When it comes to all forms of racing, too much thought is put into reaching the checkered flag first. Many don’t consider that there are more factors at play that can attribute to success as well improvement.

For Pleasantville cross country coach Aaron Fichter, his belief is looking at a head to head matchup against the other runners.

“Sometimes kids can get so worried about their time or place that you do have to have these conversations about ‘well, these five kids were here this year, you beat this kid that beat you last year’ or ‘look how well you finished, that was a great second golf of the race.’ Trying to find little slivers of positive when they don’t think it was a positive thing.”

To summarize, a boxer may fall three times to one opponent, but if they win next time, they show that they’ve improved and are better than the one who bested them previously. That is essentially Fichter’s philosophy.