Being a good athlete means more than simply being good at your sport. The qualities and character that an individual possesses are what truly make a good athlete. The benefits of having a strong leader on a team outweigh the benefits of a skilled but untrustworthy team member.
Sophomore Roman Wyatt demonstrates these desirable traits and participates as a quality runner on Texas High’s track team.
“Roman has a lot of characteristics of a leader,” head track coach Astin Greer said. “He is somewhat of a quiet guy who leads by example.”
The effect of his leadership can be observed throughout the entire track team.
“It’s good to look up and see a group of guys with Roman because I know that he’s encouraging them to do the right thing and they will fall in behind him and try to do right because he does right,” Greer said. “He’s somebody that we are really glad is on our team cause he makes our team better because of the person he is”
Wyatt puts in an extreme effort to maintain his value to the team.
“You just have to remember all the hard work you’ve done,” Wyatt said. “all the blood, sweat, and tears you put in to be where you are now makes it worth it.”
A good athlete stands out because they recognize the work necessary to improve before ever making it to a meet.
“Practice is the hard part of track, track meets are the easy part of track all you have to do is run and be done,” Wyatt said. “during practice is where all the heat, the blood, sweat, and tears come from”
A coach never overlooks an athlete’s hard work.
“He’s somebody that comes to practice on time everyday,” Greer said. “He is where he needs to be at track meets, he’s warming up on time, he fills in for other races when other guys are out.”
Wyatt never fails to impress with his dedication to improving not only himself but the team as a whole.
“You just gotta do it,” Wyatt said. “When you do the training that prepares you for this kind of stuff, you still don’t want to do it but you have prepared enough to the point where even though you don’t want to do it you know that you can do it. It just makes it easier on yourself and your body.”
Being a good runner and teammate are equally crucial to making the ideal athlete.
“As an athlete, he brings some speed to the team. With a guy like Roman and his speed, when adversity hits us, we can hit back,” Greer said. “Just his speed is what we have been lacking these past few years at our school and, you mix him with the other guys, it puts together a pretty good relay and consequently a pretty good team”
Overcoming expectations in competition requires dealing with underlying hardships.
“It’s not easy at all,” Wyatt said. “Waking up in the morning and forcing yourself to get up, doing stuff you don’t want to, dealing with people you might not like dealing with, it’s all hard, but in the long run it’s all worth it.”
