My name is Scott Filip. I am a member of the Lake Park HS track & field team.

I first gained interest in track and field in the sixth grade at Westfield Middle School. Originally, the sports I was interested in were soccer, basketball and football. As I grew up those were the sports that my parents were familiar with as well. When I came home from school and told my parents I had joined the track team they both looked at each other with confused looks and sort of pondered the idea of it. They did not have the slightest clue about the sport other than that it is basically the most basic and fundamental form of athletics.

As time passed in middle school I learned that I really enjoyed track and I felt that it was an amazing sport to pursue. During track season in the seventh and eighth grade I noticed significant growth in my abilities and at my middle school conference meet athletes that were currently at the high school that I would later feed into came up to me and asked if I was planning on continuing my track career in high school at Lake Park.

I came into Lake Park only as a high jumper and I would practice and train with the high jump coach. As the outdoor season rolled around the horizontal jumps coach recognized my ability and decided to start coaching me in the long and triple jump too. Once I became involved in three jumps and the coaches got together they came to a decision that would hopefully benefit the team on the track also, that was when they decided to try me in the high hurdles.

Throughout my freshman year my success and talents grew substantially and I broke multiple freshman school records on the track team. My first year in high school track I was fortunate enough to have a great group of leaders ahead of me who were an elite group of athletes. By the time my freshman season had ended I was blessed to be a part of the 2010 IHSA Class AAA State Champion team.