Cross country talent and defensive back has sights set on reaching first California Division 3 state final, along with contributing to possible football team championship in San Diego

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

At a recent cross country practice, senior Rashad Prince endured the Orange Glen High version of an ice bath.

It doesn’t take place in a state-of-the-art training room on the campus in Escondido, Calif., or in a giant tub, sharing the experience with a teammate.

At Orange Glen, that experience involves ice, a garden hose and a plastic trash can.

Given the pounding his body takes, Ice baths are commonplace for Prince. And not all of them even take place in a trash can, some are at home, whenever he can grab a minute.

It’s all worth it, he figures, for his ultimate goal.

Orange Glen’s top distance runner is also a starting defensive back for the Patriots’ football team, as he competes in both sports during the fall season.

PRINCE DISCUSSES THE PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND MENTAL CHALLENGES OF PLAYING BOTH SPORTS

And that has led to an interesting past few months, a journey that has seen Prince take part in the glory of Friday nights before waking up early Saturdays to run cross country meets.

This is not something he’s done his entire high school career. Always a cross country runner as a prep, football – which he last played in the seventh and eighth grades – was something he took on just for his senior year.

“One day, I was out here running and I saw them playing football,” Prince said. “And I told myself, ‘This might be the last time I ever get to play this sport.’ It kind of hit me real hard. So I just decided, ‘Why not play?’”

That decision has led to all kinds of logistical challenges, but Prince seems to have handled them well.

PRINCE’S INTERVIEW FOLLOWING HIS VICTORY AT THE DANA HILLS INVITATIONAL

At the Kit Carson Invitational on Oct. 19, Prince finished second in the Teal Division race in 16 minutes, 41.2 seconds on the 3.05-mile course, just a few hours before totaling three tackles and two pass deflections in the Patriots’ 34-25 win over Tri-City Christian.

It marked the second time this season Prince has done both sports in the same day. He placed third Sept. 28 in the Coach Downey Classic at Balboa Park’s Morley Field, covering the 5-kilometer course in 16:48, then helped Orange Glen secure a 28-19 victory that night against Classical Academy, recording five tackles and a pass deflection.

Prince won the second Coastal Conference meet Thursday, covering the 5-kilometer course at Tecolote Shores North Park in 17:04, then amassed four tackles Friday in a 24-19 loss to Santa Fe Christian in the regular-season finale for the Patriots.

Orange Glen, a picturesque campus on the southeast side of Escondido, boasts an enrollment of a little more than 1,400 students. Though daunting, an athlete competing in football and cross country simultaneously is not unheard of, particularly at a smaller school.

“It’s doable,” Orange Glen cross country coach Mike Mena said. “It all depends on the athlete.”

It also depends on time management, which Prince has learned how to master.

Prince said his weekends start with making sure to get a quality night of sleep each Thursday. A good breakfast Friday morning is followed by the normal football day.

“After school, I’m with my football team,” Prince said. “We eat and then basically get in our mindset for the game.”

After the game, he may mix in ice before getting as much sleep as he can for Saturday morning.

“It’s real tough, because I’m getting up sore and achy,” Prince said. “But I’ve got to keep mentally strong.”

In his fourth season of cross country, Prince is used to the Saturday morning routine, but needed an obvious adjustment to mix in a football game from the night prior.

“I have to take more time,” he said. “I make sure to warm up an hour and 30 minutes before.

“I’ve got to get my legs warm and my mind right.”

But the sacrifices are worth it with his ultimate goal in mind.

“The whole decision to do both was because I still had a goal to make it to state for cross country,” he said.

During the week, he practices with the football team after school Mondays and Tuesdays. He wakes up early and runs in the morning, unless the school has early release Mondays, in which case he gets a quick run in before football practice.

He often doubles up Wednesdays with an evening football practice.

And all this while juggling three AP classes and maintaining a high GPA.

“He has the right attitude and I cut him no slack,” Mena said of Prince, who also won the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in track in the Coastal Conference last spring, in addition placing third in the 800 and running the second leg of the team’s third-place 4x400 relay.

“I don't care who they are. If he didn’t perform, he wouldn’t be out here.”

The irony is the longer the Orange Glen football season lasts, the more complicated doing both sports becomes for Prince, who has 23 tackles and four pass deflections in football and has six top-five finishes – including three victories – in cross country.

The Patriots are the top seed in the CIF-San Diego Section Division 5 football playoffs and will have a bye this week before facing Castle Park or Maranatha Christian in the quarterfinals Nov. 9, the same day as the Coastal Conference finals in cross country, where Prince is the defending champ.

A win there, and the football team plays Nov. 16 in the semifinals, the night before the CIF-San Diego Section cross country finals at Balboa Park’s Morley Field. A possible football championship game Nov. 23 would be the night before the state cross country meet in Fresno.

Prince isn't worried about it and said he'll deal with scheduling conflicts as they come up.

“I take it day by day. I just try to take it in,” he said. “I don’t like to think beyond Friday night and Saturday mornings.”

Until then, he'll keep working on his focus with that one goal of competing in the CIF Division 3 state final at Woodward Park on Thanksgiving Weekend in mind.

“This year, I feel like I’m mentally way stronger,” Prince said. “I just feel like I’ll be able to finish it because I have this goal set for me.”