MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / June 12, 1999

RESERVE – Growing up, Rysean Brown dreamed of becoming a basketball player.

That dream changed unexpectedly one day during Brown’s junior year at West St. John High School when one of his football coaches, ElmoBoudreaux, the head track and field coach, introduced him to track.

In his first meet shortly afterwards, Brown took home a number of first place finishes. Suddenly, the basketball dream took a back seat to thedream of running track.

Brown would go on to win the district title in the 400 meters, running his best time of the season at the meet. He would also help the Rams win thedistrict championship in both the 400 and 800 meter relays.

A week later at the regional meet, Brown would qualify for the state meet in the 400 with a second place finish and helped the 400 and 800 meter relay teams take regional titles.

Brown closed the season with a fifth-place finish at the Class 2A state meet and was a member of the 800-meter relay team that also placed fifth. After the season, Brown was selected as the team’s OutstandingTrack performer.

The success of his first year helped motivate Brown going into his second year of track in 1999. Brown was also looking to add another statechampionship after winning one as a member of the football team and coming up short in basketball.

“Last year was my first year running and I didn’t know what I was going against,” Brown said. “This year, I was really looking forward to running.”Brown added to his list of successes, winning the District 9-2A title with a time of 53.02 seconds. Brown also helped the Rams win district titles inthe 400, 800 and 1600 meter relays. He added the District IV, Region IIItitle a week later while helping the 800-meter relay team take first.

Brown experienced both heartbreak and exhilaration at the Class 2A state meet a week later. Brown placed in the 400 meters but was disqualified.But earlier in the day, Brown closed strong down the stretch to help the Rams place second in the 800-meter relay.

“It was kind of like a shock,” Brown said. “I knew we had the ability to doit. We talked about it and came together and did it.”After the season, Brown was again named the Rams’ Outstanding Track performer at the school’s awards program.

Brown also caught the eye of the coaches at the World Sports Exchange, an organization that gives athletes the chance to go abroad and compete in their sports. Based upon the recommendation of the WSE coaches, Brownwas invited to become a member of the WSE International Team that has been invited to compete in Barcelona, Spain the week of June 20-28.

With the help of family, friends and sponsors across the country, Brown was able to raise the money for the trip.

“We were able to get plenty of sponsors to raise funds,” Tanya Brown, Rysean’s mom, said. “He had a lot of people giving him motivation andtelling him how great it was for him and saying they were praying for him.”The WSE International Team, consisting of athletes from 45 states, will compete in two international meets while in Spain. The team will arrivein Spain June 21 and will be staying on the Costa Brava on the Mediterranean Sea. The team will practice that day and have an eveningsession with the team’s coaching staff.

The following day, the team will compete in its first meet in Barcelona against the Spanish teams. Competitors will have the opportunity tosocialize with the foreign athletes and trade memorabilia with them after the competition.

The next day, the athletes will visit the historic sites of Barcelona, including the harbor where Christopher Columbus sailed from to discover America and the Sagrada Familia.

The team will then take a day trip to France for sightseeing in the Pyrenees Mountains. The following day, the team will sightsee inBarcelona, seeing such sights as the Picasso Museum and the mountains of Catalona.

Over the next two days, the team will compete in an international competition at the Olympic warm-up stadium, part of the complex where the United States won 45 gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.

Awards will be presented to the first three places in each event.

“I am looking forward to it,” Brown said. “Two more weeks left and I willbe going. I’m going to give it my best. I’m going to pretend it’s just likeanother meet but I’m going to give it even more effort.”Brown said he is hoping to go to Southern University on a track scholarship and said competing at an international meet can only help him.

“I’m going to be facing some good competition,” Brown said. “It’s going tohelp with my speed and endurance. That will help me on the next level.”Brown said he will miss running for West St. John and said he learned a lotof valuable lessons.

“It was a lot of fun competing,” Brown said. “I got to know a lot of peopleand make a lot of friends.

“We ran up against some tough competition. I learned to give it my all andif I did that, I saw I could be successful.”

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