~:[Spotlight]:~ Thien-Nam To

~:[Spotlight]:~ Thien-Nam To

I still remember during his freshman year when I almost cut him. He would go run off with his friends to go jump around with people like Yoshi and not care that he missed practice one bit. His favorite line that year ... "I quit." Fast forwarding a number of years, I remember how he sprained his ankle just before the National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships in Sacramento. He wanted to take down the youth record, but just before that race, he sprained his ankle playing basketball. Despite the difficulty, he finished the race and did his best, while it may not have been the race he had hoped for. Somewhere along the way, this athlete grew up and in the process became my pseudo-son. While I still want to strangle him from time to time because of his antics, he has helped build the Cerritos Cross Country program to what it is today. As an athlete, he improved, became the first individual to qualify for CIF Finals and won almost half his races his senior year. He battled through injuries and continued running in college, giving us another team to cheer for. He added to his impact on the program by joining the coaching staff at Cerritos and it was apparent that he was one who would really could take the program over the top. He always is thinking of ways to improve his athletes and spent so much time working with them. He helped lead his boys to multiple league championships and continues to be the reason why they are successful. When asked to take over the jumping program for track and field, he learned everything he needed to and really helped them as well, even getting to go to the state championships with one of his athletes. Want to know his level of dedication? Despite rupturing his achilles, he was at practice almost every day he could get there during that track season and even showed up to a meet immediately after his surgery. Despite losing him to the University of Kentucky, he always checks in with us and am glad that he was a part of our program. I am also glad that he came into my life. He is a great and loyal friend and now that he is gone, I realize even more how often I hung out with him. He always was willing to go out and eat and even venture on a short trip here and there. Because I miss him so much, I have decided to take my talents to Lexington ... well only for a day or so, but despite all the headaches (mostly early on), you really showed me that people can change drastically and you helped remind me to not take life too seriously all the time, only when it's necessary.

*****

The spotlight is a column that will highlight at least one person every week who deserves all the gratitude in the world for what they do. While the individual may never make the headline news, they are the type of person that deserve their moment in the spotlight.