Samaron to continue cross country career at Clarendon College

Springlake-Earth senior, Josh Samaron, signed his Letter of Intent on Monday in the Springlake-Earth Gymnasium to continue his cross country and academic career at Clarendon College.

Samaron talked about being signed, saying, “It’s definitely scary, but I’m very humbled to have the talent I have and be able to run at the next level. Not many people in the whole country can say they’ve ran at the college level, so I’m very grateful and humbled to have this opportunity.”

Samaron had four coaches over his six year’s in cross country. He started off with Coach Jeri Goodman in junior high and he ended with her this year as a senior.

Coach Daniel Gutierrez was his coach during his freshman year; Coach Rick Price was his coach during his sophomore year; Coach Scott Royal was his coach his junior year and Coach Jeri Goodman was his coach as a senior.

“Every single one of the coaches that I’ve had have showed me something different and pushed me to my limits,” Samaron said. They’ve all had different ways of pushing me, but they have all had a great impact on me.”

In junior high he was a district champion for two years and in high school they were district champions for four years.

Samaron has been a State Cross Country participant for four years. During his freshman year, their team placed fifth as a team at State and during his sophomore year they placed third as a team. His junior and senior year, Josh made it to state as an individual.

“That is a testament to Josh and his hard work, because I don’t know that anybody has ever gone to State four years in a row in cross country,” Coach Goodman said. “My memory of Josh is going to be that long stride that he has. He has the longest stride of anybody I know.”

Josh’s clocked a time of 19:04 as a freshman and improved to a 17:52 over his four years. His placings over the four years at State started with 87 ^th and he got as high as 40 ^th .

Josh’s parents talked about their son’s accomplishment, starting with his mom Jennifer, saying, “I’m very proud of him. I think he has grown a lot through the years and I’m really excited to see what he does.”

His dad, Mark Samaron added, “I think it’s scary to go run at the next level, because it’s not an easy task to do those workouts and everything, so the fact that he is willing to do it, I’m proud of him for it.”

Samaron talked about when he first realized he wanted to continue running at the college level, saying, “When I started getting messages from coaches asking if I wanted to run for them, I thought why not? If you get the opportunity to take it, then why not take it.”

He stated that his first letter came late in his junior year and at that point he knew there would be more coming and he just stuck with it.

Samaron talked about his decision to sign with Clarendon, saying, “Clarendon just started a new track program this year, so for me it’s not so much about going out to win, but I just want to enjoy the experience and try and see what it is all about. It also much closer to home then a lot of the other schools that offered me. They offer me a good experience and I’ll see where I can go from there.”

He added, I’m just looking forward to the experience. I’m not going to take for granted the opportunity that I have.”

The senior talked about how he has seen himself grow over the years, saying, “Back in junior high I was one of those kids that did not want to run, I hated running with a passion. But, they put me in long distance running and I learned that I was able to keep a good pace and was able to out run other people, and here we are now with me signing to run in college.”

Samaron talked about what it has meant to him to be able to represent Springlake-Earth over the last few years, stating, “It means a lot to me to have been able to represent Springlake-Earth over the last six years. I went to school here my whole life, so it’s cool to be able to go to these other schools and tell them I ran for Springlake-Earth and that I was able to go to Austin and all of these other places and put Springlake-Earth on the map.”

He added, “The best experience I have from running here was just running with my teammates and laughing in practice. Being able to have fun in practice and challenge each other and enjoy the experience I got with those people are some of my best memories.”

Coach Goodman talked about the kind of kid Clarendon is getting, stating, “They’re getting a class act kid in Josh. You have never heard of Josh being involved in any kind of discipline problems. He may not be a vocal leader, but he is going to lead with his actions. Josh has helped me put together a cross country team to make sure that we had a team.”

Lastly, Samaron spoke about the support he has received from his family, saying, “They’ve supported me a lot. I always wanted to carry on the Samaron legacy. I’m thankful to have two parents that always push me and make me do better even when I didn’t want to. My dad helps me train in the summers and I don’t think I would be where I’m at without him.”