Rami Dear '20 Recruiting Profile

    The words “cross country” and "distance running" intimidated me as a freshman in high school, although I would have never thought that I would become the team captain when I started running my sophomore year. This sport really was the turning point in my life. I did boxing for a bit as my first sport ever throughout my freshman year, but it became difficult to travel out to Portland when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer late in my freshman year. Inside the ring, the diagnosis took a huge mental toll on me and thus I could not fight anymore without attaching that memory to it. She is fine now two years later, and I'm sure she would be beyond happy to meet my future coaches.

     Carrying on, this moment had caused me to become the first person to join Mountainside Cross Country in our school’s history, and just like that I had another family to go to outside of my two parents. That first cross country season had cured me of any emotional pain as well as any lack of confidence I had within me. For the first time ever, I was proud of something that I did, and that is the answer to all who have asked and those who will ask why I’m always happy and cheery at practice. It’s all because I owe it all to this sport; distance running has helped me get through my sophomore, junior and soon senior years of high school (that’s a distance far greater than a 5k race). Words cannot describe how much track impacted me as well. I had a tough battle throughout the season for the varsity spot at districts in the 800m. I never went to a single invitational but because I believed in myself, I PR'd six seconds in the 800m, which barely sent me off to compete with some of the best in my league. Throughout the season I fell in love with the event, going from 2:18 at the start and ending at 2:09 makes it the primary event that I am seeking to be recruited for. One of my biggest regrets in high school looking back now that I’m about to become a senior is not doing cross country my freshman year, while my second worst regret is not doing track my freshman nor sophomore year. I desperately wish I could go back and run cross country and track my freshman year, but I had to come to terms with that. 

    Of course that is something easier said than done; the only way I could make up for the time I missed in high school is to run in college. My aspirations to run in college are solely driven by my desire to continue racing. The adrenaline rush when the gun goes off is absolutely addictive and I cannot get enough. When that gun goes, all worries on my mind clear out and nothing else matters to me other than the race. The thought process is meditative in a way: the ability to focus and put it all into the race, it's truly the only way for me to escape life for that moment of time and participate in what matters to me most. When I say I want to run in college, my objective is not to seek praise from my peers for being a college athlete (if that's what I wanted then I would have done football growing up) but rather the objective is to continue my life the way I see best fit. To run my best times while representing the school that chose me to do so accordingly; demonstrating my leadership abilities and bringing the team with me to the top is where I think I should be at in the fall of 2020.