BY MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — After meets or practices, Edinburg Economedes track and field coach Sara Salinas often exchanged text messages with standout Emily Suarez. Before Salinas could offer her input, Suarez usually had in mind what she could have done differently.
“She’ll say, ‘I could have done this, I could have done that,’” Salinas said. “She’s intelligent enough to able to tell what she did wrong.”
Not only that, but Suarez craved additional work.
“She would never shy away from it,” Salinas said, fighting back tears, “which is so weird.”
It was that level of dedication, Salinas said, that allowed Suarez to maximize her potential, and it’s part of the reason why she garnered the attention of several universities before ultimately signing with TCU on Monday.
“She just goes above and beyond what she’s asked to do,” her cross country coach, Brenda Lozano, said. “I knew she was a champion when I first met her.”
Suarez qualified for state this season in cross country, and she’s hoping to do the same in track and field. Putting an end to the recruiting process was the first step in eliminating distractions.
“I know that she was very stressed because she’s a pleaser. She had good coaches that wanted her at their school,” Salinas said about Suarez, who also considered Rice and Dallas Baptist. “She was very nervous about making a decision. Now that this is out of the way, she’s relieved and so are we.”
Suarez called it “a dream come true” to sign with TCU, saying she chose the school based on its academic merits, then athletics. She hopes to one day go to medical school.
At Economedes, Suarez was at the top of her class while also competing in four sports. She elected to skip volleyball this season and focus on cross country, where she qualified for state for the first time.
“Coming into this year, that was a big goal,” Suarez said. “So to finally make it, it was amazing.”
Lozano said Suarez went “above and beyond what she’s asked to do,” helping the team win a district title and laying the foundation for the cross country program.
“She really helped everybody get involved and it worked out great,” Lozano said. “She just has that drive. She’s never satisfied. She always wants to be on top all the time.”
There were moments when Salinas had to hold Suarez back from working too much. That was a hard sell.
“She’s ‘go, go, go. I can do better,’” Salinas said.
After deciding against competing in volleyball this season, Suarez took part in two summer camps to help her prepare for the cross country season.
“She’s had a goal since last year,” Salinas said. “At the end of track season, she said, ‘I’m going to do these camps. I’m going to make it to state.’ And she did everything she had to do to get there.”
Now with cross country out of the way, Suarez is in arguably the best shape of her athletic career. Last year, she didn’t run in the two-mile event, splitting her time between the 800 and the mile.
This season, she’ll likely dabble in everything from the 400 and up.
“I feel that getting over the hump and making it to state (in cross country) — she had confidence before — but I think this puts her over the top.
“It’s a whole new ball game for her.”