By Simone Midgett, Editor-In-Chief
Determination: having the drive to achieve something that you have been working for even when you have failed.
Determination is starting out running for the cross country and track team your freshman year and by the end of your junior year having four state championship titles.
Determination is training, even during a hurricane, or running through Nags Head Woods in the snow because you know practicing every day will make you better — and every day is not an exaggeration. It’s senior Zach Hughes who proves that determination does take you as far as you will it.
“I thought I was really bad, I actually quit, but then I eventually liked it and I ran for fun and I got good at it and started working harder,” Hughes said.
Hughes was originally a three season athlete and played a different sport each season: football, basketball and baseball. After his eighth grade year he decided to trade in his cleats for track spikes.
“I couldn’t imagine a Friday night without football, watching him behind home plate or hearing the squeaking shoes on a basketball court,” Hughes’s mother, Brande Hughes said. “Now I can’t imagine life without track meets.”
Though it was a difficult choice to give up sports he had played his whole life, running now plays a role in Hughes’s life every day — it even helped determine where he was going to go to college.
It was a engthy process of choosing between East Carolina University (ECU) and North Carolina State University (NCSU). Inevitably it was the pack over the pirates.
“I thought about if I were to get hurt where I would have liked to be if I was not running and Raleigh felt like a better fit for me, and the team and the atmosphere there is really great,” Hughes said.
NCSU is a part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and which has many differences from ECU’s conference, the American Athletic Conference.
“State is in the ACC, so it is a huge sports school, and then ECU is in the American Athletic Conference and that one is really diverse in reference to where you travel,” Hughes said. “My parents will be able to make a lot more of the meets but at ECU you are traveling (further).”
Another drastic change for Hughes is going to be his immediate leadership presence that he has running at the high school level.
“In high school practice I am leading all of the workouts and I am winning all of the big races, but in college I am going to go and be a small fish in a huge pond,” Hughes said. “I am going to be getting destroyed but at the same time I am going to be getting a lot better because I will be pushing myself every day to compete with the guys that are a lot better than me.”
When Hughes was 14 at his first dreadful summer practice, he never imagined he would be signing to NC State four years later but his mom knew he could achieve what he wanted.
“I always told my kids that they can be anything they want to be, they just have to work hard to get there,” Brande said. “He has put in the work and it has paid off.”
As Hughes starts off his running career in Raleigh, he has begun to cherish his last few seasons running for his coach and his team here at First Flight.
“Since Zachary started running I have seen more dedication, accountability and competitiveness than I could have imagined. His entire world revolves around running, his team and his coach,” Brande said. “He wants to win, not only for himself, but for his coach and his team.”
As a leader, Hughes wants to leave a good example for his teammates and for other people who also decide to start running.
“I don’t really hope that I leave a legacy, I just hope that I can inspire more people to pick up the sport of running because it really is a great sport and I hope that the team continues to build and become a powerhouse,” Hughes said.
Senior Simone Midgett can be reached at midgettSa0827@daretolearn.org.
