Colin Rinne sure gets into some crazy antics with his teammates.
The rising junior has found himself running on highways in Alabama at midnight with the Hoosier Harriers, conveniently “borrowing” his friends’ cars in the middle of the night, taking grocery carts to deposit them into peoples’ yards and staying up all night to play golf and soccer in the park before a 7:30 AM practice with his teammates.
“Some might say we have a criminal record,” jokes the sixteen-year-old, “but that it was never officially filed.”
Lucky for him, Rinne’s coaches at Westfield Washington High School are unruffled by their athletes’ loud, rambunctious and lawful acts.
“They know everything that happens, and are pretty cool about it until it affects someone on the team negatively, whether as a distraction to ourselves or to others,” says the rising junior. “Our coaches are a great balance to us: they joke around but help us immensely when we start to push the boundaries in practice.”
Rinne is fortunate enough to have a myriad of coaches and mentors who have positively influenced him on his journey to becoming a cross country star. He played soccer his entire life and joined the cross country team in 
seventh grade to stay in shape for soccer, where he enjoyed some success but never thought about the sport as a long-term venture.
“I got more serious in eighth grade in big part to our coach, Mrs.Ogle, one of the best people I have ever met,” recalls the former soccer player. “She’s the biggest reason why I’m running now.”
Rinne upset soccer teammates his freshman year by playing soccer and running for the school in the fall, when he “missed a ton of soccer practices and pissed a lot of people off on the school team”. He made the difficult decision to quit soccer and focus on a re-discovered passion the summer before his sophomore year.
“The decision to drop soccer was tough, really tough,” says Rinne. “I loved both sports equally in different aspects, but in the end I realized I enjoyed being very good at what I do -- running barely edged out soccer.”
Changing his focus from soccer to running led Rinne to a phenomenal coming-out for his sophomore cross country season, where he showcased his abilities as a runner and ran to his near-full potential.
“I say my near-full potential because I believe there’s always some way to get better,” says Rinne. “You can always run faster.”
Rinne’s observational and practical approach to running helps him stay grounded and prevents him from harboring the idea that his life revolves around running.
“Some people may accuse me of looking at running as just a game, but I take it very seriously,” Rinne clarifies. “I may seem unfocused before big races, but that’s how I prepare. I try to maintain the fun part of running so every time I get out there, I enjoy it.”
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