PRIYA SHARMA/Daily Bruin Senior cross country runner
Bryan Green might miss out on some quality reading
time while at the NCAA Championships.
By Michael Sneag
Daily Bruin Contributor
These are the hard facts. Bryan Green is the clear-cut leader of
the men’s cross country team and recently qualified for the
NCAA Championship meet in South Carolina for the second consecutive
year. But there is much more to the story.
“He is tough and competitive,” head coach Eric
Peterson said. “Just a great distance runner who works hard
and deserves the opportunity. I am thrilled that he was able to
qualify for the NCAAs.”
But the fifth-year senior is more than the unquestioned leader
of his extremely young and inexperienced team. He emerged last year
in a breakthrough season as the Bruins’ top runner, finishing
in the Top 10 in every regular season meet and qualifying for the
NCAA Championships as an individual.
To fully understand him, however, you have to know what he has
gone through this season and how hard he has had to work to repeat
his success of a year ago. He came into this season in the best
shape of his life and had high expectations, not only from the team
but also for himself. That was why it was so frustrating when
things got in the way of that momentum.
At training camp in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. in early September,
Green sustained his first setback when a table landed on his toe,
leaving him unable to run for almost a week. Rebounding incredibly
well a few weeks later at the Sundodger Invitational in Seattle
Sept. 22, he fought through the injury and won his first major race
as a Bruin. The momentum seemed to be back, and Green was full of
confidence heading into the heart of the schedule.
Then disaster struck in the form of the flu. He tried to run
through the illness, but he was unable to train properly and his
fitness suffered. Finally at last weekend’s Regional
Championships, he battled his way through the field and ended up in
22nd place, earning a spot at the national meet as an individual
qualifier.
“This season went so counter to my expectations for how
the season would be that I feel that I have nothing to lose at this
point,” Green said. “Ultimately, this is the race that
matters. It doesn’t matter how I got here. If I can take
advantage of the opportunity, the entire frustrating season will be
completely academic.”
Dealing with injuries and expectations are always issues for
athletes. For Green, dealing with a change of focus from the team
to concentrating on being an individual runner was something very
burdensome, especially for someone who has always put his team
first.
“I had trouble with feeling like I had a completely
different agenda than everybody else,” Green said. “I
struggled with it for a while, but in the end I realized that the
best thing for the team is for me to maximize my performance. If I
run my best, it is a benefit for the team. It sounds simple but it
was hard for me to accept that.”
Green was able to deal with the injuries and disappointments of
the season by relaxing in his world of books. In fact, most of his
teammates hardly ever see him in his free time without a book.
Finding time to do something he truly enjoys is something important
to him. Everything from philosophy, his major, to classic novels is
on the agenda, and any spare time he finds he devotes to
reading.
“I read things that are going to challenge me,”
Green said. “I generally stay away from the bestseller list,
but I read everything that I can. I read while walking to class, on
the plane, waiting in a line, relaxing in my apartment. Pretty much
anywhere.”
One of his real interests is in the education system. One of his
recent reads was on school reform, and he plans on becoming a high
school teacher when it is all said and done. He volunteers at a
high school during the off-season, tutoring at-risk children. Green
has taken it upon himself to find out everything he can about the
subject and is very interested in becoming a teacher in an inner
city or rural school.
He realizes that even his high school didn’t necessarily
provide him with everything that it should have, but he made it to
UCLA. He wants to help other people in the same situation to do the
same thing.
“I have been challenged to think differently about a lot
of issues,” Green said. “I have realized that a lot of
students are not taught how to succeed. I teach freshman in high
school, and I really like the age. It is a critical point where I
can really help students if they decide to change and they want to
succeed, they have a realistic chance at that point. I feel I can
be a part of that change.”
If you catch sight of Bryan on campus, and he isn’t busy
training on the track, don’t be surprised if his head is
buried in a book. Don’t think he is being rude, he is just
training for life.