Faces off the field
Izzie Guerrero, senior, Dripping Springs cross-country
I’m guessing Izzie is not your real name. My real name is Izzabella, and I’ve gone by that pretty much since the day I was born. Izzie is just shorter and easier to say than Izzabella. What do you think about when you’re running? I either alternate singing pieces of random pop songs like Kesha’s “Tik Tok” in my head or I think about how good I’ll feel in a short amount of time. Why does Dripping Springs always have good cross-country and track teams? It’s the culture we have as a team. We’re always working together and pushing each other, and it pays off when it comes to race time. We have a lot of talent that comes in as the younger kids get into high school and really get to start training. Obviously, coach (Marisa) Parks is the one behind it all, giving us the training and support we all need to be successful. Which of your high school courses will benefit you the most after you graduate? Sports medicine will by far be the most beneficial. It made me really decide that a career in the medical field is what I want, and just being able to connect science to my training programs ultimately made me a better athlete and student in that class. If you could have dinner with any four people in the history of the world, whom would you invite? My great-grandfather Pompo, Anne Frank, Selena Gomez and Ndamukong Suh. Why Ndamukong Suh? I am a die-hard Nebraska fan, and while he was playing for Nebraska, I was still living there, and we had season tickets to all the home games. I think it would be so cool to just sit and talk to him about his entire career. If you had the choice of being valedictorian of your class or all-state in cross-country, which would you choose? All-state. I have put a significant amount of time into my training, and being on the allstate team would make all of the miles and training worth it. Have you competed in other sports in high school? I’ve run cross-country and track for all four years. This summer, I started competing in the steeplechase and that is definitely my favorite event that I run. The only reason I even started running was because I didn’t make the cheer team in sixth grade. I also swam since I was 6 up until last year. Anything else keep you busy? I also get to manage the girls basketball team. I really knew nothing about basketball when I started, but I understand it now. What are your college plans? I hope that I’ll be able to go to the University of Nebraska. Running for them would be a dream come true. I am keeping all my options open for right now; we’ll just have to see how this season goes. Tell me something about yourself that most people don’t know. My football obsession started with my first Huskers game when I was 5 weeks old.