Life Saver

Back to my freshman year in high school. I had a couple of friends, but I felt like there weren't many people to talk with. I liked to play soccer, but the tryouts for it had not started yet and I wa trying to find out something or someone that could help me to train or get faster for soccer. No teacher or anything there wanted to help me out, so I decided to just run on my own like in the neighborhood of the school. It was like september and I still had time till soccer tryouts which were till the start of December. One day I went on my run, I had already ran a couple of miles and it was getting late, like 7 p.m. and I still decided to go run the last 3 miles. I started to run and when I reached half of the course, that's when things took a turn. I saw a couple of guys up ahead and it didn't seem like much at first, but once I passed them, they started to chase me and I tried to run away from them. Then, I was cornered and these guys seemed like they had no good intention and out of nowhere, someone came in their black GMC Sierra and got out with a baseball bat and told them to beat it. They ran away and the guy told me to get in the truck and he would take me back to the high school so I could get my stuff and that he would give me a ride home. I asked him how did he know that I went to the high school and he said he was the cross-country coach at the high school and that he had seen me run and decided to follow me today, just to see my running. He said that he wanted me to run for the team and that I had some potential and seemed a bit better than some guys that were already in the team. I agreed and after school, I started to go to practices and get faster than I already was. I started to get more friends from the cross-country team and I would get more recognition from other people from the school that I didn't even know. I did decent in my first season of cross-country and I had a good condition for soccer and I decided to run track because the same coach was there. Coach Smith is a great person and he technically saved my life. After freshman year, I kept running and getting faster and better and when it was track season in my sophomore year I was running varsity level. I didn't get my letterman because coach had forgotten to give me the packet, but I got it for junior year and junior year in cross-country was one of my best years because I got my best PR and I got a whole bunch of medals. I started to get more popular in school and my junior and senior year I was the MVP for my cross country team and I was also the team captain for those 2 years. I received a couple of recognitions and like 2 scholarships all thanks to my coach. If it weren’t for me, I would of not been alive or not have probably not achieved anything in high school. My shout out and thanks is to my former cross-country Coach Mark Smith. He helped me be who I am today.