It began with a significant pain in his right knee.

An athletic child who played basketball, baseball, and soccer, Michon assumed he had hurt himself playing sports with his friends. His parents, Arthur and Diane, weren't so sure. So they took their youngest of three to get checked out.

It wasn’t a sports injury.

“Something didn’t look right with my bone in my joint," recalled Michon. "So the doctors took X-rays and found that I had a condition called pediatric osteochondroma.”

Pediatric osteochondroma is the most common, benign bone tumor in younger, developing children. Since an osteochondroma often displays no symptoms, the tumor may only be discovered when a child notices a bump or, in Michon’s case, feels pain.

“Since it was a type of tumor, the doctors treated it right away," explained Michon. "They had to make sure that it wasn’t cancer and that it didn’t hinder my movement since I couldn’t go out and play with my friends. You couldn’t tell there was anything wrong by looking at it; it was just more of the way it was obstructing my other muscles in the area. I didn’t know what was going on; I just thought I was going to get a knee surgery. But behind the curtain, my mom and dad were upset, because if it ended up being the worst-case scenario – something cancerous – then they would have had to amputate my leg.”

It was there, at CHOP, where Michon recognized the selfless acts of the doctors and nurses in the ways in which they cared for him and it was there, at CHOP, where he gained a mature perspective on life.

“When people go through surgeries, sometimes it gives them a reality check and changes their outlook on things," reflected Michon. "So that was my 'AHA!' moment.”

The tumor was benign. With a full leg cast that went from his ankle up to his hip, Michon was out of commission for three months. Laying around watching movies replaced shooting basketballs, hitting home runs, and scoring goals, so he had to learn how to rework his muscles.

“I was rehabbing for a long time," said Michon. "Two or three times a week, I’d have to go to physical therapy, and they’d put me on machines to get my mobility back in my leg. I had to even out the muscles in my legs so I could get back to doing regular things again.”

It was there, at his physical therapy appointments, where Michon felt such respect for the physical therapists who worked with him for months of intense rehab. And it was there where he gained an unshakeable interest in the profession, a profession rooted deep in helping others.

Surrounded by his older brother, Michael, and a ton of friends who had begun to run, Michon worked himself out of physical therapy and right onto the track.

The 100 meters.

That's right, the Hawk phenom whose distance accolades read like a short novel once considered himself a sprinter.

“It’s funny though because during the fall of my freshman year, my brother took a visit at St. Joe’s, and I came with him," recalled Michon. "We were sitting in the office with Coach Glavin, and Coach was asking my brother questions and recruiting him like any other runner.

Then he looked behind my brother in my direction and was like, ‘What about you? Are you a runner, too?’

And I told him that I ran the 100 meters.

He says, ‘Son, you’re not going to be running the 100 meters.’

And he was right.”

Michon turned in a strong cross country season as a freshman at Robbinsville High School and, just like that, his sprinting days were behind him.

“I began taking running seriously my freshman year of high school," said Michon. "I realized that I was pretty good at racing and liked the thrill of it. It was during spring track of my freshman year that there was a turning point for me where it wasn’t so much about ‘doing a sport’ anymore. It was like, this is what I need to do. I got this feeling that I was made to do it. It was then when I decided that I wanted to run in college, I wanted to do it for as long as I could. That’s when my passion for running started to grow inside me. Every season after that, I just had that drive. I was fully invested.”

Fast forward through his high school career and Michon was a three-time All-State and four-time All-Conference runner for both cross country and track and field, a two-time 1600m medalist at the State Championship Meet of Champions, a four-time sectional champion, and a three-time participant at New Balance Outdoor Nationals.

Michon juggled a lot of coaches during that time. One for three years, one for a season, one for two seasons. Through that experience, he learned the different ways to successfully train.

“Once I started learning what was working for me and sticking to that kind of training, I recognized that I was competing better and racing better," said Michon. "Every week, I was getting a little bit better. I knew that I was going to go a lot further, and I knew that Coach Glavin was going to be the one to get me there.”

But for Michon,, it's just never been about that.

He does care about individual accolades... just not his own. His teammates have always come first, as you would expect from a person with and for others.

Like when he opened his junior cross country season with a second-place finish at the Monmouth Kick-Off Invitational. Michon, then-graduate student Collin Crilly, and then-junior John Walker were running in a tight pack at the front and were going to finish 1-2-3. SJU was going to win the race, regardless of the order in which the three Hawks in the front finished. Michon called Walker off, and the pair of juniors saw Crilly cross first to earn his first collegiate cross country individual win. The team was going to win, so what did it matter to Michon?

Like when Michon crossed the finish line first to win the 2019 A-10 Cross Country Championship title. He hadn’t even left the finish line chute before looking over his shoulder to find where his teammates were, wondering if training partner Matthew Scarpill was going to catch his All-Conference goal and if high school-turned-college teammate Bobby Hastie was going to PR. With a swarm of family members, friends, and fans surrounding him, Michon had his eyes on the course, caring much more about whether or not his teammates were reaching their goals in real time. He would later go on record saying he would trade his individual win for the team title, as the Hawks finished second as a program that day.

Like when he flew through the finish line of Lehigh’s Goodman Campus 8k course in 23 minutes and 53 seconds, his fastest time for that distance as well as the fastest time in program history for that specific course. The smile lasted for a couple of seconds, but then came the familiar head turn back toward the final stretch of grass before the finish line.

“It’s important that I am there for them because they are there for me," responded Michon when asked about the importance of being an exemplary teammate. "If they show up every day working hard for the betterment of the team, so am I. That's what makes a team a team. It’s kind of cheesy to say, but there’s no “I” in team. When you're working collectively towards a goal, it's a lot more powerful than one person working towards their own goal. It’s more meaningful, and when you win, you share that win with all of your teammates, and it just makes that entire experience better. The guys on the team become your family after long enough, so it's almost like you're caring for your family at school."

That’s not lost on his teammates.

“Zach was my host during my official visit at St. Joe’s," said Matthew Scarpill, a current senior captain on the cross country and track and field teams. “From the beginning, Zach has been my go-to person for anything athletically- or academically-related. When I was coming into college, I didn’t know anything about how college training worked, and Zach gave me advice through the college process. He always seemed to know the right answers. Going into St. Joe’s, I already knew Zach. He was a great runner and in his sophomore year, he began to move into the spotlight. Ever since then, he has always been a role model for myself and so many of my other teammates, because he just always gets the job done. He never complains about it. Zach quickly blended in with all of the other great leaders that I had coming in as a freshman, because he took time to get to know me and all of the other underclassmen. He still does that.”

Scarpill saw himself have a tremendous junior season in which he achieved his cross country goal of A-10 All-Conference honors (9th) before medaling in the Distance Medley Relay (2nd) and mile (3rd) at the 2019-20 A-10 Indoor Track and Field Championships.

“I never thought that I was going to become as successful as I did this year as a distance runner," said Scarpill of his junior season. "I really can attest that to training with Zach; I always had someone who was able to push me to my limits within reason every day during workouts. I became so accustomed to running at those fast paces with Zach that it became more of second nature to me. As a runner, it’s really hard to adjust to a better workout group than you’re used to. And if you’re training with someone who is breaking school records and you’re not close to that, it’s an even harder adjustment. But training with Zach has put me on the next level. He’s very consistent in workouts, and if I’m falling off even a little bit, he slows down to the point where he got the work in but wants to make sure I’m getting more out of the workout than even he did. Half of the time, I feel like I'm racing in a workout. It helped me adjust so much to not being scared when I race. And when things hit the fan, I’m so tuned in and locked in to every pace.”

Things did hit the fan for SJU's Distance Medley Relay at the 2019-20 A-10 Indoor Track and Field Championships back in March. Freshman Matthew Coffey took a fall on the first leg, and although anchor leg Scarpill was lined up next to IC4A-caliber milers, his thoughts didn’t go to a place of being defeated and saving up his energy for the following day of racing.

He felt he could catch them. And teammate Michon was a big reason why.

“I listened to Coach Glavin, and Zach was on the other side of the track telling me how capable it still was," recalled Scarpill. "He was giving me all of the other runners’ splits, and I felt like I could catch them. Working out with Zach every day, it just hurts. I have to turn my mind off because it hurts. I have to suck it up and do it. And that’s the same way I race; I suck it up and survive.”

For those looking for the happy DMR ending, Scarpill received the baton in fifth place and anchored the Crimson and Gray to a silver medal.

“I’m used to running these paces and used to having Zach in front of me to run with,” added Scarpill. “Believing in Coach Glavin’s training and training with Zach are the two biggest reasons why I am improved to where I am today.”

That leadership will continue.

“We have a great leader coming back,” said Scarpill. “Zach isn’t going to just do workouts on his own. He’s going to pace guys to get on our Top-Ten All-Time Performers List. He’s going to come to meets and run unattached in the 800 meters, mile, and 3000 meters to pace other people. It's going to help me the most, because I’ve grown so much with Zach there that it would be an extremely difficult transition to train at the level I was at without having someone in front of me to push me. When you’re alone and you’re in the front, you dictate what you run. But with Zach, he helps me dictate what I run to a degree that is so much higher than I would run without him.”

Michon graduated from Saint Joseph’s School of Health Studies and Education in May with a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary health services and minor in pharmaceutical marketing. He was accepted into graduate school at Saint Joseph’s and has begun work on his MS in health administration.

The description of Michon's graduate program reads that it focuses on patient-centered care.

That won't be a problem.

Michon is, at his core, a person with and for others. In a Health Administration program that focuses on patient-centered care and prevention, Michon adds to the field an individual who wants nothing more than to help others.

“The Masters that I’m doing is a great opportunity, and if I want to complete the masters, it’s an opportunity to work hard and work my way up," explained Michon. "I've also been thinking about going into physical therapy for a while. I’m going to weigh in on those over this next year. If I do end up going into physical therapy, the aspects of that that I'm really interested in is helping patients. It’s rewarding to see them overcome battles of their own."

Like the people who helped him.

“Zach genuinely cares about athletes," added Scarpill. "I know he won’t settle for any other role other than where he is going to be at the forefront of helping athletes.”

His legacy, to the public, will go down in Saint Joseph’s lore as one of the top cross country and track and field distance runners in the program’s 100-plus year history.

"Zach, let's admit it, I didn't know and neither did you," said head coach Mike Glavin back in May. "When you came here as a freshman in the fall of '16, nothing in your background portended the kind of legacy that you would lay down here on Hawk Hill. You have fashioned a career that numbers you among the few in the University's history of distance running... and maybe of athletics. I'm simply happy to have been allowed to go along for the ride as you took your place in the annals of Atlantic 10 cross country and track and field lure."

His legacy to those within the program? One of the greatest cross country and track and field teammates in the program’s 100-plus year history.

You can guess which title means more to him.

So the knee thing… it all worked out?

“The surgery gave me more sense of appreciation and gratitude," said Michon. "I've really been given an opportunity, and I don't want to waste it away. I want to make the most of what I've been given. Running has really given me a sense of purpose. It definitely feels good to be running for something bigger than yourself, and the lessons I learned from that childhood event… I just never did and never will take it for granted. I’ve just always wanted to show up and give my best every day. That’s what I owe to Coach Glavin, to my teammates, and to myself."

A Hawk is a person with and for others.

And Zach Michon is, and forever will be, a Hawk.