The first Tuesday of each month, we interview someone from Charlotte Latin Athletics with twenty questions to help the CLS community get to know some of our athletes, coaches, and supporters a bit better.
 
As the spring season enters its final month, meet freshman Jack Totten. He is a member of the varsity track and field and cross country teams who has made quite an impression on the CISAA running community. Although his unique gait draws initial attention, most people quickly recognize that he is an incredibly tough and determined competitor. Athletic, good-natured, intelligent and insightful, with a witty sense of humor, Jack is already making his mark at Charlotte Latin in his first year as a Hawk. Read on to get to know him a bit.   
 
1. What can you tell us about your family and what brought you to Charlotte?  
I was born in Los Angeles and we moved here when I was seven for my dad's work with a fund advisory group. My parents (Annie and Jay) met in college at Santa Clara University, and I have two sisters. Maeve is in seventh grade and Aela is in fifth grade. They go to Trinity Episcopal, which is where I went prior to Charlotte Latin.
 
2. Of all the options you had for 9^th grade, why did you choose Latin?  
I was looking for the same sense of community I had at Trinity Episcopal, and there were a few schools that gave me that vibe. I applied and got accepted to two of them. When I visited here, I ended up in a conversation with Coach Weiss by coincidence. I felt this sense that I was recruited by him, which isn't true, but I felt like I was wanted. I just went with my instincts and chose Latin.
 
3. How has the transition been this year?
It's definitely a step up (in difficulty) from last year. Academics are a roller coaster. Sometimes, you have everything you could possibly think of on your plate, and other days you have nothing. And on those days you have nothing, you're like, "Wait, am I forgetting something?!"
 
4. Do you feel you've found the sense of community you were looking for?
Yeah, my instinct was definitely correct about the sense of community here. It also helped that there were familiar faces. A lot of my close friends from Trinity Episcopal School have made their way to Latin. I did some of the summer workouts for cross country, so I met people that way as well.
 
5. Had you been a runner before you joined Latin's cross country team?  
At Trinity (Episcopal School), the 3^rd-5^th graders had a program called Let Me Run for boys and I did that all three of those years. Then I kind of dropped running for sixth and seventh grade, but I joined cross country for eighth grade and that's truly when my love for running really sparked.
 
6. What do you love most about it, and what do you find most challenging?  
No matter how hard the workout was, it kind of felt easy to me. I don't know why. Sometimes I just find hard things easy, I guess. It was pleasing in a way to have a group to run with here, and all I do is try to keep up. If I don't, I don't. The most challenging part about running for me is just maintaining the pace so that I don't run slower than the time that I had.
6b. Do you have any tricks for that?
Usually, when I get tired, I slow my breathing and that actually helps me speed up a little bit. Then I focus my mind and tell myself that I am not as tired as I could be – that it is possible for me to go faster. I just have to try.
 
7. What would you like people who are curious about your physical differences to know about you?
If someone asks why I walk a certain way or the reason my leg is turned inward, I just say I was born that way. If I were to talk to someone about cerebral palsy, I would want them to know that it's a spectrum. There are people on one end who can't talk, walk or barely even move, and then there are people who can do all the things normal people can do, but with a little more effort. I can walk and talk and do all the typical human things without too much trouble, there are just some things I can't do that people without CP can. There are also things that I can do that some normal people don't imagine trying.
 
8. Do you feel like you've overcome things? How does it make you feel to hear others say you are inspiring?
I know that I have overcome things, but the thing I always tell myself is that whatever my parents or friends think I overcame in that moment, I actually overcame a long time ago. Or at least, I overcame it the first time I tried that thing, and now I'm just reminding them that I did that. I'm always glad to hear their affirmations, but it also feels like they're giving me too much credit. Like if I'm being given credit for doing this thing, then everyone on the team should get a share of credit for doing the same thing.
 
9. Now that you've run both cross country and track, do you have a preference?  
To be honest, I don't really see a difference. Running is just running to me. It doesn't matter if I'm running on a track or a rocky trail. I don't really see the trail as any more of a challenge than the track – people can trip on both.
 
10. When that happens, when you trip, what goes through your mind?  
I don't think, I just spring back up and then I sprint. That's my mindset. I always think the fall will cost me more than it actually does. That was proven during one of my track meets when I ran a sub-ten-minute mile. I ended up falling twice and I still managed to break ten minutes. That is amazing. I'm still surprised that I was able to do that. But I think a lot of people have that experience where you have a setback and then you work really hard to overcome it. I think that's what happened to me that day.
 
11. You ran the 1600m exclusively this track season. What goes through your mind while running it?
When I run, I just don't think. Sometimes I count laps and sometimes I lose track, which is surprising considering how easy it is to count to four! When I get to the last lap, I try to run really fast and then I look at the clock in the last 100 meters. When I see the time, I compare it to my previous runs and sometimes I'm surprised, both positively and negatively, depending on whether the time is faster or slower than my best.
 
12. Do you hear Coach Weiss giving instructions and your teammates cheering when you run?  
I don't consciously hear him, but whatever he tells me I can just kind of subconsciously acknowledge. If I lose my focus, I'll fall. So his instructions don't stay in my head any longer than they have to and once that brief time period is up, I lose any memory of it happening. If someone asked me after the race what he said or what my teammates were saying, I wouldn't know.
 
13. How have you found the team dynamic, and is it different between cross country and track?
Everyone on the cross country team felt like one big family. Track is definitely different because there are so many people doing different things. It felt more like various friend groups that were all taking the same class. Kind of like one big family versus several smaller groups of friends.
 
14. Alright, let's finish up with some easy questions. What's your go-to order from FLIK?
A fried chicken sandwich and fries, with a Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bar for dessert. I get it every day.
 
15. What's your favorite music to listen to? Do you have a pre-race pump-up song?
My favorite music to listen to is called PHONK. It's a subgenre of hip hop and it kind of evolved into its own thing. As far as a pump-up song goes, I just listen to a playlist of my #1 artist continuously until the race starts.
 
16.  If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel?
Switzerland. I've been there once before and it's beautiful. If I just want to take a break from being a typical person that lives in a relatively large city, I'd fly out to Switzerland and just take a hike.
 
17. What has been your favorite vacation so far?  
I'd say Lake Tahoe because of tradition. My mom has gone there for her birthday almost every year since she was one. I just spend time with family, go inner tubing on the boat, and it honestly feels like a third home. Los Angeles will always be home to me in some way, Charlotte is where I currently live so it can be called home, and even though we've never actually lived there or owned a house there, Lake Tahoe feels like home to me.
 
18.  What's your favorite sport to watch?  
I'll give you my top three: College football and the NFL during the playoffs. My second favorite would be March Madness, and the third one is the World Series for baseball.
 
19.  When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a superhero. It's a classic kid dream to have super powers and help the world. Every kid has a dream like that.  
 
20.  If you could pick any sport to have a professional-level talent for, what would you choose?
I'd probably pick cross country or track, because I'm already pretty good at running.


Watch Jack competing at a cross country meet in McApline with his teammates cheering him on, following him around the course, and there to congratulate him at the finish.