Southside senior track Rhett Moss qualifies for state meet, ready for college

Rhett Moss already knew he was heading to the Class 6A state track meet in the 3,200-meter run. On April 30, Moss, a senior at Southside High School in Fort Smith, clinched a trip to state in another event as he qualified in the 1,600-meters at the 6A-West Conference meet in Springdale.

“I am happy that I have qualified in another event,” Moss said.

He had pre-qualified for state in the 3,200, and will now get to run those two long-distance events at state, which takes place May 7 in Jonesboro. At the Class 6A state meet in Jonesboro, Moss finished fifth in the 3,200-meter run, recording a time of 9:18.69. He helped Southside achieve a top 10 finish in the team standings, as the Mavericks placed ninth.

Moss, who has also ran cross country at Southside, has participated in long-distance events for the Mavericks since his freshman season. His personal best times is 4:23 and 9:21 for the 1,600 and 3,200-meters, respectively. Of those two events, Moss admitted having a personal preference for the 3,200, though the longer distance can take a toll at times.

“The 3,200, that’s my better event, but sometimes, I will get bored running eight laps back-to-back,” he said. “Like I tell everyone who asks me, that’s the reason I like cross country season more is because I don’t feel like a hamster in a cage just going around and around and around. But what my coach has kind of let me know is the longer the event gets, the better I perform at it.”

That coach Moss noted is Juan Zermeno, who also coaches Southside’s cross country squad, a coach Moss remarked is perhaps his biggest influence.

“He just taught me that you have to have a plan,” Moss said. “You can’t just run all these miles and you’re just gonna be good at it, you gotta have a plan for now in the future.”

But the biggest thing Zermeno instilled in Moss was the mental aspect when it came to running long distances.

“He taught me that long runs are for mental toughness; speed workouts are for speed and easy, easy runs are for recovery,” Moss said. “And what I didn’t know as a runner is that you need a strong core. I thought it was just, you’ve gotta have a strong heart, lungs and legs, but also you need to have a strong body all around. You have to have strong core and a strong back, because I mean, you’re moving your arms. He just really expanded the view of what running really is and he’s made me just love the sport.”

Moss’ love of running goes back to elementary school, and a physical education teacher who started a run club.

“What we would do, there’s a little concrete path that goes around the playground, and she just had us run laps around that I think it was just to kind of keep all those kids in shape,” Moss said. “But she kind of could tell that I was running better than most of the other kids on the playground, so she said you should run in middle school.”

This season as a senior, Moss set his personal best of 9:21 in the 3,200 at the Fayetteville Bulldog Relays, setting a school record. At the recent McDonald’s Relays, held on his home track at Jim Rowland Stadium, Moss won the 3,200 with a time of 9:27.12.

“That was an amazing moment for me,” he said. “I was so happy and I thank my coach, I was like, it was all because of you. And I’m just glad that the Lord blessed me with a good track season this year; I’m so happy.”

Following graduation from Southside, Moss will run cross country and track at Harding University in Searcy.

“A lot of my family has gone there, like my granddad, my uncle, my aunt, my mother,” said Moss, who has a 3.6 grade-point average and plans to major in civil engineering at Harding. “And what I like about their college is that they’re a Church of Christ college, which is important to me because I go to a Church of Christ.”

Even after graduation and before college, Moss will keep running. He is going to Alaska for a senior trip, and plans to do a 10K event in Anchorage. However, Moss remarked it’s going to be hard to leave high school.

“I’ve had a wonderful time, but I’m gonna miss all of my friends when I go off to college and I’m gonna miss all the fun times we’ve had,” Moss said. “But I’ve really appreciated all the friends that I’ve made throughout the way and I’ve been appreciative of all the things my coaches have taught me.”