Youth Feature: Guzman-Sanchez BY JARED SLINDE
Each day Mason and Brisa Guzman-Sanchez leave their house and walk along the same driveway that played a pivotal role in their track and field careers more than a decade before. It is one of Mason’s earliest memories.
At the age of two he used to spend hours doing nothing more than running laps in the family’s driveway. At that point Mason, now 16 years old, didn’t realize where those laps would take him and his sister Brisa, who is now 14.
“The reason why I started (in track and field) is I wanted to do everything my brother did and the reason he started was he used to run laps in the driveway,” Brisa said. “That is what really brought us together.”
Walking along the same driveway numerous times each day or going through workouts on the track where they both practice the high and low hurdle events, the duo gives little thought to the significance it holds in their athletic careers. However, a simple repetitive act from a child barely old enough to speak served as a springboard into a constant involvement in a sport and helped to bring a family close together. And it all started on a single cement driveway.
Mason and Brisa have both since graduated to running laps around larger venues. The majority of their involvement has taken place over the past 10 years running with the Northridge Pacers Track Club and racing in USA Track & Field Junior Olympics competition at both the regional and national level. When combined with competing for their respective schools, they will compete in around 24 meets in a year.
The group has also taken full advantage in turning track and field into a true family activity. With a large number of Saturdays being dedicated to different competitions, Mason and Brisa will head to meets accompanied by their father Thomas and mother Marla. It is what Thomas calls, “a pleasurable family picnic with entertainment.”
For Thomas, the most rewarding part of the experience is knowing both Mason and Brisa chose such a dedication to the sport with little force on behalf of either parents. Each athlete tried different sports, but found the greatest fulfillment in track and field.
“We have been around the youth track program for so long and a lot of fathers and mothers were the track stars,” Thomas said. “They grind their kids to do that. Some of these kids are genetically ultra-fast. We would see within a year or two kids that would burn out and the parents would be screaming. Sometimes I would want to stay home but they would want to keep doing it. They would want to go and be a part of that community.”
It became an annual occurrence around the home when registrations were due for the Northridge Pacers Track Club. Thomas was confident the family would never miss the deadline.
Guzman-Sanchez
“Originally I just wanted to get a little faster,” Mason said about his first few years competing in track and field. “But as the years went on whenever track season come along I would keep bothering dad when it was time to register.”
That persistence and consistent involvement has been the biggest reason for each of the athlete’s success. Brisa finished the 2012 season with a personal best in the 100m hurdles of 15.15 seconds, which won the recent USATF Junior Olympic Region 15 meet and set the Northridge Pacers Track Club record in the process.
As Brisa begins her freshman year of high school, the siblings will continue their support of one another on the track at Alemany High School in Mission Hills, Calif. And if either athlete needed a boost to their motivation for training for the hurdles it happened at the recent London Olympic Games. Each were fixed to the TV as Team USA took home a total of four medals in the 100m hurdles and 110m hurdles, which was the most combined medals in those events since the 1984 Olympic Games.
Brisa points to Australia’s Olympic champion Sally Pearson and American indoor 60m hurdles record holder Lolo Jones as her favorites to watch while Mason is partial to Cuba’s world record holder Dayron Robles. Despite being fans of international athletes, both kids were amazed by the success of American hurdlers in London.
“It was amazing,” Brisa said of the Olympic Games. “You can’t blink because you are going to miss something. Now I have a little more dedication and in four years I want to be running at that level. After the final we spent a half an hour on my dad’s computer watching Youtube videos of Sally Pearson and watching documentaries on Lolo Jones. They have influenced me to push myself even more.”
Nobody knows if the name Guzman-Sanchez will be among those in contention for the 2016 Olympic Games. But what is known with certainty is the family will always have a strong connection with the sport.
The different ways track and field has brought the family closer together are difficult to calculate.
“Through track and field I have been blessed with a connection I could not have achieved with my son and daughter,” Thomas concluded. “Being allowed to reach in to give them love, support and a strong word if needed have brought our family closer and more connected.”
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