John Kuziej is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Brophy for AZPreps365.com

Brophy senior cross-country captain Zach Loiselle was not always the best cross-country runner at Brophy Prep. In fact, it wasn’t even his main sport.

However, when he gave up baseball his sophomore year and focused on cross-country, he put his all into the sport. Zach credits his father as his biggest influence.

“My dad loves coming out to watch me,” Loiselle said. “If I have meets out of the state, he’ll go fly out there and watch me. He always tells me if he is having a horrible week or horrible day, if I have a good race, it cheers him up. He’s my biggest supporter.”

Brian Loiselle has always enjoyed watching his son run cross-country over the years.

“Sometimes yeah I have some tough weeks,” Brian said. “Being able to watch my son perform and especially perform well, where I know that he feels comfortable he did a good race. It really just inspires me and lifts me up knowing that something really good happened during the week.”

Switching from baseball to cross-country was not easy for Zach. There were some tough times getting up to speed.

“I had a pretty good freshman season,” Loiselle said. “Sophomore year did not go very well because I was playing baseball the whole time and I wasn’t really focused on running, and my training wasn’t there.”

Even when Zach was more focused on baseball, the Brophy coaches could see the potential that he had as a runner.

“Zach’s talent was evident from the beginning,” Brophy coach Oscar Borboa said. “Without much formal training. We thought he still competed pretty well as a freshman and sophomore.”

Despite showing a lot of promise as an underclassman, he was not in Brophy’s top seven runners and missed out on the postseason.

Seeing runners he used to beat finish ahead of him only motivated Zach to focus on getting better. In the summer of 2021 a flip switched in Zach.

All the potential his coaches saw early started to show.

“He (Zach) is someone who truly understands progress will likely not happen instantly,” Borboa said. “And it certainly will not happen without putting in the day-to-day efforts. I can count on my hand the number of practices that Zach has missed through the years, so very, very few if any.

“That’s the kind of attitude and that’s the kind of mindset you have to bring to our sport and one that he (Zach) has really embraced, especially since that summer before junior year.”

Zach’s workout regimen now as a senior shows how much he cares for the sport. He is currently running roughly 60 miles a week, consisting of three hard workouts, long runs and workouts on the track.

The amount of dedication Zach has put into the sport of cross-country was on display leading up to the 41st Annual Woodridge Cross Country Classic on Sept. 16 in Irvine, California.

“Two weeks before we had a race and after the race I started not feeling well,” Loiselle said. “I had a cold and actually ended up missing a couple days of school. That just continued for a solid week. I was coughing a lot. Stuffy nose and just kind of felt weak.”

While battling an illness the week before, Zach posted an incredible improvement from his junior year time. Zach ran a time of 15:08 in the 3-mile race, which was good enough for a top 10 finish and a personal record.

“When I finished that race I was so high I was on Cloud Nine,” Loiselle said. “It’s a great feeling. To be honest, I didn’t think I was able to run that fast. When I saw that clock and saw my place, best feeling in the world.”

This was a huge improvement for Zach, who ran 15:53 his junior year. The 45-second time difference had Zach so thrilled that even his coaches noticed a change from their normally quiet leader.

“The excitement and the energy and even the animation that I saw in Zach,” Borboa said. “After the Woodridge race, for someone who is typically quiet and reserved. That told me that he was in a good place and our team was in a good place.”

After the season, Zach’s time with Brophy cross-country will come to an end. However, the influence he has had on his teammates will stay with them.

“It’s been great training with him for the past two and a half years,” Brophy junior Connor Brown said. “And I can definitely use the stuff that he’s said to me on maybe someone that’s younger.”

One specific piece of advice Zach will leave with his team stays true to his quiet leadership style.

“Go out hard,” Brown said.