Spikes press into the rubber of the track. Runners take their marks. A gun fires, and the race has begun.
Coppell High School senior track athlete Lauren Sanchez is no stranger to this, having competed in countless meets over her six year long career shrouded with achievement.
However, her achievements are not what make her unique, but her inspiration.
Growing up, Sanchez was surrounded by sports. Whether it is tuning in to college football games on Saturdays or basketball games in March, sports hold a special place in the Sanchez family’s home.
However, Sanchez did not start playing sports until she was in fifth grade. From there she would go on to play soccer and basketball. It was not until seventh grade when a fateful conversation with her mother, Rosemary Sanchez, who is crutches-bound due to cerebral palsy, that Lauren made the switch to track.
“She said ‘if I could do one thing it would be to run track and go down a roller coaster,” Lauren said. “She said the closest thing she could get to running was riding a roller coaster. Not only do I want to run because I enjoy it, but also I want it to be a secondhand kind of living through me with my mom.”
While her first track meet felt full-circle for Lauren, for Rosemary it meant even more.
“She doesn’t know this, but I cried,” Rosemary said. “I was elated. The poise that she had waiting in her block, the poise that she had waiting for that gun to go off. I could see it on her face that she knew what she was doing, and then when the gun went off and she started running I was like, that’s my daughter. This is what every mother hopes to see in their child.”
Since that moment Lauren has spent the past six years striving to improve, collecting accolades along the way. However, it is not her achievements that most commend her for.
“I’ve coached a lot of kids down through the years, and honestly some of them I don’t always remember; I’ll see a picture, I hear a story and it’ll bring back memories, but Lauren will be somebody that I’ll always remember,” Coppell girls track and field coach Landon Wren said. “I’ll always remember the joy that she had in the sport, her work ethic and how respectful she was. The growth that she had from this pretty decent JV kid to a very integral part of our varsity team, I think the fairy tale ending is here.”
Lauren’s spirit, character and persistence will take her to Austin next fall where she will attend St. Edward’s University and compete on the track team. However, before she departs she has one more message for her mother.
“Thank you, genuinely just thank you,” Lauren said. “The best way I can describe it is like she’s my best friend. Yes, she’s my mom and she will be stern if she needs to because she is still a mom, but at the end of the day sometimes I feel like I can just talk to her and be like ‘oh my gosh, you won’t you won’t believe what I heard in the hallway today’ or like ‘oh my gosh, my boyfriend just did this.’ She’s just my best friend and I love her so much. I feel like I’m forever in debt with how much I can say thank you to her.”
For Rosemary, the feeling is mutual.
“She truly amazes me,” Rosemary said. “I mean, every parent is proud of their son and daughter, right? But I can honestly say that I think my pride and joy and enthusiasm for my children go beyond because my children and Lauren in particular, they’ve had to grow up with a mom with limitations. You always hope that your child says ‘I look up to you,’ but truthfully, she’s my hero.”
While Lauren has many track goals still left for her collegiate career, there is one goal that she holds higher than the rest.
“As long as I’m happy where I’m at and I’m with someone that truly loves and respects me and I have friends and support behind me, that’s all I could ever ask for,” Lauren said. “If in 40 years I’m sitting down in my living room and happy with where I’m at, that’s all I can ask for whether I’m a billionaire or whether I’m having to go to work the next day. I just want to be happy and content where I’m at, and that’s what I try to work towards every day.”
This story was originally published on Coppell Student Media on May 15, 2025.
