Editor’s Note: Over the next weeks and months, Emmaussports.com will be spotlighting senior spring sports student-athletes at Emmaus High School who have had their final athletic year cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Today we spotlight Paul Petre (PP) of the Emmaus track and field team with our Q and A session:
Q: How are you coping during these difficult and uncertain times with the Coronavirus pandemic?
PP: With losing the rest of my senior year and my last track season that I’ve been looking forward to since freshman year, I just try and keep myself occupied with such little things to do. I usually occupy myself with sports and practices, so with track being cancelled I moved on to training for my next season and that’s triathlons.
Q: What’s been the biggest challenge for you day to day?
PP: I’d have to say the biggest challenge right now is the clock for me. With these uncertain times and nothing but the end of the tunnel to hope for, I sometimes find myself just counting the days until this horrible thing ends.
Q: What are you doing to keep busy?
PP: Like I said I started training for triathlons again, along with getting some online school work that I have to do now, but other than that it’s quite simple for me it consists of video games, eating, and sleeping for the most part.
Q: How disappointed are you now that the spring sports season has been cancelled?
PP: I’m a little pissed off that it had to be this season because personally I like track season the most and I especially had my eye on a record or two to hopefully take down, but fortunately this wasn’t my last chance to compete.
Q: What is your favorite memory from your high school sports career?
PP: Without a doubt my favorite moment would be from last year at the league meet when I out-leaned Parkland to help my team take first place in the 4 x 800 relay by only seven-hundredths of a second.
Q: What are you future plans after high school? If college, what school have you committed to and do you plan on playing sports and what will be your major?
PP: I’ll be moving onto Moravian college to study Chemistry and I’ll be running cross country and track.
Q: What’s the best advice you can give to your underclassmen?
PP: As you can see there’s no telling what the future holds, so you should cherish every minute you have cause it’ll eventually be over without you being ready for it.