When his father walked through the door into the living room with bad news, the 6-foot-5, boy crumbled to his feet and sobbed. Augare-Deal would be without his anchor. Nali had died.

All he could think was, “this is all my fault.” Augare-Deal’s grandmother had taken care of him during his parent’s divorce. Right as Nali was diagnosed with cancer, Augare-Deal moved away.

Augare-Deal had left behind everything he ever knew, including his beloved grandmother.

Soon, his deep-rooted love for running would help him overcome his struggles and recognize his new home in Maryland.

Raised in Gallup, Augare-Deal and his older brother, Kendon, began running as soon as their legs could carry them. With two intercollegiate athletes as parents, the brothers swiftly gained recognition as emerging sports stars in their community.

Their school had limited resources, and the school Augare-Deal attended until the seventh grade did not have the funds to have an established track or cross-country team, much less sufficient training equipment.

Still, Augare-Deal had people who understood his ethnicity and culture. He felt at home, given his high school’s majority Native American population. (Augare-Deal associates with the Dine’ tribe from the Navajo Nation and the Ampskapi Piikani from the Blackfeet Nation.)

When his mother informed him of their impending move to unfamiliar Rockville, Md., in 2021, to support her new job in the government, Augare-Deal felt a profound sense of loss.

“I grew so attached to Gallup, it was like I left a part of me back home,” he said.

At Springbrook, the brothers would have athletics to fall back on. Both are tall, with legs that are disproportionately long to their torsos, known as runner’s legs.

Before they even enrolled in classes at their new high school, Springbrook cross-country coach Gary Frace heard he would have two new talented athletes entering the fold.

“When they got here, it was like hot butter through a knife,” Frace said of their acclimation to the team.

However, Frace’s perspective was confined to their interactions during practice, as he never observed them during the school day.

“They would come home, and I can recall just them saying, ‘Oh my gosh, mom, there are no natives, and it’s only us,’ ” their mother, Rael, said.

Rael was intentional in her selection of the boys’ high schools. A strong athletic department, exceptional academics, and a diverse student body were high on the mother’s list. Springbrook checked all the boxes.

According to the U.S. News & World Report, the minority population at Springbrook is 94 percent. In fact, Frace compared his team to the “United Nations.” Soon enough, Uriah began to fit in with the rest of his team.

Still, his time at Springbrook has consisted of challenges.

In class, a teacher discussed the change of Washington’s NFL team’s name from “Redskins.” The class was having a debate about the merits of the name when a classmate asked Augare-Deal what he felt about it. Augare-Deal tried to explain it in the simplest way possible: He said being called that slur felt the same to him as how he would imagine a Black student feeling if a White student called them a slur.

“I’m pretty sure they never saw a Native American before me and Kendon,” Augare-Deal said.

Additionally, he felt the tug of the ties of his previous home. Before his family moved to Maryland, Augare-Deal’s grandmother had urged them not to leave her. As a consolation, Augare-Deal promised to keep in touch with her frequently. He felt he failed to keep that promise. Then he lost her.

Struggling with his mental health following her death, Augare-Deal did not want to return to Maryland. But after confiding in close family members about his emotions, the then-sophomore turned to the one constant in his life: running.

“I would just run, and that’s when I feel like everything fades away for me,” Augare-Deal said. “It’s just me, myself, and my music. Everything disappears when I’m running.”

This therapeutic approach led to him becoming Springbrook’s top runner. Last November, Augare-Deal finished with a personal record time of 17:36 at the Montgomery County cross-country championships. At the Maryland 3A West region track and field championships in the spring, he placed fourth in the high jump.

When the brothers embarked on their runs, Rael would attach eagle feathers to the back of their jerseys. These feathers held significance as symbols of strength and protection. At state meets, fellow athletes would gaze at them, to the extent that Augare-Deal would occasionally check his back to ensure nothing was amiss.

At first, the glances concerned the runner. Now, Augare-Deal hopes his feathers become seen by runners in every meet he runs, fading into the distance as his long legs carry him home.