Running is hard, as many of you know. I can not be the only one who dreaded when our PE teachers would say “It's a nice day outside for some stadiums or campus loops”. For those of you who don’t know that pain, imagine running up and down the bleachers MULTIPLE times on the football field or running all the way around the school in the burning hot sun. Yeah… fun times. So, I can’t even imagine running cross country or even track, running miles just for warm-up. However, there is one junior on both the cross country and track team who makes it all look easy. Take a guess at who this next athlete spotlight is. I’ll give you a hint, he places first in almost all his events. So, now that you’ve taken a guess, this week's spotlight athlete is Alfons McCoy! Now let’s see how fast we can run through the life of our very own ACHS track star in the making!
Alfons is currently a junior here at ACHS and is now on his 6th year of running track. And as you can see he has had so much fun doing it, he’s basically never stopped. As a third year varsity runner he has accomplished many things. In just this season alone, he placed first in all his events last meet against Casa Grande helping lead the Wolves to victory and has achieved 3 PR’s in the 200 meter (23.94), 400 meters (53.99), and high jump (6’ 0). Now to put that in perspective, let’s take the 400 meter event. If you look at our football field and the track around it, Alfons can run the whole thing in less than 1 minute. Crazyyyyy right! I don’t know if any of you have watched the show The Flash, but I think Barry Allen has some competition!
Now let’s see how he got to where he is now. His typical days are pretty busy and can start as early as 5:45 am. The days he has work he’ll wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, and leave his house at 6:50 am to clock in at work before 7 am. Once that shift is over around 11 am he heads home to eat, relax for a little, and then gets ready to leave for in person classes by 12:30 so he is on time. After school, he eats a banana and waits around at the school until track practice starts at 4. To end his day after track ends around 6 he’ll walk home, eat, do any homework he has to finish, and then head to bed. Pretty busy schedule right, and he’s just a junior!
Many working student-athletes know that it is hard handling school, getting good grades, sports, working, and extra practices all while trying to be a normal teenager. Alfons explained in an interview that having this busy schedule is probably the biggest impact sports has had on his life because that's like 2-4 hours everyday dedicated to just being an athlete. Although after being a student-athlete for so long, learning to have time management with having such a hectic schedule has basically become normal to him as I'm sure many of you student-athletes out there can relate too.
For the next part of the interview, I asked Alfons what’s the biggest lesson he has learned from being an athlete and it is actually something he heard recently from another athlete here at ACHS, senior Devin Pearson. Devin told him, “You’re not always gonna be the fastest runner, but you can be the hardest worker”. And I think this is something that applies to all athletes especially now. Due to the pandemic, many athletes have faced many stepbacks losing months or weeks of training time and not being able to condition as much for such a short season, but as long as you are the hardest worker out there you’ll become the best athlete YOU could possibly be.
Which leads us to Alfons biggest piece of advice. For all student-athletes out there reading this, “Try your hardest at every single practice, whether you like it or not, your coaches are right.” This is coming from a now three year varsity track and cross country runner. Many of you athletes are probably guilty of not listening to your coaches all the time, but at the end of the day they are right and are only there to make you better!
Thank you so much Alfons for being an amazing role model for all the other athletes around you. Your commitment to cross country and track is truly phenomenal and is noticed by many students, athletes, and coaches all around you. You have accomplished so much already and you still have many more years ahead of you to carry on this journey of yours. Keep being a hard working student-athlete and we know you will continue to achieve greatness. Go Wolves!
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