Ephram Evans '21 Recruiting Profile

Well in some regards I guess you could say that you are reading the personal statement of what could have been the best five star running back in the nation, but you’re not. This is due to one small fact, in sixth grade I was playing my first year of Pop Warner football, I was good, yet not great; my mother was concerned with the physicality of the sport that I had loved since a young age. So, rather than pulling me from the team to save my health, she told me that I had a beautiful running form. I'm not sure if this was true, but at the time I grabbed the idea and ran with it (no pun intended). From that point on I ran. For the past five years, cross country and track have been the true running force in my life, and like every other runner I love the thrill and I can't be happy unless I set a new personal record.                                                                                                                 

This mentality has even run into my academics, it's only rewarding to see that GPA when it has a four followed by many zero's, yet even that's not enough to satisfy my thirst to be successful; I find it only pleasing to be above 100% in some of my "easier classes." Therefore, I am challenging myself on the course and in the classroom. As an 8th grader I challenged myself by taking two high school credit classes, Spanish I and Algebra 1 (skipping right over pre-algebra). I continued this trend as a Freshman, then Sophomore, and now as a Junior. Sophomore year I took  Spanish III, AP World History, and a Dual Enrollment class. Currently, I have indulged in classes such as AP Literature and Composition, Spanish IV, Pre-Calculus, and for fun, I'm trying my hand at creative writing.

Likewise, to my satisfaction of learning, I also enjoy volunteering, I am a member of Key Club and I volunteer for two main organizations, Love Inc. and Feeding America; both of which are non-profit organizations that are based nationwide. My time with both organizations has been splendid, and I’ve loved the time I’ve spent with all of the volunteers, not only that but the time I’ve had with the impoverished citizens of my hometown, their smiles will always resonate throughout my heart. As an avid Christian I had some goals for the future, to begin my number one priority (of course with academics and running) was to start an FCA huddle in my local area. So I did, and what FCA does is create a relationship for each athlete to feel safe as they commit to Jesus Christ and his word through integrity, serving, teamwork and excellence.

This constant pursuit resonates with my work ethic, as a result, I suppose you could say that I’m trying to put myself in the best position for success. In doing so running has become the foundation of my life, it’s almost as if it's engraved in me to want to improve so that I need to improve, and so I won’t stop until I have improved. Yet, of course, this can be difficult; as my wise team captain once put it, “Once you’ve hit a certain point in your running career, whether it be breaking the nineteen, eighteen, or even fifteen-minute barriers, it all becomes a mental game fought between the mind and your body.”  It's in those moments that we learn how to quiet out the pain, and to literally say “shhh.”

When fighting through the pain of a run I use other strategies because my strongest laps on the track are the last two, as I gradually push the pace, likewise, the competitors around me pick up their speed. By the end of the race, many of the competitors are burnt out giving me the place that they had lost, this just goes to show how overall every facet of the running sport uses a strategy that is conducted by the mind yet executed by the body. My overall plan is to get faster (obviously) and I have projected myself to have run a 16:20 5000 meter run by my senior year of high school, currently my PR is a 17:16, yet I know that I can be so much faster! Likewise, I want to run below 4:30 for the mile, and below 9:45 for the two-mile, I know based on where I’m at that I am so far away from my goals, but based on the training I have been doing all year I know that I have what it takes for your team.