With apologies to Durant High football fans, I have to take a quick break from Friday Night Notes. This is just too good to not share.
I’m used to getting emails from local parents who want to tell me about how great their kids are — and why they should be named Athlete of the Week. It happens pretty frequently. But after a long day of NFL football on Sunday, I checked my email and found something from a parent I didn’t recognize, giving big props to a Plant City High cross-country runner.
Clay Thomas is the father of Walker, a sophomore runner from H.B. Plant High in Tampa. I didn’t get to go to Tallahassee for the Nov. 7 FHSAA state championship meet, in which some local runners performed well, but he gave me the rundown of what could have only been the best moment of the day. With his permission, I’m printing most of the email he sent to PCHS administrators and myself.
“What kind of student runs every day, beginning in November, to become one of the state’s best milers in the spring, then continues his training through the summer to become one of the state’s best cross country runners in the fall, rarely taking a day off,” Thomas wrote. “What kind of student’s hard work is realized in every runner’s goal to qualify for the FHSAA State Championship Finals? What kind of student is poised for a great finish in his first state meet, having moved up 35 places over the second mile, only to stop when he sees another runner from an opposing team in trouble 250 meters from the finish line? What kind of student, after having carried his own weight nearly three miles, carries the weight of that troubled runner the full 250 meters across the finish line?
“That student is Luke Whitmore, and you should all be proud that he wears the Plant City Raiders jersey. The official results from that race say Luke finished in 162nd place out of 193 runners but, in the eyes of the troubled runner’s father, Luke was the champion of that race. Luke will probably take a well-deserved break at the end of the long cross-country season. But you can be sure that he’ll be back to running every day, preparing for a return to the state finals next year. I can’t wait to see him there, and you can bet I’ll be cheering for him!”
This is what sportsmanship is all about.
I’m very familiar with Luke — I’ve featured him in our Athlete of the Week section before and have been tracking his progress since last year, when he started to make a name for himself as one of Plant City’s top male runners. I have no doubt that he would have recorded a great finish if he didn’t choose to stop to help some random kid cross the finish line. And I have no doubt that he made the right call here. This speaks volumes about his character that outshines a state championship medal.
Luke’s actions set the example all athletes should follow. If you were in Walker’s shoes, you’d hate to go down with an injury in the biggest moment of your athletic career. You deserve to at least finish what you started, and I know that I’d want someone to help me out if they were charitable enough to do so. As much as I’ve advocated for tasteful trash talk in the past, that all goes out the window when someone needs help and you’re in position to give it to them.
So, let’s tip our hats to Luke for sacrificing personal glory to help a fallen runner. That’s the stuff of true champions.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.