Going the Distance ... Ben Huscher

Doing any sport for four years at the high school level is an accomplishment, but doing four years of cross country is a challenge that requires that rare gift of self control and discipline. Every runner has doubts at the line as to how the race will finish. Can I make it to the end, or will I give up?




Ben Huscher had a head start: his older brother ran for King, and so he joined the team in 2007 as a wide-eyed rookie. Even with that head start, Ben will be the first to admit that he was not very fast his first year, nor very committed to running. His first year ended mid-year with an injury having never run under 21 minutes. His sophomore year he showed tremendous improvement, improving almost four minutes, but at times he lacked self control and let his emotions get the better of him. As Coach John Wooden has written, emotions are the enemy when it comes to learning the lessons of leadership.

But just when you might have thought that Ben wouldn’t return his junior year, he showed up and slowly started to commit to the sport. By the time he reached this senior year it was hard not to see that Ben had learned many of those lessons and was climbing the ladder of success as a runner. He showed a poise and loyalty to the team that just two years earlier seemed unlikely, and he had spent a hard summer preparing himself to be a varsity level runner.

And something else emerged from that often emotional young man: a smile. In the end, all coaches ever really want from their athletes is that they finish as a better person than when they first started the race. Ben has certainly done that, and King Cross Country is better as a result.