It started with a son looking up to his father running marathons. Now, it has evolved into winning multiple running competitions and running alongside Olympians and national record holders in Croatia.
Senior Vito Alpeza just moved to Brookline from Croatia over the summer and is already very well-loved by his teammates. He currently runs for the boys varsity cross country team and plans to continue running for the boys indoor and outdoor track teams.
Senior Argi Protopapadakis has been running with Alpeza since his arrival on the boys varsity cross country team.
“I’ve noticed a lot of laughs from the guys when they’re talking to Vito. It kind of lightens the mood a little bit. It’s been cool to have someone move from a different country,” Protopapadakis said.
Protopapadakis said he also looks to Alpeza as a friend and sees a lot of admirable traits in him that make him a great addition to the team.
“He’s a very hard worker. He’s someone that’s very trustworthy. Our coach talked to him about specific race strategies, and that was something he was able to do when he had a really good race coming off of that,” Protopapadakis said.
According to senior and Captain Ben Kasen, not only is Alpeza a great addition to the team’s morale, but his motivation in training always helps his teammates get out of their comfort zone. Kasen said Alpeza has been impressing the team since the beginning of the season.
“He understands the commitment that the sport takes, and he’s always motivated and ready to make his impact and do the best that he can,” Kasen said.
Alpeza said he always pushes himself and encourages his teammates to improve themselves. He pays attention to injury prevention, stretching and lifting in order to improve his performance.
“He’s very competitive when he runs. He’s not really competitive with his teammates, but there’s definitely a very competitive spirit in him when he’s practicing and when we’re training, and that’s really helpful for all of us,” Kasen said.
Alpeza said that before a race, he always follows a routine. He doesn’t go out the night before to concentrate on his performance. He also eats specific things and pays attention to how he warms up.
Alpeza said that he also plans to run in the future, whether he goes to college in the United States or returns to Croatia. But for now, he set himself a goal to make it to Nationals with the cross country team.
Despite his success in the sport, Alpeza recently experienced a setback. Last year he went through a difficult time when he injured his left hamstring.
“When injury happens, you don’t run for two months. When you don’t run for two months in distance running, you need at least four months to get back to the level that you were at. So it was really hard to stay focused on the sport,” Alpeza said.
Alpeza does have many accomplishments, such as U23 (under 23) 3000m indoor National champion, U16 and U18 3k outdoor runner-up, U20 50m National runner up, and senior indoor distance medley relay(1200-800-400-1600) National champion. Despite all these accomplishments, Alpeza describes his success as a battle against himself.
“For me, success would be achieving those goals that you set for yourself and whatever those goals might be,” Alpeza said. “It might be a gold medal at the Olympics, or it might be a slight personal record, but, success is when you defeat those goals that you set for yourself.”
