Athlete of the Week: Abraham Morales

Abraham Morales is a sophomore distance runner for the UTRGV Men’s Cross Country and Track & Field team. He is majoring in management in hopes to one day become the athletic director at his former high school in Brackettville, Texas.

Q:  What made you choose that career?

A: “Well … I’m going into, like, sports management later, but … first I wanna get my teacher’s certificate and I want to be [the athletic director] back at my high school.”

Q: Why do you enjoy running?

A: “Well, since I was small,– I started in seventh grade and like, I just fell in love with the sport and just the thought of just getting better. Just, you know, I love it. I love … competing. It’s fun.”

Q: Who has been your biggest inspiration or role model?

A: “My biggest role model would have to be my older brother. He’s the one that got it all started. Really, I just followed his footsteps, and I saw that he, well, he runs for [Angelo State University] and I saw that. And I just wanted to be like that, too, you know?”

Q: What is a piece of advice you would like to give your younger self?

A: “Just stay consistent with workouts and, like, running ’cause running isn’t that linear. … Some days you’re going to have off days. And I wish I could have, you know, stayed consistent ’cause when I was younger … I wouldn’t do so hot. And then I would just, like, you know, put myself down and I wouldn’t continue running. So, I wish I could have told myself just to keep going.”

Q: What is your favorite childhood memory?

A: “Probably my grandma’s cooking, like after track meets. I would always go over there. I really miss that.”

Q: What was your favorite dish?

A: “Carne con chile”.

Q: Do you have a fun fact about yourself?

A: “I love to ride horses. I have two ranches back home [in Brackettville], and I love going out to ride and, like, be with the cattle and stuff like that.”

Q: What do you like to do in your free time? 

A: “I like playing basketball and, like, lifting weights, just trying to get better.”

Q: What is your favorite show/movie and why?

A: “Probably ‘Outer Banks.’ Yeah, I’m ready for the new season to come out.”

Q: What would you do if you won the lottery?

A: “I’ll probably invest and, like, get into, probably buy houses and, like, rent them off, kind of like real estate. I’ll probably get into that and, like, just buy houses and rent them out to people.”

Q: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

A: “Over there, where I’m from, we have, like, cliffs like really high cliffs, and one of my friends made me jump off one of them [into a body of water] … and like the currents, it was really bad, like to get out. They had to get a boat out there to get me, ’cause I was stuck, like, on a rock ‘cause, like, the currents were going and my friends, they bet me I wouldn’t jump in so I was like, ‘OK, all right,’ and I just went for it. It didn’t look that bad. The currents didn’t look too bad but once I got in there, I was getting thrown around. It was pretty bad.”

–Compiled by Abigail Ollave