ANTHEM, AZ — It's 6 a.m. at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem, and the Jaguars' cross country team is lacing up their running shoes before setting out on a three-mile run.
"It's always going to be hard," said Jack Florez. "You got to find a way to push through. Work around what life gives you."
Florez isn't talking about a hot, summer run — he's got the endurance for that. The soon-to-be senior has endured far greater challenges in his young life.
Florez was born at 28 weeks and spent the first two and a half months of his life in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). A periodic brain scan discovered damage and also that Florez had cerebral palsy.
"The initial doctor said he probably won't walk," Florez's dad John recalled. "There was just this whole range of what he will or won't do. There was so much uncertainty."
His entire life from that point has been in different therapies to learn how to do daily tasks that most of us don't think twice about.
"Not being able to do simple things like your peers, that was a big thing for a child. And there was a lot of frustration," said Valerie Pieraccini, Florez's occupational therapist. "The beautiful thing about Jack is he has this great imagination. He has this great sense of humor. And we use that in therapies for him to be able to just keep going. He is an overcomer, that's his spirit."
Florez is a movie buff and a fan of classic rock music. Basketball is his favorite sport, but cross country is where he found his happy place.
"My mom said she knew I wanted to play sports and stuff, so she found cross country and said, 'Jack, you should check this out.' And I said, 'OK, I'll do it for a year and then a year turned into however long I've been doing this, like five, six years," explained Florez.
During his freshman year, it took 30 minutes for the teen to run a 5K (3.1 miles). Fast forward three years, and now he's running a mile in just over 7 minutes — 7:11 to be exact.
"We've really seen big improvements. That's just been really exciting, like knocking off big chunks of time," said Boulder Creek cross-country coach Tom Clarke. "It's just nice, especially in track, to see people kind of rally around Jack in his races."
"The amazing thing about Jack and cross country and running is that he never stops," said John. "His best looks a little bit different than everybody else's. And I think it's important to maybe step back a little bit and say, you know, your best is your best and it might not look like everyone else's, but it's important to acknowledge that and give them an opportunity to shine and to be their best."
The irony of a boy who was told he wouldn't walk, now running long distances isn't lost on the Florez family.
It's a testament to Florez's tenacity and a powerful message to anyone overcoming a disability. If there's something standing in his way, Florez just keeps running.
"If I want to do something, I'm going to do it," Florez said. "I don't let anything that anybody tells me prevent me from doing the things that I want to do in life. Like, I have to know where my limits are because of cerebral palsy. But you can find ways to do what you want and work within the limits that you have."
"You can live the way that you want to live. There's something for everybody."
