EDEN DAWSEY (RIGHT) COMPETES AT THE D1 REGION 1 CHAMPIONSHIPS LAST MONTH
Last year, when Ruston's Eden Dawsey was at Ruston Junior High School, she saw the notices on the wall inviting incoming freshmen to sign up for cross country. Her parents encouraged her give it a shot telling her it would get her in shape for the basketball.
Somewhere along the way, Dawsey fell in love with the sport and ran her way to MileSplit LA Girls' XC Runner Of The Year honors.
"It feels good," Dawsey said over the phone after a basketball game on Monday night. "I know my family and friends have been really excited about this and I've seen them sharing it. It was on the school's Instagram page, so my friends were all talking about it."
"That's really cool," Ruston head cross country coach Dustin Cochran said Monday evening. "She has great work ethic, very driven, and goal oriented."
While all of those things are great, it's not what Cochran admires the most about Dawsey.
"The thing I love the most about her is when things don't necessarily go her way," Cochran said. "She doesn't get upset. She listens to what I have to say, and then she goes back to work to get better. She is very coachable."
Dawsey gives credit to her basketball background for that characteristic.
"I guess that's something basketball taught me," Dawsey said. "If you have a bad play or a bad game, you don't have time to dwell on it."
The freshman also showed her coach and her teammates how much heart she has. After winning the D1 Region 1 Championships with a time of XXXX, Dawsey was sick leading up to the LHSAA State Cross Country Championships.
"She didn't get out of bed until Saturday and then did a little jogging on Sunday--the day before the state meet," Cochran said. "A lesser kid wouldn't have laced up, but she showed up and competed."
Despite recovering from sickness, Dawsey went right to the front with the leaders. She finished.