Salute To Seniors is a medium for "senior farewells". We wanted to give everyone a chance to salute them one more time as well as invite those seniors to tell their stories from the past four years. We will be posting this series through July, and already have a number of submissions, if you would like to submit check out this article for how to do so.
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Kaira Brown
Kent Place School
What was your most memorable race and or moment?
My most memorable race was this year's indoor MOC's. I never remember much from during my races and this one wasn't any different, but I do remember crossing the finish line and seeing the clock in the 55s and I just mouthed "wow." At the time, it hadn't even hit me that I had won my third Meet of Champs title, I was just super excited about my PR.
What was your greatest accomplishment?
My greatest accomplishment was having three consecutive Meet of Champions titles.
What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome?
Kent Place has had four head track coaches over my four years, and the best coaching relationship I had with a Kent Place Coach was in my freshman year. Constantly adjusting to different coaching styles was difficult and there were more than a few bumps in the road. However, Kent Place allowing me to meet with my private coach twice a week helped make sure that all of the turnover didn't affect my athletic growth.
What influence has your coach had with respect to your performance and overall life goals?
My private coach, Coach Berry, is the reason I've been able to have as much success as I've had. The improvement between my freshman and sophomore year times is mostly due to his training and support. He's been such a great coach, always encouraging me and giving me the occasional kick in the pants when I needed it.
What are your post-high school or college plans?
I'll be continuing my athletic and academic career at Vanderbilt University.
Who would you like to say 'thank you' to?
My first and biggest thank you is to my parents. Thank you to my dad for always going the extra mile for me. Thank you for finding NBN my freshman year and finding Coach Berry soon after. Thank you for trying to record my races, and thank you for letting someone else do it so we wouldn't get motion sickness watching the videos. Thank you to my mom for always supporting me and taking pictures at meets even when I didn't feel like taking them.
My next thank you would be to my teammates and training partners. Thank you for always encouraging me, for holding my blocks, for making the past four years so much fun, for challenging me, and most importantly for making me better. From the seniors who called me the "Freshman phenom" my freshman year to the freshmen this year who called me "coach," I've been incredibly lucky to have supportive, kind, hardworking, and talented teammates.
I'd also like to thank all of the surrogate coaches and teammates who helped me out even though I wasn't on their team. Most notably, I'd like to thank the Summit coaches and team for letting me practice on their track and borrow their blocks all of the time :)
