SAN DIEGO — Cathedral Catholic standout track star Bryce Brock went from dashing past opponents to the finish line, to fighting his way just to get on the track due to consistent injuries. Brock, a star in the 100-meter, 200 meter, and 4x100 meter relay battled consistent hamstring injuries. These injuries started Brocks junior year and it proved to be a defining moment for him.
“It was very frustrating and just hard to overcome, I would suffer an injury, rehab, and wait for it to heal, it would, then I would go out and hurt it again. It was frustrating, and they say insanity is doing something repeatedly without a different result and that’s how it felt."
With track being such an individual sport that relies only on oneself, Brock had to take a step back after the injuries and realize that the frustration and mental road blocks he was facing were something that he couldn’t overcome alone.
“It was hard, and everyone in sports wants to be the macho man saying, its all about me. But it’s okay to ask for help, its okay to need people, because this injury was tough on me, and I knew I couldn’t do it alone. “
After suffering multiple injuries during his junior year, Brock entered his senior year still not fully healed and he once again, injured his hamstring. This led to him being timid as well as missing time within the track season. Thankfully for Brock, he was already in the midst of being recruited. One school that really stood out to him was USC. To make things even better, one of his idols became the track coach at USC which made it truly a dream come true to receive an offer from them.
“My dream coach Carmelita Jeter ended up going to USC, after coaching at the University of Alabama, and right when I got injured I reached out to her and we established our line of communication and it all worked out.”
Brock added that USC just felt like the right place for him saying “a lot of the time, schools will tell you that they like you and care about you but then when you get hurt, you really see who they are. At USC, it just felt real, and it felt like they cared about me.”
After returning from injury and committing to run track for the Trojans, Brock proceeded to defend his title in the 100- and 200-meter dash in the districts running a 10.61 in the 100 and a 21.40 in the 200. Instead of moving on to compete in the state track meet, he decided to forgo state, and spend the time preparing for USC, and spending time with his family.
"I could have went to state and maybe won but, I don’t think I need the self-validation. I think after everything I have been through it showed me who I really was, and so I wanted to spend the time with my family who is visiting and prepare to go to USC.”
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