Has to be, if the “I” is the team. We highlight a story about a wonderful student-athlete who went out and performed at such a high-level in multiple events at the Texas 1A track & field championships, that she ended up winning the team title. And with everyone watching, came back and did it again this year.

The story has so many great angles – innocence, small-town America, fitting in, standing out, the weight of great expectations, performing for the sake of performing and not the adulation of others, etc. Congratulations to author Gary Smith for bringing this story to the nation’s attention, eve if Bonnie herself probably is a bit embarrassed by it all. And of course, congratulations to Bonnie, her family, her coach and all of her supporters.

You can find the full piece – “The Power Of One; At age 17 Bonnie Richardson won the Texas state track team championship all by herself. Then she did it again” – by Gary Smith at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1160517/index.htm and in the Sept. 28, 2009 issue of SI.

We are not excerpting parts of the article here except for the various musings that are peppered throughout the story. They give us an idea, of how this young lady may feel. Just great stuff.

I wonder why being myself is so problematic

I hear legions of fate calling my true name

I see little of that which is befitting of my nature

I want to be liberated from the mindset of common society

I am both rugged and capable

I pretend that I am content

I touch true happiness in my imagination

I feel imprisoned by what I am capable of

I worry that I am inadequate

I cry when my goal always outweighs my greatest ability

I understand you cannot achieve all of your desires

I say it is the people around you who hold you back and not yourself

I try to never surrender to my fears or pains

I hope that one day my shackles are unlocked and thrown to the far reaches of space and time