After winning San Diego Section football title and racing at CIF state cross country meet in 16-hour span, Prince now sets sights on winning regional bowl game to reach another state final

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

As most runners who were competing in the CIF-State Championships were tucking themselves into bed last Friday night, Orange Glen senior two-sport standout Rashad Prince was finishing off a CIF-San Diego Section football championship.

Prince, a defensive back, pulled off the unique double, recording three tackles in the Patriots’ 34-14 Division 5 championship victory over Francis Parker.

Barely more than 12 hours later, Prince was checking off his ultimate individual goal, finishing 57th in 16 minutes, 34.6 seconds at the Division 3 state final at Woodward Park in Fresno.

This has something he's been doing all year – playing for Orange Glen’s football team on Friday nights and running in cross country meets Saturdays.

The week prior, he played in Orange Glen’s semifinal victory over Holtville, the night before the San Diego Section cross country finals.

But never was it quite like this.

Escondido, where Prince lives, is already a five-hour drive from Fresno, and further complicating matters was that the championship game was played at Otay Ranch High School in Chula Vista. Prince couldn’t have been any further away; any drive south from Chula Vista places you in Mexico.

Yet, he stuck to his Friday night routine. He didn’t leave the field right away and participated in his team’s on-field celebration and received his championship patch. Then, he drove to his home in Escondido, did his usual ice bath, took a warm shower, and jumped in a car with his parents around midnight.

They arrived in Fresno at about 5 a.m. Saturday

“Well, I tried my best to sleep (in the car),” Prince said. “It was a little hard.”

Between what he got in the car and a couple hours at the hotel, since the Division 3 boys race went off at 10:30 a.m., Prince estimated he got about five hours of sleep.

Yes, he said he was tired. But he was more irritated by a slow start, where he got stuck in the back of the pack.

“Adrenaline did kick in a little bit,” Prince said. “This was my first time being there, so I didn’t know how it worked.”

Prince said he didn’t consider trying to run this Saturday at the Foot Locker West Regional at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. He had set a season-long goal of making it to the state meet in cross country, and was thrilled to get that chance.

The ending wasn’t perfect, especially with that unforgiving turnaround. But it was satisfying. Prince said he wouldn't change a thing.

“No, I don’t think I would have,” he said. “I think what I did was something that not many people do. And I accomplished what I wanted to.”

Interestingly, Prince will be on the field again as Orange Glen plays host in the Southern California Division 6-A championship bowl game at 6 p.m. Saturday against Los Angeles Locke.

A win there would send Orange Glen’s football team to a state-title game, giving Prince the unique experience of competing for two state titles in the same season.

Almost as important? Prince gets to sleep in Saturday.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to it a lot,” he said.