A Road Less Traveled: My Journey to Now, Part III

This is a series of posts describing the journey that brought me to where I am today. This is Part II of the series. If you have not read Part I and II, please be sure to do so to get caught up. CLICK HERE for Part I; CLICK HERE for Part II. Hope you enjoy!

- John Cortese

Just as I thought there was absolutely no hope for me in athletics, it all changed as I entered middle school. I was a 12 year old kid and just entering the time we all know and love known as puberty. All of a sudden I got taller, noticed some muscles growing, and other changes probably not appropriate to mention for this blog haha. I can remember absolutely LOVING P.E. when most of the kids would despise it or simply not dress up and take the poor grade. I was very competitive and took most of the activities as a challenge. I was not the fastest sprinter around (so I thought) but could run a pretty decent mile for a 12 year old. I think my best time at that age was 6:45 or so, and was able to do 10 pull ups, 25-30 push ups, climb rope, etc. All from years of playing on the playground, climbing trees, jumping up and off of objects, etc. Lesson #1- BE ACTIVE AS A YOUNG CHILD. The benefits of simply playing are unparalleled and am so glad I am not a young kid growing up in this day where playing video games is cooler than playing outside for a few hours.

There were various school sports offered for us to participate in, including soccer, basketball, and track and field. Soccer and basketball did not appeal to me, so I went with track. I had never ran track before, so the first week was simply trying out every event to see what we liked best. I can remember to this day trying out the long jump. I sprinted down the runway as fast as I could and jumped. The head coach at the time, Mrs. Neuman, commented to me “I see we have another sprinter!” And ever since then, I didn’t look back. All I needed was that one person to believe in me and have the confidence in my abilities.

Both my twin brother and I ended up being some of the fastest kids on the team, even coming close to beating the 8th graders (that was a BIG deal). He ended up being an excellent 100/200 sprinter, winning every race that year, winning the league championship 100m and 200m dash (I think there were 10 schools in our league) and breaking the school record in the 7th grade 100m and 200m dash, both which I still think stand today 12 years later. I ended up placing 4th in the 200m league championship meet and 5th in the 100m league championship. We also took the 7th grade 4x100m and 4x400m relays that year; needless to say, this was something I was not used to – winning!

8th grade was a different story. I started to enjoy working out, and my parents bought us some equipment for the garage to work out with; not that we had any idea what we were doing, but it was still fun to compete with each other. Most of the time a typical “workout” consisted of curls, bench press, leg extensions, and push ups and pull ups. All other forms of working out consisted of P.E. at school or goofing around with friends.

8th grade was the first year I was allowed to play football, and that was an experience in itself. I don’t remember much from that year, but I know it was a tough one. Most of the kids on the team had played for years, but all I had going for me was that I was faster than most of them (FINALLY).  I think we won 1 game that season. So much for winning there haha, but the 8th grade track season would be a MUCH different story.

I ended up switching over to the 200m and 400m dash; I never lost 1 400m race that season and even broke the school record 3 or 4 times, including winning the league championship 400m dash in a time of 56.5 seconds and placing 3rd in the 200m dash in a time of 25.2 seconds. My brother went on to win the 200m dash again and remained undefeated for 2 years in the event, again breaking the 8th grade boys 200m record and placed 2nd in the 100m dash in a photo finish. We also broke the school and league record in the 4x400m relay and broke the school record in the 4x100m relay.

Needless to say, that was a very very successful year of athletics for me and my brother. This was a great time for me, and finally started to feel like I found a home with football and track.

Stay tuned for Part 4 in the next few days! This is ONLY the beginning of a wild ride!

See ya,

John Cortese BS, YFS