Nathaniel Tamplin '19 Recruiting Profile

    I started track in 8th grade. Like most athletes  I wasn't that confident in how good I was because I had never done something like this before. By the end of the season, Alen Paciorek  (my coach) approached me and told me that i had potential for running and asked me if i wanted to join cross country. So I tried it, and found that it was better than what i thought it was going to be. After running cross country my freshmen year I found that I liked it more than track. My sophomore year I was better from the start. My second  race of the season I ended up breaking my personal record. Unfortunately that wasn't the only thing that broke. I ended up fracturing my leg in that race and it put me out for rest of the cross season. I recovered and strived to get back to where I was. I was able to run track later that year. It's my junior year now and I ended my cross country season on a good note with a personal best of a 19:11 at regionals. I think it was a great comeback after missing out on most of the prior cross country season. Now i'm about to go through my junior year of track and expect to do better than the last.

    Running is not the only thing that I do. I was a boy scout until I aged out this past year (2018). I achieved Star rank and learned many important lessons along the way. How to treat others respectfully, how I can help them out, and basically how to leave a positive mark wherever I go. I also volunteer at my church as a teachers aid. The lessons I learned in scouting and working as a teacher's aid at church carry over to my sports too. When i fractured my leg  in that cross country season I realised that I could make a difference from the sidelines. I was sad that i couldn't run and had to watch from the sidelines, however that didn't stop me from taking times and cheering my team on. I felt that while running for the team is important and helps them out, another thing the team needs is to have someone there to cheer them on. Because of this, these events have inspired me to be a coach in the future. I hope that through my positive attitude I can inspire other athletes and future students to have the same team spirit and winning approach to not just sports, but to all areas of their lives.

current status as of September 24th 2018: leg injury causing me to be shut down from running. the problem: Bursitis in my left leg.