“If you didn’t know she was a freshman, you would never guess it.” -Kyle Sousa, Oliver Ames’s Cross Country coach
Have you ever dreamt about what it would be like to start something new and succeed right away? For Oliver Ames’s freshman Katie Sobieraj that is reality.
Although of course Katie put in significant preparation with heavy discipline and effort, she experienced great successes during her freshman year cross country season and had a phenomenal finish at their final Hockomock league meet.
Katie impressed everyone including her head coach and OA faculty member Kyle Sousa, “What impressed me most about Katie’s race at the Hock Championships was how disciplined she was early in the race, and how tough she was late. Running a 5000m race is a hard thing to get right. A lot of people do it for years before figuring it out… She was so disciplined in the early race, and then so tough when she needed to be.”
Prior to this year Katie was a soccer player and she had never been on a cross country team, but that did not stop her with her first season at all.
“Katie put in a lot of training over the summer. She was very fit when we started official practices in September and it showed in workouts, but I don’t think anyone realized how strong she would be until the first race against North Attleboro when she pulled away and took first place.”
And while she had done amazing throughout the season what really took the cake was when she placed third, alongside her team who came in first overall on the boys and girls side. Post this amazing win, Katie continued to stay humble which is more than what some can say.
When asking Katie’s thoughts on the big win she explains how “I didn’t expect it I just kinda went into it just trying to run my best and it just happened I guess.” As well as giving some insight to how she prepped to get that successful, “I just tried to do my best every practice because even if it hurt during practice or really uncomfortable while running or something and I was tired I knew it’d be over soon.”
With an amazing start to her cross country career there were some obvious questions people were dying to know and she obliged with the answers. When asked how she decided to switch from soccer which she had mentioned that she originally had her doubts about the likelihood of soccer happening due to COVID restrictions. She also acknowledged the fact that she had been playing soccer since she was in kindergarten so she was ready for a change and it’s safe to say that it was a good one.
She also explained that she “kinda always liked [running]. I love the feeling after a run. I feel really proud of myself for running even though I don’t always in the moment.”
As for the team experience, one would think that there would not be too much of that with an individual sport like cross country. However, Katie ensured that there was.
“I like the team atmosphere like running you can run by yourself and stuff but it’s not the same as practicing with a team” even though before she started she also “didn’t expect it to be as much of a team and I didn’t expect to know as many people as I do because it’s such a big team there are roughly 100 people. But it’s surprisingly closer than what you’d think.” And when in regards to the coaches, “I really like them. They’re really good at what they do.”
Finally, Katie also kind enough to share her own little tidbit of advice for other runners or even athletes in general who are looking to improve their own performance.
“What I would just say is to work hard, you can accomplish things you never thought you could if you put in the work even if you’re a bit behind you’ll see an outcome.”