PSA Student Splits Loyalties between School and Sport

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Alejandra Hernandez

Maico (left) mugs for the camera with his friend Benjamin Her

Mishack Maico is a freshman at the Public Safety Academy (PSA), but he has been running Track for Armijo since the start of the official season. He was also a part of the Cross-Country team in the fall, joining his first unofficial practice in July.

It has been challenging attending one school while practicing and representing another, so he plans to attend Armijo as an official student in the future. He has already met several of the students on the campus, his teammates, and is looking forward to meeting new people and experiencing new opportunities.

Maico enjoys the professional setting before and after the meets, and he likes being able to see different friends after school. He said that he enjoys the opportunity to explore the environment. “I get to see things that I don’t usually get to,” he said. “And I can explore the environment near me.”

Running “kind of drives me because, when the school day is done, I know that I can do something that I enjoy more than school,” said Maico. “A car can’t go the same places as my legs can take me.”

One important reason Maico runs is to clear his head. “It’s only you and your head, and the path in front of you,” he said. He did admit that sometimes he doesn’t love running so much because of the labor, but he recognizes he is good at it and is enough for him to keep going. He even sees is as a good way to get into college because he recognizes that running may be a sport many don’t want to do because “starting off is slow and progression is slow.”

If his body can last, he would like to run for the rest of his life, although, he does not plan to go professional. “It’s a mind game that finishes off and your body needs to work with you,” he said.