My Kids of STEEL Experience
Jake Borgesi is a P3R NIL Athlete who started his running career by going to Kids of STEEL practices at his elementary school. Fast forward 10 years and Jake was a Nike All-American at South Fayette High School and now competes collegiately at the Division 1 level. Read about Jake's experience participating in Kids of STEEL and a kid and a volunteer coach below.
My experience with Kids of STEEL started at South Fayette Elementary School. I joined Kids of STEEL with two of my neighbors, and we had a great time participating every year. Every morning before school started, we would hop off the bus and head outside. I would get to start the morning off running laps around the playground, and eventually, I realized that running laps around the park with my friends was my favorite part of the school day. After a few months of running in the mornings, it became time to race. I don’t remember how fast I ran that day, but I will always remember how great of a time I had with my dad. I started off being super nervous about my race, but after I finished, I felt very accomplished. I realized that running every morning was not only fun, but I felt like I could see that I was improving with practice. I credit this experience as being the start of my journey in the sport of running, but that is not the only benefit from this experience. By the time I completed the Pittsburgh Kids Marathon, I learned that working out can be fun. This experience also gave me a memory with my dad that I will never forget.
I was also lucky enough to be a volunteer coach for the students at South Fayette who participated in the marathon the last two years. In high school my teammates and I got to teach the students many things about racing longer distances. We spent time teaching them how to pace themselves, how to warm up before a run, and how to stretch after a run. While we spent most of the time instructing the kids, we also fit in some games/relay races to keep it entertaining. It was awesome for me to see the progress that Kids of STEEL had made throughout my time at South Fayette. From running 10 minutes every morning without much coaching to being coached by high school athletes was a great improvement. I highly recommend participating in the marathon to all students, and I can’t wait to see how the event progresses in the future!
Learn more about Jake and P3R's other NIL Athletes here.