South Plains College is anything but plain and neither is one of its incoming, scholarship freshmen: Cole Hoffman, the best middle-distance runner in Llano High School history.

SPC (6,000 students in Levelland near Lubbock) knows something about history, too. It has won the National Junior College Championship in outdoor track the last two years.

“I think by training harder and running against some pretty good speedsters just in practice,” Hoffman said, “will help a lot, and I’ll improve my times.”

You wonder how Cole can work much harder; he runs about 70-80 miles a week, and when you see him put a galaxy between himself and his pursuers, you know this talent wasn’t developed from playing marbles.

“We’re very excited to have him,” South Plains head track coach, Chris Beene, declares. “I don’t think Cole will have any problem making the transition to college competition.”

Hoffman is a bit more modest and cautious, aware he’ll be facing outstanding international runners including ones from Kenya, where the sport is more important to them than the Cubs are to Chicago.

“They’re older and very experienced, so I know it’ll be tough,” but Cole’s manner assures you he’s cognizant the next step is SUPPOSED to be more difficult to climb.

Hoffman won the Region IV 3,200-meter title his junior and senior years, and he won the 1,600 this past spring. He was fourth in both races in Class 3A in state in 2007, fourth in the 16 as a senior and a sensational second in the 3200.

His time in that duel, May 9, at UT's Mike Myers Stadium, was a personal-best 9 minutes, 29.90 seconds.

There could be a few interesting changes in college. The cross-country race (in the fall) is five miles instead of three, but Hoffman notes, “I like longer races.” And, on the track, Cole might get a chance at running the steeplechase!

Yes, it sounds like something horses face in small English towns that always have “shire” at the end of their names.

“The 3,000-meter steeplechase is not dominated by our foreign athletes,” coach Beene observes. What it is dominated by, though, is water. The contestants don’t simply run around a track for a couple of miles: they soar over water obstructions about seven times in the race.

A nasty scribe might call it the miniature golf of track, but the scribe probably takes care of his exercise by fetching the morning paper.

“The steeplechase will be an experience, no question about that,” Hoffman says with a smile. There isn’t much that worries the young man, who, in high school, understood the victory platforms were tougher to ascend from district to region to state, and he knows college foes will be harder to run down, but he’s eager to hear the starter’s gun.