Story about middle distance guy Joe O'Such, who hopes to get interest from Villanova:
Q&A with Track State Champion Joe O'Such
Senior track runner Joe O'Such caught up with LRSC Patch to talk about his accomplishments, his interests and the future in this week's Q&A.
By Kevin Haslam
January 17, 2012
Q&A with Track State Champion Joe O'Such
Senior track runner Joe O'Such caught up with LRSC Patch to talk about his accomplishments, his interests and the future in this week's Q&A.
In getting to know Spring-Ford High School sports, a common name continues to rise in both performance and senior leadership. That name is Joe O'Such. He is a senior runner at Spring-Ford, participates in cross country in the fall, winter track and spring track and field.
With more than one state championship honor and even a few school records, this young man exemplifies athletic glory in our communities.
O'Such took some time this week to chat with Editor Kevin Haslam about his four-year running career, his past, his present, and his future in this week's Q&A.
LRSC Patch: Tell us about your career - how you got started with competitive running, when you fell in love with it and when you realized you were good - all the way up until now.
Joe O'Such: I actually started out as a sprinter my freshman year. I got into winter track for training purposes to get faster. I've always been one of the faster kids, so I tried it out. I progressed with the 400 and 200 freshman and sophomore year. I ran the 800 last year and ran a couple of 1600, but mostly this indoor season, I've progressed into the mile.
Patch: Did you play other sports before your track career.
O'Such: Yeah, since I was five years old, I started with tee-ball, played baseball up through eigth grade and I played Babe Ruth in ninth and tenth grade, but since I ran outdoor track, I couldn't play baseball. I played football in eighth and ninth grade. Other than that, soccer when I was younger.
Patch: And you have a little brother on this team, right?
O'Such: Yes.
Patch: So, what's it like to be able to share this experience with someone in your family? Do you instill wise knowledge in him?
O'Such: Yeah, it's definitely a great experience and opportunity. It's great being a role model for him as well as the other underclassmen on the team. It's great that he's progressing. He's doing a great job on the 400 and 200. I see a great career for him and the rest of the young kids. We have a strong freshman and sophomore class.
Patch: From my understanding, just reading a little bit about you, you've got a lot of accomplishments in your four years. What are some of your greatest?
O'Such: It's really hard to say, because I've run so many events. One would definitely be setting the 4x400 record as a freshman - being a part of that team, looking up to the great runners we had, such as Billy Gilbert, Kevin Morton and running on that team and breaking the school record in that. Second accomplishment would probably be setting the school record sophomore year in the 4x400 and last year in the 4x800, and making the cross country states this year. Working toward 4:15 in the mile outdoor and breaking the school record in the mile last Wednesday at the Millrose Game trials.
Patch: Congratulations, that's a great accomplishment. What are you doing to prepare for that?
O'Such: It's Feb. 11. I have this meet Saturday to do it. There's four or five kids that are All-American cross country this year. There's a national 800-meter champion that's running in my race, too. It's going to be a great experience to run with a great group of guys, and hopefully I'll be able to hit my top time this Saturday.
Patch: Aside from that, wrapping up your senior year, do you have any other goals you'd like to hit before you get out of here?
O'Such: As an individual, I'd like to go by the end of Spring season, I'd like to go 4:15 in the mile, 1:51-1:50 in the 800, hopefully get close to, if not break some of the relay records with other members of the team.
Patch: We know you're a great individual on the track, but who are you off the track? Do you have hobbies and favorite areas of academic study?
O'Such: Some of my hobbies, I'll start off with surfing. It might be sometimes out of the ordinary, but I like to surf. My family's had a beach house ever since I can remember, since I was an infant basically. I got into surfing five or six years ago. I like to snowboard in the winter, as much as I can without getting hurt for track. I just like to hang out with my friends. That's basically it. Just spend a lot of time with my friends.
Some of my favorite subjects in school - I want to go into nursing next year at a university. Accomplish that and hopefully graduate in four years and go on to get my Masters and Doctorate for nursing anesthesia. My favorite subjects right now are anatomy and physiology, and calculus.
Patch: Where are you at in the college process?
O'Such: If I hit my goals, I should definitely be getting some good scholarship offers. I'm looking at Villanova, Pittsburgh and Duquesne - hopefully I can run at one of those universities next year.
Patch: What would you say are some of your best memories at Spring-Ford, wrapping up your career?
O'Such: One of my best memories, and I forgot to say we accomplished this as a team, is the first PAC-10 boys championship last spring. I give credit to all the guys who competed. They did an outstanding job working as a team to do what they had to do to get that championship. It gives us great pride at Spring-Ford, especially from the guys side. I know the girls have won multiple championships. It really gives a great sense of pride for the guys to finally accomplish that. I've got to give credit to all the coaches who have helped us get to that ultimate goal of a championship.
Patch: Last one. If you could go back to your freshman year and give yourself some advice on how to become who you are today, what would you tell yourself?
O'Such: Training-wise, coming from a cross country standpoint - I mean, I wish I would have run cross country freshman year - but, I guess summer training is the most important thing to me as a runner this year. It sets you up for the whole season starting in June through August and most of September. It really gets you ready for the season and it goes on from there. You get the long-distance in cross country and that gets you to run faster times indoors.
Q&A with Track State Champion Joe O'Such
Senior track runner Joe O'Such caught up with LRSC Patch to talk about his accomplishments, his interests and the future in this week's Q&A.
By Kevin Haslam
January 17, 2012
Q&A with Track State Champion Joe O'Such
Senior track runner Joe O'Such caught up with LRSC Patch to talk about his accomplishments, his interests and the future in this week's Q&A.
In getting to know Spring-Ford High School sports, a common name continues to rise in both performance and senior leadership. That name is Joe O'Such. He is a senior runner at Spring-Ford, participates in cross country in the fall, winter track and spring track and field.
With more than one state championship honor and even a few school records, this young man exemplifies athletic glory in our communities.
O'Such took some time this week to chat with Editor Kevin Haslam about his four-year running career, his past, his present, and his future in this week's Q&A.
LRSC Patch: Tell us about your career - how you got started with competitive running, when you fell in love with it and when you realized you were good - all the way up until now.
Joe O'Such: I actually started out as a sprinter my freshman year. I got into winter track for training purposes to get faster. I've always been one of the faster kids, so I tried it out. I progressed with the 400 and 200 freshman and sophomore year. I ran the 800 last year and ran a couple of 1600, but mostly this indoor season, I've progressed into the mile.
Patch: Did you play other sports before your track career.
O'Such: Yeah, since I was five years old, I started with tee-ball, played baseball up through eigth grade and I played Babe Ruth in ninth and tenth grade, but since I ran outdoor track, I couldn't play baseball. I played football in eighth and ninth grade. Other than that, soccer when I was younger.
Patch: And you have a little brother on this team, right?
O'Such: Yes.
Patch: So, what's it like to be able to share this experience with someone in your family? Do you instill wise knowledge in him?
O'Such: Yeah, it's definitely a great experience and opportunity. It's great being a role model for him as well as the other underclassmen on the team. It's great that he's progressing. He's doing a great job on the 400 and 200. I see a great career for him and the rest of the young kids. We have a strong freshman and sophomore class.
Patch: From my understanding, just reading a little bit about you, you've got a lot of accomplishments in your four years. What are some of your greatest?
O'Such: It's really hard to say, because I've run so many events. One would definitely be setting the 4x400 record as a freshman - being a part of that team, looking up to the great runners we had, such as Billy Gilbert, Kevin Morton and running on that team and breaking the school record in that. Second accomplishment would probably be setting the school record sophomore year in the 4x400 and last year in the 4x800, and making the cross country states this year. Working toward 4:15 in the mile outdoor and breaking the school record in the mile last Wednesday at the Millrose Game trials.
Patch: Congratulations, that's a great accomplishment. What are you doing to prepare for that?
O'Such: It's Feb. 11. I have this meet Saturday to do it. There's four or five kids that are All-American cross country this year. There's a national 800-meter champion that's running in my race, too. It's going to be a great experience to run with a great group of guys, and hopefully I'll be able to hit my top time this Saturday.
Patch: Aside from that, wrapping up your senior year, do you have any other goals you'd like to hit before you get out of here?
O'Such: As an individual, I'd like to go by the end of Spring season, I'd like to go 4:15 in the mile, 1:51-1:50 in the 800, hopefully get close to, if not break some of the relay records with other members of the team.
Patch: We know you're a great individual on the track, but who are you off the track? Do you have hobbies and favorite areas of academic study?
O'Such: Some of my hobbies, I'll start off with surfing. It might be sometimes out of the ordinary, but I like to surf. My family's had a beach house ever since I can remember, since I was an infant basically. I got into surfing five or six years ago. I like to snowboard in the winter, as much as I can without getting hurt for track. I just like to hang out with my friends. That's basically it. Just spend a lot of time with my friends.
Some of my favorite subjects in school - I want to go into nursing next year at a university. Accomplish that and hopefully graduate in four years and go on to get my Masters and Doctorate for nursing anesthesia. My favorite subjects right now are anatomy and physiology, and calculus.
Patch: Where are you at in the college process?
O'Such: If I hit my goals, I should definitely be getting some good scholarship offers. I'm looking at Villanova, Pittsburgh and Duquesne - hopefully I can run at one of those universities next year.
Patch: What would you say are some of your best memories at Spring-Ford, wrapping up your career?
O'Such: One of my best memories, and I forgot to say we accomplished this as a team, is the first PAC-10 boys championship last spring. I give credit to all the guys who competed. They did an outstanding job working as a team to do what they had to do to get that championship. It gives us great pride at Spring-Ford, especially from the guys side. I know the girls have won multiple championships. It really gives a great sense of pride for the guys to finally accomplish that. I've got to give credit to all the coaches who have helped us get to that ultimate goal of a championship.
Patch: Last one. If you could go back to your freshman year and give yourself some advice on how to become who you are today, what would you tell yourself?
O'Such: Training-wise, coming from a cross country standpoint - I mean, I wish I would have run cross country freshman year - but, I guess summer training is the most important thing to me as a runner this year. It sets you up for the whole season starting in June through August and most of September. It really gets you ready for the season and it goes on from there. You get the long-distance in cross country and that gets you to run faster times indoors.