Elijah Banks '19 Recruiting Profile

I made it to the USATF Championships final my first year running, I couldn't believe it as the announcer called my name and lane before the race. I ended up finishing second, winning a silver medal, I was exhilarated. I didn't know at the time that Track and Field was going to teach me so many valuable lessons about life and change me forever. 

I always thought Track and Field was just trying to run your fastest, but then that all changed. When I first started off running I was my coaches favorite, a young new talent. I was dominating at my meets and everything seemed so simple. I was even a race away of making it to nationals in my first year of running; however, unfortunately that didn't happen. 

The next year is when everything changed for the worse. I thought I could just dominate like the previous year with poor preparation, but everything got more strenuous and complicated. I got bumped up to an older age group and they were really fast, I was even coming in last in some of my races. On top of that I was dealing with a hip injury due to the weakness in my body, I couldn’t run as fast as I used to. I had to get stronger, change my eating habits, work harder, do things on my off time that would benefit me on the track, but I didn't. I was still young, lazy, and thought my old ways would cut it, but it never did. From that season in 7th grade I realized that if I really wanted to be good in this sport I would have to be fully committed and dedicated. 

The next year I did exactly that, I became a different person. I started doing sit-ups and push-ups every night and trying extremely hard in practice. It benefited me greatly as I kept beating my personal records. I wasn't always winning but I was improving and that was my main goal. I didn't make it to Nationals due to that recurring hip injury and that was the case for the following year as well. My coach said it was growing pains or could have been that my hips were weak and that I need to do more hip strengthening exercises, to this day I don't know exactly what it was. I was still weak and had to do even more then what I was doing, so my coach started making me go to the gym. After gym workouts the hip injury went away but my laziness came back. My hunger and confidence was low from never making it to Nationals while my teammates did. I started to think I wasn't good enough for track. There was a lot of hard work that came with track and I never had to experience that before. With being successful all the time I had to humble myself, something I didn't do when I first started running. I took what I had for granted. 

In conclusion, Track and Field is something I love and has been one of the best things to ever happen in my life, through this journey I have seen and taken away so much. My school work is my main priority, I cannot participate if I do not get good grades. I've learned that nothing will ever be handed to me in this world and without hard work I will never achieve my goals. I continue to run track although it gets hard and frustrating because I'm not where I want to be, but in due time I will. From those hip injuries I learned even when the battle gets grueling that doesn't mean to quit. Those exact battles will make you stronger for the ones next to come.