Hindes matures into star runner

Senior middle distance runner Ryan Hindes ended his high-school track-and-field career without a single scholarship offer from a Division I school.

Despite other coaches overlooking him, Hindes, who is in his final season with the Hoosiers, has established himself as one of the best middle distance runners in the Big Ten Conference this season, as shown by his winning time of 1:18.75 in the 600 meter invitational during this past weekend’s Indiana Relays.

The time was .05 seconds shy of the school record in the event.

However, it took Hindes three full seasons of action to arrive to where he currently is.

“It was a slow, developing process,” Hindes said. “Right after the first indoor meet of my sophomore year, I went to Coach (Jeff) Huntoon and told him that I was no longer going to train as a multi-event athlete. I was going to switch over full-time with Coach (Ron) Helmer and the quarter-miler group. That’s kind of when my journey started to begin.”

Hindes said the fact that he wasn’t heavily recruited during high school has been a motivating factor in his progression to becoming one of the premier athletes on the team.

“It’s impossible to say that wasn’t something that was always driving me,” Hindes said. “I felt like I came in with a lot to prove, and with good reason. When you’re a walk-on on a team, you need to stick out.”

In fact, the only schools that reached out to Hindes during his four years at Glenbrook South High School were two Division III institutions located in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Along with the hours of training and the vast amounts of dedication, Hindes said he wouldn’t be in his current position without the support of his father.

“I talk to my father almost every day,” he said. “He and I are very, very close, and we have a great relationship. I attribute a lot of who I am as an athlete to his coaching.

“Once I got to high school, he was just very encouraging. He wasn’t one of those fathers who needed to live vicariously through his kids. He was always supportive and encouraging of me and was always there at my meets cheering me on.”

Hindes said he is certainly a “chip off the old block” because he carries himself with the same mental toughness his father instilled in him from a young age.

“Something that my dad always preached to me was to have a strong mental head,” Hindes said. “So much of running is up in your head, and it’s something that has always stuck with me. I think the mental attitude my father taught me is part of who I am and has ultimately shaped the athlete I have become.”

Hindes said mental toughness isn’t going to only pay off on the track for the remainder of his current season, though. He said it’s also going to pay dividends in his future career as an entrepreneur.

Hindes said what he has learned as a track and field athlete during his four years will also be valuable to him as he moves forward in life.

“You learn a sense of commitment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of routine and, most importantly, an unbelievable sense of competition,” Hindes said. “I don’t think you can be in this sport if you don’t love competition or if you don’t love winning.”