Alec Haines, The Soccer Player Turned State Champion
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Alec Haines came to Lafayette High School as a well-established soccer star. Despite Quisenberry trying to derail his soccer career with that cheap shot in fourth grade, Haines was thought to be headed for great things as a soccer goal scorer.
Alec was a big-time soccer player in middle school," recalls O'Connor. "Everybody said he was going to play soccer in high school."
One thing that is quickly obvious about Coach O'Connor is he doesn't exactly care what everybody else thinks.
OC talked Haines into splitting time with the cross country team while he was starring with his elite-level club soccer team. Haines is very proud of his soccer roots and how good the level of play was with his club team. He was not an easy sell for OC.
"Alec has always been good but at first he was kind of skeptical," remembers O'Connor. "He hated the two mile! I mean HATED it! He almost refused to run it his sophomore year and then his junior year he's third at state in the two mile."
Haines had a real breakthrough at state last May when he outraced Raytown's Zack Penrod down the final 100 meters to win the 1600 with a time of 4:11.58 to Penrod's 4:11.79.
"That
win at state was my first win in the 1600 all season," gushed Haines.
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Think how remarkable a statement that is -- and how revealing it is when considering the success of O'Connor's funnel system of training for late-season peak performances.
"Alec winning State in the 1600 was huge for him," said O'Connor. "He finished seventh in the mile as a sophomore and that showed him he could be good. It was a good validation for him for deciding to switch from soccer to cross country and track."
Haines, who goes by one of my favorite Twitter monikers, @HainesUnderwear, received further validation that his decision to move from soccer to distance running was a wise choice when he accepted a cross country and track scholarship from Oklahoma State last week.
Haines has Dancing-With-The-Stars good looks and a shock of black hair that screams shampoo commercials. He is also as pleasant and disarming a kid as you will likely meet. None of these Lafayette kids seemed at all overly impressed with themselves. It was a pleasure spending time with all of them.
"For a long time I don't think Alec realized how good he is," said OC's wife and the team's unofficial counselor, Courtney. "I think he lived in Dylan's shadow."
"Going into the State meet as a junior, I wanted to win but I hadn't won a 1600 race all season," said Haines. "That was my first win. So it was kind of tough to believe in myself but I still did and I was able to bring home the result."
"Alec is hilarious," laughs O'Connor. "He's a really funny kid. He's smart and he's got a great sense of humor. He's sarcastic and he's not real serious about a lot of stuff."