Sports have always been a big part of my life, but Cross Country is something I never would have seen coming my way. Regardless, Cross Country has had such a positive effect on my life, as well as the lives of pretty much every person I met during my time with the sport. The memories that I have from my time with my teammates and coaches are invaluable and innate to who I am today. I can honestly say that the sport and the people I was surrounded by changed my life. Before I tell you what I learned, here is some background.

I began running Cross Country in my sophomore (wise fool) year at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School. It was an odd surprise to me when one of my friends, Skip Martin, had asked me if I was interested in running with the team. I had just quit football at my high school, and I did not have anything better to do so I agreed to try it out. I NEVER knew that I could be so tired from participating in a sport. Luckily for me, I was built like a runner, and within two weeks things got easier. During summer workouts, we would meet at the school at 6 a.m. and run four miles, and then we would meet back up at 5 p.m. to run six more miles. We would do this everyday except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when would run a "hard workout" instead at 5 p.m. These hard workouts are where you really tested yourself both physically and mentally. My coach, John Terino, made sure we were giving it our absolute best on every hill workout, quarter-mile, half-mile or mile workout. I would always hear him yelling words of encouragement during our runs, and believe me when I tell you that you can hear this man's voice from anywhere! Coach Terino is a true leader and man of character. He is one of my favorite memories of high school, and without a doubt one of my favorite role models. He had this amazing way of talking you up and encouraging you and he is the reason that I wanted to be a leader in any endeavor from that point forward.

Now what did I learn from running Cross Country? I learned to always be prompt because it shows that you have respect for what you are doing and the people you are doing it with. I learned to always give 100 percent, because if you aren't then what is the point in even doing it at all. We ran to win races and bring home "The Wood" (this is what we called the State Championship trophy.) I learned that if you persevere at something long enough, you will eventually reach your goal. Our team consecutively placed runner-up at the Alabama State Championships twice before we brought home our first State Championship trophy in November of 2012. I learned to never look back at the runners behind you because it shows that you are weak and tired, and the people behind you will use that as motivation to run you down (this could be true for many life situations.) I learned that many things in life are perceived to be unattainable because we believe it to be so. Cross Country is said to be 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. I find this to be true to many more things than just sports, and this is probably the most important thing I have learned from Cross Country. If you want something bad enough, believe you can do it, and work hard, then you will be successful. Your willpower can be your greatest ally, or enemy. All you have to do is make your choice.