By Ty’Shawn Key,

Our Patterson boys track team of only ten Patterson Clippers recently went up against some of the biggest track and field teams in the city: Digital Harbor High School, Forest Park, and Dunbar. All of these schools hold records for some of the best times placed in relays, and have teams almost twice the size of ours or larger. However, even though we were amongst the smallest in size, we were amongst the biggest in heart! Our team of only ten people came in fourth against nine teams with a total of at least sixty people! We faced some of these “big dogs” head on and came out on top!

In addition to doing well overall, we Clippers also did well individually. Jacob Forest-Jones came in 1st in the Long Jump, 1st in the Triple Jump, and 2nd in Discus. Jonah Edwards came in 2nd in the 400 meters with a personal best of 55.44 seconds. Abhishek Younghang-Subba and I both placed in the top 5 places in the 3200 meter run. Darwin Lopez ran a personal best of 5:51 in the mile run. Our small team of only ten people took top spots over teams of almost twenty. We let them know that we are Patterson!

Since the meet, we have now titled ourselves the “300”. Just as when King Leonidas led his small group of 300 brave Spartan soldiers into war with armies many times their size, Coach Smith lead us into battle against schools more than twice our size. Just like the Spartans, we came out on top. Every time we train, we train like Spartans. Every time we run, we run like Spartans. Every time we win, we win like Spartans!

Our story is important is because I know that we are not the only Spartans in Patterson. In fact, I believe that most of our teams here in Patterson are forced to be Spartans. Being deemed the underdogs because of our size seems to be the story of most of our teams. Yet we know that you all have it in you to be better than those other schools in whatever sport you play. Be it golf, lacrosse, wrestling, track, volleyball, or whatever, we know that you can be the best. So as a challenge, we–the 300–challenge you to find your Spartan spirit. Then, once you do, we challenge you to instill your Spartan spirit in a teammate, classmate, teacher or community neighbor. We have to show the world that WE ARE PATTERSON!