Oh, it’s just been so great all four years. I’d have to say, Jaysun Pyatt, our coach, always gives us a great perspective on things. Really level-headed; doesn’t make us go and just kill ourselves. He tends to those who have injuries. Keeps things interesting and fun for running. I’d have to say, in that arena, he was the best thing about River.
What was the best thing you accomplished during your career?
What happened off the course. The team; our guys were just so tight over the last year. The close bonds and stuff like that. You can’t put a price tag; there’s no real value you can place on that.
It was just so great. It’s so tough to know in a year you’re going to be apart from that team and onto something else. Because growing up with those guys, they’re like brothers. All those guys are brothers to me.
How did you get into cross country?
That’s really funny. I actually had not run up until freshman year. I mean I ran track in eighth grade — I went to a smaller private school: King’s Way. … And so I ran track eighth-grade year. But there weren’t very many of us on the team, and it wasn’t, like, a very high-intensity program, to say the least. And so I’d never really run. I’d played soccer for eight years, leading up to my freshman year. So, soccer was my big thing. I was just running cross country to stay in shape for soccer. Funny how it all works out in retrospect. And so I ran cross, and Pyatt was, like, ‘Hey, you’re kind of good at this. You should run distance track.’ And I was, like, ‘No, I really like soccer.’ He was, like, ‘Come on, Kyle. You need to do this,’ and whatever. Blah, blah, blah. And I was, like, ‘OK. Fine. I’ll do track just freshman year. And if I don’t like it whatsoever, I’m doing soccer for the rest of my career.’ And so, after running track my freshman year, doing pretty well, I don’t know — I was hooked. Endorphins, you know?