It’s true, sports are fun and games. But they can be much more.

Emmaus High School graduate Kaia Berrio, a distance runner on the track and field team and a member of the cross country team, lost her senior track season due to the pandemic, but did not lose sight of lessons learned from her Green Hornet athletic career.

“I am most proud of the unbreakable bond I have formed with the ladies on these teams,” Berrio said when asked to reflect on her career. “They are some of the most supportive, loving and hilarious girls you will ever meet. Each and every single one of them puts their teammates before themselves and shows endless encouragement for them on and off the track or cross country course.”

Of course, Berrio has fond memories of her athletic glory.

“The athletic accomplishment I am most proud of is one I did not achieve alone,” she said. “We (the Emmaus cross country team) were not only able to have another undefeated season, but also win the league and District 11 girls cross country championship and progress to states. I was beyond ecstatic to participate in these races and have gotten the opportunity to run at states in my senior year.”

Medals aside, Berrio’s top lesson at Emmaus was learning that although running is a solitary pursuit, she is never totally alone.

“Although I run every race alone, I never really am along as I am surrounded by constant support from my teammates and coaches,” Berrio said. “They truly made this sport everything for me and I am forever thankful for that.”

That gratitude has helped wipe out some of the disappointment that resulted from the track and field’s cancellation. Berrio, like the rest of her teammates, had been training diligently toward her senior season for years. Of course, that training and work went for naught.

“When the dust settled, I thought I would be more upset, more heartbroken, more devastated at the long list of goals I could no longer achieve,” she said. “And I was all of those things, but a part of me didn’t see everything I lost. Rather, that part of me saw all the things I had already won.”

Ultimately, it was a matter of looking at the glass half empty, or half full.

“I didn’t want to think anymore of what could have been, because it was so much easier to appreciate what I already had,” said Berrio. “I learned to appreciate what life has given you in order to overcome what it has taken away.”

Near the end of this summer, Berrio will enter Ursinus College to enter her life’s next stage.

“I had heard about Ursinus College from a few of my friends and we have raced previously there for winter track meets,” she said. “I knew this is where I belonged.”

When she arrives on campus in late August, her goals will be similar to her Emmaus ones.

“My main goal is to just keep pushing myself further and further to break the boundaries in order to grow as an athlete,” she said. “I just want to keep improving in everything I do like I did in high school, all leading toward my new final race.”