...When sports are all you have, giving up is not an option. Since elementary school, I have always participated in sports, and they have always been a big part of my life. Once I was in high school never did I think running would become my main sport; becoming my number one reason for going to school. When a former teammate told me I had the potential to go on and run in college, every day I would show up to practice, putting all my effort to perfect my times. Not once did it ever cross my mind that it was possible to have something wrong with my body, causing me to sit out from running for what felt like two eternal years. From then on, I realized this sport was all I had; it was the only thing that helped me feel better. I learned never to take my sport for granted because I had big things ahead when it came to running. The start of my first year I was new in the state of Oklahoma, and I was to start high school off with no friends. It was a bit nerve wrecking but I had decided I would join a sport to become involved at school. Since I had been on the Track team in elementary school, I decided to try out for the Cross-Country team since it was similar to Track. Soon enough came the day of my first race on the junior varsity team, the feeling of finishing a race was great and I was...
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...When I was little I loved running, I still do. The wind hitting your face, the whooshing sound in your ear, it’s amazing. I honestly thought I was blessed with super speed like the Flash for many years in my childhood. So, when my Tio Danny saw my passion for running, he began to go running with me on hiking trails and at his school. He would even sign me up for mini races at Lincoln High School when I was about 5 years old. Every time he would ask my mom to take me out, I would explode with joy. I would feel so happy and excited. Running was probably one reason I became so competitive. So, when my elementary school announced, “We will be beginning a Track and Field team, coached my Mr. Rivera and Ms. Lopez”, I was ecstatic. It was a dream...
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...I slowly turned my head towards my running back Dylan Stefanich and spit out between tears, “This game is over.” Dylan and I played football together since the first grade, at first football was closer to a game of tag, with our dads trying to corral us into the huddle and persuading us with promises of treats after the game. We grew up together; and together, we grew up with football. We stood on the sidelines now, watching the end zone clock tick away faster than ever before, as if it had someplace better to be. We begged and prayed our defense could get us back on the field, to give us one more shot to tie the game. Our prayers were left unanswered as the clock displayed a large 0:00. Our high school football careers were over, and there was nothing we could do about it. Soon after, I lost Dylan in the swarm of maroon and hideous blue jerseys at midfield....
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...Marathon Finisher jacket represents many things to a marathon runner. I think it is important to let people know about it. Running a marathon is a challenge and it can be very intimidating. After being part of those 25,000 participants for four years, I know the challenges that come along with running a marathon. C. Thesis: By learning more about my jacket, you will have a better understanding of the running culture. D. Preview of main points: First, I will discuss the Marathon Finisher jacket, and how it represents the running culture, Then, I will discuss how I identify with both this culture, and the jacket. II. Body (Approximately 3-4 minutes) A. The Marathon Finisher jacket is a symbol of the men and women who took on the challenge of running 26.2 miles and successfully finished. 1. Sub-point 1: The LA Marathon originated in 1986 after being inspired by the success of 1984 Summer Olympic Games, which was the first Olympic Games to include female runners, which were held in Los Angeles. It is a historic race that invites runners from around the world to take place to tour Los Angeles as they run through major landmarks of the city. The objective of this race is to encourage the vast amount of athletes that take part of this to accomplish a difficult challenge that not many people dare to do. Anyone who is at least 16 years of age can take part in running the marathon. Most of the participants are male runners but female runners also have an interest in taking part of this...
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...Steve Prefontaine the legend Introduction Many people have never heard of Steve Prefontaine. These people are not ignorant, they just have not followed Americas distance running. In distance running Prefontaine, better known as Pre, is truly a legend. The people that knew Pre could see the passion and desire in everything he did. Not many people have heard of Steve Prefontaine because of his short life-span. He was only 24 years old when he passed. The purpose of this paper is to inform you on who Steve Prefontaine really was, and what he achieved as a high schooler and in his college years. Methodology When I was first given this assignment, my mind started racing on who I thought was a leader and a catalyst for change. Everyone started calling out who they wanted to do and slowly but surely every famous person I knew was taken. I was really stumped and started researching “leaders” on google but everyone who came up didn’t seem interesting enough. My AVID teacher Mrs. Swain asked me what I enjoyed doing and I replied with running and she brought up Steve Prefontaine. She brought me up to speed about him and it got me interested how he for the longest time he held the record in every distance track race. As I began researching about him, most of the cites said the same thing: He held the record in every distance track meet and died at age 24. So for a while I couldn’t find out more information on him. In the article “The Legacy of Pre still lives on” gave me Pre’s...
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... | |Junior College: | |Butte JuCo (CA) | | | | | |High School:...
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...I’ve always marveled at is the way he has shown such a long-lasting appreciation for he experienced and learned while a member of the St. Bernard Cross Country program. In most cases, student-athletes in high school, graduate, move on to college or some other aspect of life, and slowly but surely, their experiences become distance memories in the recesses of their minds. Rarely, do we ever see athletes find ways of showing their indebtedness and gratitude towards their former coaches more than thirty-three years after they left high school. Such is not the case with Don Sikorski. Routinely, he has organized reunions, sometimes on a twice-yearly basis, for past runners who have competed for St. Bernard High School. The one stipulation? These social get-togethers must ALWAYS include their former high school coach, Doug Sharples. As with many runners as well as other athletes, their experiences in the sport and their interactions with their coaches have left indelible marks in their lives. For Don, it is very evident that he feels that Coach Sharples has had a tremendous...
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...Jessica is a junior and a track star at her local high school. She is a part of a family of four, her mom, dad and her sister. Jessica's best friend is named Fiona, they do almost everything together! Fiona and Jessica are both run on the track team together. Jessica has loved running all her life and it wouldn't be the same without it. Every morning at 5:45 she wakes up and runs with her dog Sherlock around her block and after school she practices with her Varsity track team. Kyro is Jessica's track coach and they are very close, he has supported her and has helped her to achieve her running goals throughout her high school career. The conflict in the book The Running Dream is when Jessica gets her leg amputated and has to learn how to live life with only one leg. When Jessica gets home, the things that she used to be able to do without even thinking, are now extremely hard. She realizes that she has taken thing for granted....
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...I began running cross country in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school. I started running as a way to stay active and as a stress relieving mechanism from the pressures of school. However, to my surprise, I quickly developed a love for the sport and enjoyed being part of something larger than myself. Running soon became the highlight of my high school experience. Being on the team taught me a significant amount about sportsmanship and the fundamentals of training. As a result I became a better runner and person. This all came to an end once I broke my foot my senior year of high school. The meet I had been looking forward to the most throughout my senior year was an annual race my school hosted called Jungle Run....
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...“I missed it by a blink of an eye. In less than half a second, I lost what I had fought so hard to gain for nearly five months,” explains Rachel Strons as she opens up about her arduous journey to becoming a varsity cross country and track star. In the fall of 2010, Rachel began her journey as a long-distance runner. Walking into her first practice, she didn’t even know what cross country had in store for her, or even how good she would be. Encouraged by her friends to join the team, Rachel was about to meet the true runner that she was. “My grade school coach had us all line up in a straight line across the 10-yard-line and told us that we were to run as fast as our legs could take us to the other side of the field. Let me told you, I was incredibly nervous.” The very first run of Rachel Strons’s career was a race to see who was the fastest on the team, and she believed that she was not going to be that person. Runners ranging from fifth to eighth grade took their positions as the coach began to shout, “Ready. Set.” Before he could shout “go”, Rachel’s heart began to pound in her chest and her legs froze where she stood. She lost all hope of leaving the 10-yard-line....
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...for success. Track, Football, and high school are all things, that I had to work hard to succeed in. My passion and the thing that motivates me in track is Olympic sprinters. My goal is to become an Olympic sprinter and being recognized with the greatest sprinters of all time. one thing I learned through life with my experiences is that to get where you want to be, hard work and determination is the key. The toughest thing in Track is running when you are fatigue, I would get close to passing out on many occasions. However, I pushed through the pain and kept running, until I felt satisfied. The feeling of running is one that I can’t explain, but it feels so good to run fast and just zoom across the track. Track season in the past, has had shaky moments with injuries and bad coaches. My junior year, I had this coach named Mr. Henson and he was ok, but he had no idea what he was doing; he ended up getting lot of people injured with his workouts. Football has been a very good thing for my life and especially when I needed a sport to take my mind off things in my life. The feeling of catching a pass after burning the secondary is an amazing...
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...is what makes his writing so much different for all the other I have read. For a long time I never knew that one person could change your life in such a way that it shapes your future. I never knew such a passion for running could be ignited by something that you never thought or saw yourself doing and by someone you could only know for a year. It was not until I was twelve and in junior high school that I found a peculiar joy with running track. Running hurdles was the most difficult of all the runs. Having to accurately time your jump and leg swing in order to clear the hurdle and make sure you did not lose any speed or hit the person next you presented a great degree difficulty. The size of the lanes always felt insufficient to the size of the hurdle, which made you feel that you were going to plummet. The most invigorating feeling was when you heard the popping of the starting gun, and then your heart would race as the sound ignites your senses and adrenaline running through your veins. Although hurdles were one of the hardest events to master when, acing it became one of the quickest short-lived moments of victory when you won that ribbon. Another devoted event that caught my interest was that of the long jump. Even though long jump was not a running event but more or less a one-on-one event, the outcome makes me feel on top of the world. As the skill was more about timing and technique, getting...
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...personally I believe it is too dangerous to play in high school. Football players sustain more than half a million injuries nationally. Injuries such as concussions, fractures and worse of all chronic traumatic encephalopathy or more commonly know as CTE. CTE was first discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The NFL and NCAA are implementing and regulating rules to make the game safer for players. Football is the leading sport in sport related injuries. In a research conducted by the Center for Injury and Research and Policy at Columbus Children's Hospital...
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...The 50th ward is a middle class neighborhood. They have people above and below the poverty line but most people are right in the middle. This is reflected in the public assets that they hold. The 50th ward is home to one public high school, Mather High school is one of the better schools in CPS. It still has its problems with gangs and underfunding, like most CPS school but, by community consensus and comparatively to other CPS schools, it is still a decent school. It is a pretty big school that contains an estimated 2,000 kids from West Ridge and the surrounding area. The real story hear though is with the private schools in the area. There are a great number of people who dislike CPS and will do anything they can to avoid it so people with the means to do so usually choose a private school. There are 8 private high schools located in the 50th ward. The great cultural diversity that West Ridge holds is reflected in their private schools. There are a handful of schools that preach the Jewish faith in West Ridge, which personally, I had no idea existed in that magnitude. The rest of the schools are catholic schools which one of them is an all-girls school. The education that is provided to the surrounding area of the 50th ward seems adequate...
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...considered for acceptance into the National Honor Society. This program is unlike any others we have at West Warwick High School since it strictly accepts students with above average grades, addition to the qualities of character such as leadership and community involvement. At the current time, I am a sophomore here at West Warwick High School, dedicating the majority of my time to school and sports, but using what little time is left for maintaining an active position in the community. I am applying to this program because it is a great opportunity to volunteer in the West Warwick community with other students. Furthermore, the program shapes students to become better individuals, though they already...
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