La Grange’s Clayton Knapik Sprints To Finish Line of Stellar Senior Year
La Grange track runner Clayton Knapik has been a vital part of the Leopards team as he was part of three relay teams that qualified for this Friday’s home area meet. The senior was also an all-district starter for the football and basketball teams, as well as a regional qualifier in swimming.
“Bottom line about Clayton is he’s a competitor in whatever we ask him to do,” said La Grange head track coach Rusty Cauthern. “He does it 150% and that’s the beauty about Clayton. He’s gonna work his tail off and help the team in any way he can. It’s just awesome to see.”
Knapik’s tremendous work ethic and success has given him the nod for this edition’s Athlete of the Week.
Question: What’s your favorite thing about running track?
Answer: “The rush and adrenaline I get right before I’m about to run. I get real nervous and it’s just kind of exciting to go and compete and try to do my best.”
Question: Who’s a teammate you hang out with the most on the track team?
Answer: “Probably Austen Diggs. We go and watch some of the baseball games and stuff together. We talk a lot after practice. He’s probably who I’m closest with on the team.”
Question: Who do you have winning this year’s NBA finals and why?
Answer: “I’m gonna pick the Clippers because I like Kawhi Leonard. I’ve always been a big fan of him and I think they’re a real deep team. They have a lot of good players and they play really good defense and I like that.”
Question: State track is held at University of Texas track stadium, what do you like most about University of Texas?
Answer: “Their football stadium’s pretty nice. It’s nice and big and at Texas Relays, we warmed up in there and it was just crazy. I can only imagine what it’s like when it’s packed with fans.”
Question: When it comes to eating wings, drums or flats?
Answer: “Definitely the drums. There’s more meat to bite into.”
Question: What’s your soda of choice?
Answer: “Probably Dr. Pepper. I’ve always liked it and it’s just a good soda.”
Question: You play a lot of sports, what was the best arena you played in this year and why?
Answer: “The AT&T Center where the Spurs play was definitely the best. It was quite an experience to get to play in there. It’s real big and it’s kind of hard to shoot free throws in there because of the depth perception. It’s just something you’re not used to, so it definitely takes a lot of work to get good at shooting in those kind of arenas. It’s just so much space in there.”
Question: If you had to play a game of Madden, which team would you use and why?
Answer: “Probably the Ravens because I don’t really throw the ball that good, so I just need somebody to scramble with. I would pick Lamar Jackson and just scramble as much as I could.”
Question: What would you say is the most important part about being a senior?
Answer: “Probably passing your experience onto the younger kids. That’s what it was for me when I was a freshman or sophomore. I would ask for advice from some of the seniors and it kind of guided me throughout high school, so I try to do that as much as I can for sports and classes and stuff for the younger kids.”
Question: What’s your best memory at La Grange High School?
Answer: “There’s a lot. It would probably be a basketball memory with Coach Cooper. We were playing LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) and we were beating them by quite a bit. He called a timeout and just seeing how excited and pumped up he was. He normally keeps his composure, but you could tell how happy he was and how happy we all were. We were all feeding off his energy and it was just a great moment at that time. Even though we lost, it was still cool to see the energy he had. It’s who you’re playing for. He’s pumped up, you should be pumped up too. That was my best memory at La Grange.”
Knapik is the ideal athlete you’d want on your team with his passion for sports and the workload he provides.