe what she says, and she’s always been there for me like that.”
At the annual Spokane High School Indoor Invitational in January, Revac placed 15th in the men’s 200 (23.45) with one of the slowest times of his career.
Seven months earlier, he exited Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma as a state champion — individually and as a team. He helped River to its first team title in boys track and field behind career-best times in 2024 that ranked in the top 10 across all classifications.
“That was the first time I lost so badly, and it really set me for a bit of a loop,” he said.
That, in part, is why he entered the 2025 high school season in what he described as an unhealthy mindset. From the inner-pressures of being an elite sprinter to expectations outsiders may have because of his speed genes, Revac felt it.
As this spring has progressed, however, so has the renewed passion and joy for track and field behind an improved mental space.
“It’s helping me when it comes to improvement in times as well as improvement in joy,” he said. “I can enjoy it more now that I know exactly what it means for me and what my future might entail.”
Her son’s words tugged at Camara Banfield’s emotions. At last year’s state meet, she watched her son win state titles in the same events she did in 1989.
But it’s how he won that makes mom proudest: trusting himself when the pressure reached its peak.
Entering state, Revac had 2A’s top time in the 200, second-best in the 100, and won every race in 2024, with the exception of the prestigious Oregon Relays.
“That’s what sports does,” she said. “Sports give you an opportunity to learn the hard things about yourself. It’s not really track; it’s how you respond to adversity and just finding what that means for you.”
River sprints and hurdles coach Sean McDonald said what sets Revac apart is not only how to be a sprinter, but also coming through best when times are toughest. The sprinter overcame a quadricep injury in the final weeks of the 2024 season.
“He comes up with the way to get it done more than I’ve seen in a kid in a long time,” McDonald said. … “He has fun, but when it comes down to the races, he’s all business. He’s very cerebral about things that he does and how he does it.”
The stretch run
This spring, Revac Banfield is beginning to heat up on the track as the calendar flips to May.
At River’s John Ingram Twilight on April 18, he ran season-best times in the 100 (10.99) and 200 (22.15), and anchored the 4×100 relay to 2A’s sixth-best time (43.48). He’s one of seven sprinters this spring to clock a sub-11-second 100.
But nothing gives Revac greater joy than ending his high school career on his terms. Most importantly, without pressure.
Because after all, while winning is fun, it is OK to lose.
“I really want it to end well,” he said. “I want to feel like I tried my hardest and have no regrets.”
