Israel Mirtil, a senior at Lake Region High School in Polk County, won the FHSAA District 3A-3 cross country individual title on Friday at Central Winds Park in Winter Springs with a new personal best 5K time of 16:44.
That was not that much of a surprise, considering Mirtil was coming off of a win at the Polk County Championship two weeks ago with a 17-minute performance, which ranked him as the third-fastest competitor heading into the district meet.
What's more impressive was learning of his story. What was special was getting a chance to meet "Izzy."
The parents of Izzy discovered early on that their son was on the far end of the autism spectrum.
But his father Phito Mirtil, a former track and field athlete and coach, would not settle for a defeated outlook in learning that crushing news to many parents and instead pushed his special needs son to get involved with the sport of running as a youth and into high school, which has blossomed to the current situation with his son on the outside looking viewed as disabled to actually showing the world that he is being enabled and thriving being involved socially and competitive in a sport like cross country.
The Lake Region head coach JJ Blackburn was actually coached by Mr. Mirtil when he was an athlete himself at Lake Region and that connection helped bring his son to the Lake Region High School team as they began high school when other schools and programs might not have been willing to take on the extra responsibility that comes with having an autistic athlete as part of the team.
Izzy's dad certainly has an active role in his son's running as can be riding alongside him on many of his training runs and was seen on Friday spending extra time previewing and showing the newly designed course (changes made after Hurricane Ian) to his son who at some point could be leading the field in the race.
Negative thoughts can often pervade the minds of typical high school runners, but not Izzy. He is often smiling on the course and if you call his name to cheer him on during the race then he might stop to thank you or acknowledge you with a thumbs up. There is plenty of positivity and good that radiates from within him.
His Lake Region teammates have also taken Izzy in with open arms to the program as one can look no further than the back of their 2022 season team tee shirts. Often cross country teams will pick an inspirational quote or motto for the team apparrel, but the boys on the squad went up to Coach Blackburn to let them know that they would like to use that valuable real estate on their backs to bring awareness to autism instead.
Both Coach Blackburn and the Mirtil were touched by the gesture and idea that was followed through with by the screen printing design that exists now on their dry-fit shirts.
Now others are becoming aware of Izzy's story not based on something his team wears, but instead, others are learning about him with his feet doing the talking by running fast times and actually winning races against his high school peers like the district meet on Friday.
Hopefully, his story will inspire others like him and those families learning how to adjust and actually thrive with an autistic child.
While the high school level has shown its willingness to accept and allow athletes on the spectrum to compete, the college level has often been a less accommodating place, especially with the testing and academic requirements to be accepted as well as other lacking support system measures. A large role and needed support for Israel Mirtil is having his parents and especially his dad in a constant company to guide him.
However, college running is normally the next chapter of progression for competitor runners after high school besides the road racing circuit.
No better example than years ago with a national class autistic runner in Mikey Brannigan from New York, who was chasing after national titles and earning All-American honors, but no college team could ever find room for him.
It would be great for the running community to figure out ways to provide lifelong support and racing opportunities for autistic athletics like Israel Mirtil to stay engaged and feel accepted as well as part of the world that their high point is still down the road and just getting started after winning a high school district cross country championship.
