Kenneth Rooks

We could share.

Um, I will say it was fun seeing them work out, too, because Kenneth Rooks might be-

[laughs]

...

It's for athletic people.

Kenneth Rooks is not...

No, dude.

Kenneth Rooks is not competing in the 15, but he's not competing in the 5K, so he found the steeplechase.

I plead the Fifth.

I'll d- I'll die on that hill.

Mm-hmm.

That's my take.

When I first went pro, the reason I stayed was to kinda continue to be around that team environment with BYU, but I struggled those first two or three years as a pro because there weren't other pros with me, besides Jared Ward kinda touch and go here and there.

But as soon as our, kind of our pro team started to f- form between, you know, oh, Conner Mantz, he's gonna stick around, and then Conner McMellen, Casey Klinger, Kenneth Rooks, like now I feel like that's what-- where I was able to thrive and do what I have been able to do as a pro.

And so yeah, that, that kinda went into my math with BYU, right? Team environment, good coach, and then I, you know, I was a nerd, like anybody.

Uh, too much of a nerd.

I think for a few years there, he was, like, pretty easy pick to win everything, and, uh, yeah, now there's, like, some pretty solid competition for him, uh, going forward.

So yeah, I miss, uh, I still miss Evan Jager, and, uh, Kenneth Rooks has been kinda, you know, he got silver, and then we haven't seen too much of him since.

And I don't know, like, same with the women, like, American women.

There are some, like, really solid American women, but there's no Emma Coburn, there's no Evan Jager.

What does paving it forward signify to you as well in just building that team culture?

Yeah, well, I think, you know, how much more confident are you going to be when you look at guys like Kenneth Rooks, who we haven't even mentioned, who have gone through the system and then emerged on the backside of it, you know, very early in his pro career, you know, probably running one of the most exciting races in American distance running history.

You know, how much confidence does that give you when you're able to, you know, do your long run with him on the weekend or, you um or some of these others at the same kind of confidence that i had from running with uh paul cummings or a doug padilla or a henry marsh as a younger runner uh and seeing what they had been able to do and that hey it's not impossible to get a pro contract it's not impossible to make olympic teams it's not impossible to make this your career um And I think just as I was able to see those greats that had preceded me, I think these younger generation is able to see the number of really good guys that have come through the system that have then continued on and done great things.

Some have stuck around in Provo and continue to work with, and that's awesome.