by Jordan Cullen

To some Aiden Firth may seem like a short eighth grader especially when he is running against 17 and 18 year olds on cross country, but he is not. He is 11 years old.

Firth started his academic career a year earlier than his age group. He would be in sixth grade this year. He also started school in a mixed grade school, so it could have been easy to forget that he was younger than the other students. However, Firth made the biggest grade and school change this year, and it was a big transition for him.

Firth misses some of his old friends, but he has gotten used to change. Although he misses old friends, he has learned to adapt to new situations and enjoys the people he is currently with.

Firth’s classmates are kind and welcoming to him now, but he felt at first it took some getting used to with the changes. Now he feels like he fits in with this group of students, and he feels welcome. He believes that the biggest difference between him and his classmates is that they have a lot more experience in things than he does.

His mother sees a difference between him and his peers in sports, not academics.

“He is very clearly the tiniest one on the team, and he is running against kids who are 17, 18 years old. So I see the biggest difference then.”

Despite the challenge of competing on a high school team, he has become more confident overall, according to his mom.

“It was a very good idea for him [to do cross country] because it helps him with feeling part of a team, and with it being multi-age, that definitely helps.”

Coach Tim Reinhardt agrees with his mother and believes that Firth is “just as competitive and determined to be successful and that’s shown in the way he has run in our practices and our races this year.”

Firth has run in both of the invitationals that the team has competed in this season. To compete in a varsity run in an invitational, a competitor needs to be one of the top seven to ten runners.

He has said that the only big difficulties with being on the cross country team and being with all of the taller and older boys is he has shorter legs, so he has to work that much harder to run faster. His coach doesn’t think it is a disadvantage because Firth is a good runner.

Besides joining the boys varsity cross country team, he is the vice president of the eighth grade class and a member of the HHS Quiz Show team.

When Firth decided to run for vice president, he was thinking about the community. At first he wanted to run for president, but then he found out that only vice president would be able to join the community council. He decided that he would not run for president because being a part of the HHS and town community was more important to him.

Firth is taking advantage of the school’s opportunities, and his mother is very happy about that.

“I am proud that he is able to feel confident in everything he does,” she said. “He marches to his own drum and is not afraid to try new things.”