Bruce J. Hebert
December 11, 2006
Houma man leads police on chase
December 13, 2006
(Posted Dec. 12, 2006)For Alex Breaux, running cross-country was not always the breeze it seemed to be this past season when he won the Class 4A state championship in mid-November. “I didn’t run cross-country my eighth-grade year,” said Breaux.
“I came out in eighth-grade track, and I was worthless back then,” the Vandebilt Catholic senior added while laughing. “I was thinking about doing sprints, and then followed one of my friends to the distance (running) and the rest is history.”
The “history” Alex Breaux refers to is one of marked improvement in each year of participating in the sport. In 2003, Breaux’s freshman year, he placed 58th at the state meet. That placement skyrocketed to 12th in his sophomore year. In his junior year, Breaux earned state runner-up, and used the motivation of finishing second-place to work toward an individual state title.
“It’s something I’ve been working for, for about five years,” Breaux said of the state championship. “Coach Malone and coach King encouraged me to run cross-country, and I’ve been working real hard ever since then. Every year I got hungrier and hungrier for the state title, and getting second last year just really motivated me to not let (a second-place finish) happen again.”
The motivation drove Breaux to undergo an extensive training regimen through last summer. “Just a lot of mileage,” explained Breaux. “High mileage n about 80 miles to 100 miles a week during the summer. And I just lifted weights and did speed work.
“Every day this summer, I’d get up in the morning and run. I’d go to the gym in the middle of the day, and then run again at night. It’s just 24-hours a day that I was thinking about that state title.”
And during the season Breaux ran at three different times throughout the day—morning, practice and night.
It is that type of dedication that draws praise from Terriers’ cross-country coach David Malone. “He’s your perfect athlete for any coach,” said Malone. “He doesn’t have to be told anything twice. Tell him he needs to do this workout, or do that workout—he knows he has to do that, plus more.”
It is those traits that lead Malone to say Breaux has the “mind and heart of a champion.”
“You’ve got to work constantly to get there,” explained Malone. “You can be an average runner if you want, but (Alex) knew a long time ago that he wanted to be a champion.”
Other accomplishments for Breaux during his senior year? In late November he participated in the South Region of the 2006 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in North Carolina. And in October, he recorded the third-fastest time in the history of the state with a 14:58 at the three-mile Walker Shootout meet.
While Breaux cherishes his accomplishments, he is quick to credit Jake Simmons, a former state-champion runner at Vandebilt, for influencing him. “Jake Simmons, from a few years ago, just really took me under his wings and showed me the ropes of how it’s done. Most of my training has come from him—just taking his ideas and how he runs.”
Malone seconds Breaux’s sentiment. “He was lucky he got to see Jake,” agreed Malone. “He knew what it took to be a state champion. He watched Jake and he listened to Jake. If not for Jake—I don’t want to say it—but he would have been decent. He would have been middle of the road. He still would have been a parish champion, and a district champion. But I don’t know if he would have made that jump to state champion.”
Simmons currently runs track and cross-country at LSU. The step to performing on the next level is one that Breaux is taking as well. “It’s getting serious right now,” Breaux said of selecting a school to go to. “It’s buckling down and I’m really thinking hard. I narrowed the five down, last week. It’s Duke, Baylor, Kansas, UL-Lafayette or LSU.”
Breaux’s timetable for selecting a school will be toward the end of the outdoor-track season. “First off, the education,” Breaux said of what will influence his choice. “Second, I want to be able to believe in the coach … that he’ll get me to All-American status by the time I leave college.”
If Breaux works the way he has at Vandebilt, that goal seems attainable. “He comes to my practice, but honestly, my practice really does nothing for him,” said Malone. “It’s the extra work. He runs in the morning, he runs at practice and he runs after practice.
“If I had five Alex Breauxs, I’d be winning state titles every year.”
Photo by Matt LeBlanc • Tri-Parish Times/ Alex Breaux placed first in the state cross-country meet in November. Breaux is planning to run cross country and track in college, and has narrowed his choices to Duke, Baylor, Kansas, UL-Lafayette and LSU.
