Andrew Klein is the recipient of the Laddie Lawrence Scholarship. Klein was a senior for the Staples High School boys cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track teams and earned this honor in recognition of his dedication and service to the team and for his academic performance.

“I feel really honored,” says Klein. “It feels good to have his name on it because he meant a lot to me the last four years as a coach and mentor.”

Staples had many outstanding candidates for the scholarship, but in the end, Klein was at least one cut above everyone else.

“He’s a great kid and has been a mainstay of the program all four years and he really blossomed senior year,” says Lawrence. “He’s the right choice. He did an excellent job, is a great student and goes out of his way to help other people. He did a great job of giving us press in the Westport News.”

Klein always enjoyed running for Lawrence and credits his former coach with his and the Wreckers’ success.

“Getting to know Laddie from freshman year, he’s a very personable guy,” says Klein. “Being that he coached for 38 years he has a lot of knowledge. He gives you the knowledge of what you need to do to succeed and even when you face uncertainty, he always give you what you need to do to experience success from meet-to-meet and week-to-week. He continuously says kids have the tools to succeed and he’s there to guide them. He’s someone special, is there to guide you and shows one is able to succeed in the face of adversity.”

Running became a sport Klein discovered in middle school. He participated in Lawrence’s track camp before entering eighth grade in the summer ‘01 and decided to give cross-country a try when he arrived at Staples in the fall ‘02.

“I never really had a strong knack for any particular sport,” says Klein. “I tried baseball and soccer when I was little. When I was in eighth grade, I really wanted to try running because they said in baseball I was fast and I decided to give cross-country a try.”

When Klein attended his first cross-country practice his freshman year, he listened to Lawrence in the bleachers and remembered the coach breaking down the team into groups and had them go for a 2.5-mile run.

Lawrence had Klein’s group do the Vineyard Loop, which was an eye-opening experience for him.

“I remember going halfway and I remember saying to John Crocker [Class '05] ‘that this was so long and impossible,’” recalls Klein. “It was really 2.5 miles but it felt longer. Today, I see how far I’ve come since then.”

Today, Klein is able to exceed the Vineyard Loop’s distance during practice.

Once Klein trained under Lawrence’s tutelage, he became a credible runner. After running the mile in 7:10 his freshman year, he dropped almost a minute when he did the mile sophomore year, finishing it in 6:15, and junior year, he was down to 5:15.

“Consistent practice in anything,” says Klein. “I learned practice always gets you better. In running, it’s gradual. Football players do it for one season, but with cross-country, you have indoor and outdoor track and running the whole year makes you better. The fact I dropped time showed the work I put in paid off.”

When Klein began to run for Staples, he saw it wasn’t the same as what he did in Little League.

“It’s completely different,” says Klein. “Baseball running doesn’t get you tired it’s short, but cross-country teaches you how to conserve your energy. Indoor track was my forte.”

In indoor track, Klein ran the 300-meter dash, 600 meters, the 480-meter leg in the sprint medley relay and was an alternate on the 4×400-meter relay team.

The track distances were much shorter than the 3.1 miles with hills Klein ran in cross-country, thus he had to adjust to sprinting, which wasn’t a problem for him.

“It’s a completely different experience,” says Klein. “I like the team element of cross-country, but because I did cross-country, I was ready for indoor track. It was hard doing cross-country because sprinting came natural to me. I was excited when indoor and outdoor track came. I still had to do the sprint workouts so I could become faster.”

The 600 is Klein’s best and favorite event.

“There’s more strategy in the 600,” says Klein. “The 300 is complete speed while the 600 is a fast race as [classmate and quint-captain] Remi Ray [who will run for Yale University this year] demonstrated. I feel there’s a little more strategy [in the 600], especially off the start. In the 600, there’s a lot more pushing because everyone tries to get in lane one and take the lead.”

Klein experienced success in the 600 by using a strategy that worked for him.

“There’s a lot of speed in the beginning,” says Klein. “If you get in the right lane, you have a chance. I always found it good to follow someone and beat him in the end instead of lead the whole way. Leading the whole way is mentally exhausting because you can’t see what’s behind you. When I’m behind, I try to get to an outer lane to make my move, but I got to do it quickly.”

Senior year, Klein finished sixth at FCIACs in the 600 with a time of 1:31.71. The Wreckers took first and second behind Ray and Will Caffery and fifth with Dane Lonsdale, giving them 21 out of 31 points for the event.

In addition to scoring a point for Staples, Klein also got a medal.

“That was great,” says Klein. “It showed the improvement I had over the year. It was my determination to place [that made a difference]. The only kids capable of running a 1:32 were Ridgefield kids and they finished three-four. The way all four of us ran was very helpful and it helped us win our second straight FCIAC title.”

At Class L, Klein dropped almost a second in the 600 (1:30.77), but finished 10th.

From the time Klein joined the track team, he built up a little endurance, going from being a 200-meter dash to 400-meter runner to 400-800 meter runner, evolving into a short to middle distance runner.

“I was definitely not a distance runner as cross-country showed,” says Klein. “Speed in the 100-200 is instantaneous where you need to go out fast. My speed comes as the race progresses.”

Klein, who runs the 400 in outdoor track as well as relays, ran in the 4×400-meter relay at Nationals in indoor track, running a 53.2 seconds split. The relay team finished 21st (3:32.97).

“When I got Nationals, I asked Laddie if I can race and I remember running with Dane, [classmate] Jason [Hanrahan] and [junior] Brendan [Cristobal]. I ran my fastest time and I was grateful for the opportunity.”

Overcoming butterflies was important for Klein, who ran the second leg.

“I learned not to get nervous before my race, but this time, I was a little nervous,” recalls Klein. “I was determined to run my heart out. I ran my fastest and I was surprised.”

Running on most teams, Klein would be the top 600 runner in indoor track and 400 in outdoor track, but for the Wreckers, he is their third or fourth runner in the event.

“On most teams, he’d be right up there,” says Lawrence. “In the events he did, we’re deep.”

Although Klein is a stellar runner in the 600, he prefers relays over individual events.

“As much as I like running the 600 and the passion I put in to it, I like running relays more and putting my passion there because how we do helps the team out more than how I do,” says Klein. “While Staples had always had strong runners, it always had better relay teams. A strong relay team shows the team’s overall depth. The depth of the team means more than your up front strength.”

Growing up, Klein played Little League baseball from T-ball to seventh grade and was a second baseman and an outfielder. He quit it to focus on track.

Academically, Klein had a 3.7 grade point average. He was adept in balancing his schoolwork with running and liked many subjects, mostly humanities and English and those that involve writing.

“I think schoolwork has come easy for me since I was little and I learned how to get my work done after coming home from practice at 5:30 p.m. I got used to it and it wasn’t too bad. It may seem difficult doing a varsity sport and schoolwork, but it made it easier for me because it helped keep me sharp and structure my time.”

This fall, Klein will attend George Washington University in Washington D.C. He plans on working for its school newspaper.

Being in the big city in a campus-like setting appeals to Klein because of the academic offerings and social opportunities. Washing-ton D.C. is where the action is, which puts him in the center of things.

In addition to journalism, Klein is also considering a career in political science, statistics and many other fields.

Replacing Klein is an unenviable task for Lawrence.

“He’s going to be missed a lot because I can always depend on Andrew to help out,” says Lawrence. “He’s an extremely hard worker and would run any event he’s asked to. He’s one of my best workers in the age group track and road runners series.”

George Washington gains an outstanding sprinter, student, writer and person who is selfless and giving in Andrew Klein.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.