Senior selfless in final season

Let’s face it, we’re selfish.
In some way or another, all of us are.
No one is perhaps more selfish than an athlete.
Whether it be refusing to pass to an open teammate, or taking the last shot no matter how many defenders are at the guard, basketball players can be selfish.
Or it’s the running back who thinks he’s a star and doesn’t get his number called. He gets angry, takes the next play off, choosing not to block a blitzing linebacker that leads to his quarterback getting injured.
Then there’s the soccer player who, like the basketball player, won’t pass the ball or tries to dribble through defenders, leading to turnovers and perhaps scoring opportunities for the opponent.
On the baseball diamond it’s the batter who misses a hit-and-run sign and his teammate gets thrown out trying to steal. Or the pitcher who refuses to let the coach take him out despite a slew of walked batters or hits late in the game. Or the batter who disregards a bunt sign to swing away.
Watch enough games and these players, these scenarios, become noticeable.
It can be demoralizing, break up chemistry and be detrimental to morale. In each of these instances, the subjects all have one thing in common — they put their individual successes and goals before those of the team.
What tend to be not as noticeable, however, are those selfless acts.
It’s the basketball player who works on passing, the running back who spends extra time after practice to become a better blocker or the baseball player who takes 50 extra pitches during batting practice to lay down bunt after bunt to be perfect at the craft.
Consider the actions this season of Jay County High School senior Emma Laux.
She is a sprinter. She’s run the 100- and 200-meter dash events, as well as been part of a 4x100 relay team that was a two-time sectional champion. She also was a part of the 4x400 relay that had been known to be successful too.
At the beginning of this season, JCHS girls coach Brian McEvoy approached Laux asking for a favor.
During the previous year, the Patriots had their streak of five consecutive sectional championships snapped. To once again become the best team in the area, McEvoy needed Laux to give up her favorite event, the 4x100 relay, and instead run the 400 dash. McEvoy felt it gave the squad a better chance to win the Allen County Athletic Conference championship as well as a sectional title.
Laux wasn’t sure what to do. On the one hand, she ran the 4x100 in every meet, and this year she had the chance to run it with two of her childhood friends, Emily Muhlenkamp and Taylor Homan, and her sister Lucy.
“On the other hand, I thought, ‘My team needs me to run the 400,’” said Laux, who will continue her track career next season for Butler University. “I’ve been making progress in the 4x400, so maybe I could push myself out of my comfort zone and run this event.”
So she did. How did the Patriots fare with her in a new event?
They won the program’s first ACAC championship (and second-ever conference title). Jay County wasn’t able to nab the sectional crown again, but Laux did her job in the 400 dash. She finished second and qualified for the regional.
And during Tuesday’s regional meet at Ben Davis in Indianapolis, Laux placed fifth in 59.43 seconds, a mere two tenths of a second off the school record set by 2008 graduate Amanda Johnson.
Laux put the team first. She gave up her favorite event for something new for the sake of helping her teammates.
“She jumped right into it,” McEvoy said. “She did a great job with it. To have the (regional) performance that she had it was the best that it could be.”
She didn’t get to run with two of her best friends. In their final season together, she wasn’t able to run the same event with her sister.
But she knew that’s what the team needed. So she didn’t hesitate to put her own goals aside.
“Looking back on that decision to drop the 4x100 and run the open 400, I made the right decision,” she said. “I would make the same decision again in a heartbeat.
“The 400 is my new favorite event. I wish I could have run it all four years of high school.”
Laux could have easily told McEvoy “no” at the start of the season and instead ran with her friends and sister. Perhaps doing so meant more to her as an individual than the Patriots as a whole.
But she didn’t say no. She didn’t run with her friends and sister. Her individual success was not more important than her team’s.
In a time when selfishness can tear a team apart, selfless acts like Laux’s can bring one together.