As the melodic country ballads come to an end in his headphones, Will Laurine (9) positions himself on a line of white, painted grass to take off. Everything comes to a complete standstill. With a bang, Will’s shoes forms an imprint into the ground. His shoes continues to make imprints until he reaches his end destination. 

When Will’s cognitive abilities kicked in at the age of 3, he tried sports ranging from soccer to football. He was always chasing something, from another kid to a ball. He was also always the fastest kid in any sport he tried. 

“My parents had me join [cross country] because I was such an active kid,” Will said.“They were like,‘Let’s see if we can tire him out,’ and I ended up liking it from there on. I kept doing it every year.”

 Will ran at races organized by the Jefferson County Youth Association and joined races at Lone Dell Elementary School when he was in second grade. Kristen Katz, the Jefferson County Youth Association organizer, was one of the reasons that Will started running. 

“He was such a fast kid that he would just go,” Katz said. “If I’m not [mistaken], there was one meet where Will may have lost a shoe while he was running and Will finished.”

 Going into running, Will had no expectations of being the fastest or having the most endurance. That all changed by third grade. Will decided to take running to the next level. He began to be able to run with sixth graders and was able to showcase his hard work. 

“We just remember one of the parents saying, ‘Don’t let that second grader beat you,’ and the kid responded with ‘Mom, [he’s]  just so fast,’” Will’s father Joseph Laurine said. “That was one of the moments when the people around him realized that he had something special.” 

Setbacks

From third to sixth grade, Will progressively took running more seriously. In seventh grade, Will made it to the Junior Olympics in Greensboro, North Carolina. Will competed in the 13-year-old Pentathlon. During the 1500 meter race, he suffered a lower body injury. 

“My hamstring gave out,” Will said. “I got hamstring tendinitis and it regressed me. I haven’t been able to get back into the group that I was in [a] few years ago.” 

Will had trouble keeping his mind off of physical movement because he wanted to run like he did prior to the injury. He was unable to think about anything else.

“I had to get something wrapped around my leg and was told I wasn’t allowed to run,” Will said. “I could walk up the stairs, but [my dad said] I couldn’t go up to them multiple times a day. I didn’t listen to it. I physically couldn’t do it. There was a lot of video game playing. It was just anything I could do to get my mind off of moving.”

Will tried to back into running about three months after his hamstring tendinitis injury. Post-recovery, he found that his running was no longer at the level he wanted.

“I was mentally annoyed with myself,” Will said. “I just wanted to stop. I wanted to give up. [In seventh grade, the Junior Olympics was a] difficult race because mentally I just lost everything. I lost all the work I had done for the year before. I haven’t completely bounced back from it.”

Expression

In 2023, Will started regaining confidence in his running abilities. In Junior Olympics 2023, he did the multiples — a type of track event consisting of a high jump, long jump, shot put, 100 meter hurdles and 1500 meter race — and placed sixth in the nation for his age group. In fall of 2023, Will participated in cross country nationals and placed eighth in the nation in his age group. 

“He has trained with collegiate runners,” Joseph said. “Post-collegiate professional runners have come and trained with him and some practices. They can’t maintain the pace and the reps that he can a lot of the time.”

For Will, hair ties are an essential. While they work to keep hair out of his face while he runs, Will’s hair ties have an ulterior motive: the amusement of his teammates.

“The first time I saw it, I thought it was funny,” Taylor Gase (10) said. “The way he puts up it looks like an unicorn.”

A staple that Will wears outside of running is his cowboy boots. The boots were more of a  practical item when Will was growing up on a farm in the countryside.

“We had four acres and we had always been working and moving stuff,” Will said. “It was just easier to wear [cowboy boots] than cleaner shoes every day.” 

When Will is preparing for the next meet, he often does fartlek training. Fartlek training is a Swedish technique that means “speed play,” and works on interval training. 

“A fartlek is one minute on and two minutes off,” Will said. “Or two minutes on and three minutes off, or [a] version of that. Some people do 90 seconds on and 30 seconds off [but] that’s the college level workout.”

Community

Will was able to transition to the high school cross country environment smoothly because he was able to find a supportive community. When Will arrived he was appreciative of the kindness and lightheartedness of his teammates during workouts, meets and runs. 

“You’ll never know what’s going to happen,” Will said. “Even if we don’t run together, there’s going to be [a] comment [or] something odd. It’s always going to be funny. There’s going to be a joke. There’s going to be something that you’ll think about for the rest of the day.”

When Will is running with his friends, he likes to keep his mind busy. A way he does this is by observing his surroundings while he runs and discussing where to go.

“I will zone out because [I am] not paying attention,” Will said. “Sometimes we’re exploring and trying to find new routes. It’s a good thing that [we] get distracted or it’s a bad thing. There’s some ankles rolled because we’re not paying attention as much as we should.”

Will was able to overcome obstacles and become an All American. Being an All American is when an athlete has placed among top athletes in their sport at a national level in their age group. For him though, it was more valuable to be able to facilitate someone else’s love for running. 

“So last year in track, [some kids with disabilities] wanted to do [the] relay,” Joseph said. “They were short and Will [took] it on the last leg. He could have been in the faster relay and they probably would’ve gotten first, but he preferred to be in this relay to help those kids out.” 

Will gave back by volunteering at the Jefferson County Youth Association where his journey in running started. 

“If a kid fell, or if a kid was scared, [or] if a younger kid [felt] defeated, he was there to push them,” Katz said. “He was always that cheerleader to help everyone else.”

The Future

Will’s goal for high school running is to make it to state all four years of his high school career. Beyond high school, Will wants to continue to run purely for the love of the sport, whether that means running collegiately or not.

“I don’t know if I want to run in college, but if I go to college, I will definitely probably run in [college] for scholarships,” Will said. “It’s important to want to run because if you don’t want to run, you won’t ever be as good as you would be if you want to run.”

“Confidence and the mental aspect of [running] is the hardest part. You could be the fastest person ever and if you’re mentally not there, you could run terribly.”  -Will Laurine (9)

Captions: Will Laurine (9) runs during the Forest Park Cross Country Festival Sept.14. He placed 4th during the varsity white race. “We were trying to beat each other on the turn and [we] lost our footing,” Will said. “I was like, ‘I have to get up before him or he will beat me by a good amount.’ [I wanted to] finish the race, I’m not stopping [now].” Photo by Harper Buxner. (on page 24)

Wearing their sunglasses, Will runs in a triangle formation with Caden Wheeler (12) and Luke Ye (11) at Ladue High School. “I was training one day and [Caden and Luke] were there,” Will said. “So we started running together, since we are both trying to achieve around the same thing. I kind of integrated [into] their friend group.” Photos by Vincent Hsiao. (on page 27)

Will stares ahead while standing in Ladue High School’s stadium. He wore his signature cowboy boots, which he regularly wears outside of running. “[Cowboy boots are] what I grew up with most of the time,” Will said. Photos by Vincent Hsiao. (on page 27)