Passion For Running: Maple Junior High Student's Journey To Beating State Records

Ethan Brooks has pretty much always excelled in his schoolwork.

“In sixth grade, in math, I did a bunch of extra credit, and I had a one hundred and two at the end of the year,” said Maple Junior High School student, Ethan Brooks.

Now in eighth grade, he doesn’t even know what his grade point average is. “Above four, I don’t really know what it is exactly,” said Ethan. 

But there was that one blemish, a B that still haunts him. “In fifth grade, yeah in English,” said Ethan. 

“Great kid yeah has great grades, respectful,” said Reagan Born, Ethan’s teacher and track coach.

Now when Ethan isn’t dominating in the classroom, he is dominating on the track, and though his talent speaks for itself, there is one thing that makes him stand out among his competitors. “I liked running yeah, and I was halfway decent at it in the sixth grade,” said Ethan.

His coaches were happy with what they saw from the then-sixth grader.

“Potential, I mean our first track meet we were like, ok this is going to be fun,” said Born.

Ethan won state in the sixth and seventh grades, but that wasn’t quite good enough for him, so he trained six days a week with the goal of not only winning state but breaking the junior high record. “A few meets before the state meets, I was actually beating the state record time, and so I was trying to push it, and then I did really good at state, and then I beat the mile, the sixteen hundred state record by ten whole seconds,” said Ethan.

His accomplishments leave even his parents overwhelmed.

“Proud, unbelievably proud, he’s very fun to watch,” said Ethan’s dad, Daniel Brooks.

“So very, very, very proud,” said Alissa Wells, Ethan’s mom.

But there is one more thing about Ethan and his track stardom. “I’ll have moms come over and say, you know I could have left two hours ago, and we just stayed to watch him,” said Wells.

“While he’s running, which is the best part about it, he’s just smiling,” said Born.

“He’s always smiling and running,” said Brooks.

It’s something he started doing intentionally. “If I’m focusing on grinning it helps me to not worry about if my legs are hurting or whatever,” said Ethan.

And yes Ethen did run the half marathon in the memorial marathon, smiling all the through.