University Southern California Trojans
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Hurdles
/ Track & Field
Getting To Know Noah Green
March 19, 2019 | Track & Field, Features
Freshman hurdler Noah Green is loving his time here at USC. Though injuries have kept him from competing thus far, his winning personality and high spirits keep him on the fast track to recovery. In 2017 Green won the 110m hurdles at the New Balance Nationals with his PR of 13.51. He also took the bronze medal in the 110m hurdles at the 2017 USATF Junior Championships with a time of 13.53. He was a two-time national champion and a four-time All-American. We had a chance to catch up with and learn a little more about Green the other day.
Q: How are you enjoying your first year at USC?
NG: So far it's been great! I love the weather, love the people, I just love diversity in general. USC is a very diverse campus, and I've grown up in a very diverse family so it fit perfectly. I've made some really good friends, so overall it's been a pretty great experience so far.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge in transitioning from high school to college?
NG: The biggest challenge is probably the school-load paired with the workout-load. In high school I wasn't used to having to wake up at 4 a.m. to go do hills and then have three classes after and then have to come back in the afternoon to do more rehab and other activities, so it's definitely the workload and learning how to find balance. Even though you come in like 'Oh, I'll only have to take four classes,' it's a lot of work outside of the classes with actual workouts and stuff. So just learning how to balance has been probably the toughest challenge.
Q: What is your favorite part of being on USC's Track and Field team?
NG: Definitely the community. Our team is actually really close, and so we have a lot of good experiences together. We always go out; just being able to hang out with friends has been the best, making really good connections and friendships with all my teammates.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to come to USC or how did you make that decision?
NG: I was originally born in California, and my dad's favorite school was USC, but we moved around a lot so I always knew I wanted to come back to Cali, so I either wanted to go to UCLA or USC, but I'm glad I chose USC because we don't like the Bruins [laughs].
Q: What was it like moving around so much growing up?
NG: It was pretty difficult trying to move around, just starting to make really good connections with friends and then having to move. But I felt like it actually benefited me in the long run because I was able to get to know a lot more people and learn how to deal with different situations. I'd go from a very diverse school with mostly African Americans and Hispanics, and then I'd try to move to the country like Kansas where it's predominantly white like ninety-five percent white, and all the rest is other, and so it helped me build my horizon and learn how to deal with different situations.
Q: What achievement are you most proud of?
NG: I would say my greatest achievement is graduating top 9 in my class. We had 936 kids out of my graduating class, so being able to be in the top 10 was a really proud achievement. My parents always pushed me to work hard academically, and so being able to do that on top of track was really big for me.
Q: How old were you when you started running?
NG: I would say I was about eight when I started running, but I started out as an 800m runner, and then it slowly went down. I was ten or eleven when I finally transitioned into doing hurdles, which is my main event.
Q: What role has your family played in shaping you both as an individual and as an athlete?
NG: My family is probably the most supportive people in my life. Anything that I need, I can just call them and they'll be here in a heartbeat, so them being able to support me and push me and believe in me really helped elevate me and made me believe that I could do all the achievements that I did. They played a really big role in me believing in myself.
Q: What's your favorite Drake song?
NG: [Laughs] I don't know, I love a lot of Drake songs, but my favorite one probably has to be Marvin's Room.
Q: Why haven't you been able to compete yet?
NG: I've been dealing with injuries since my senior year, so all my times that I posted in high school were from my junior year. Then I got to senior year and I ended up tearing my hamstring, and so it's been that repetitive learning how to deal with the injury and getting back into running. It's been a lot of injuries. They say once you get one injury a whole bunch more happen, and I am a testimony to that because I've continuously been tweaking something else after one thing gets healed.
Q: What has it been like having to watch your teammates so far and not being able to compete with them?
NG: It's been humbling because you come out of high school like 'Oh yeah, I can do this. I'm top in the nation, I'm going to come in here and do my best,' and once you have to just sit down like 'Ok I can't run right now,' you just need to go back and be patient. So it's helped me become more patient and just trust in the process a lot more.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add?
NG: I love USC, love the coaches. I'm trusting the process and hopefully I can run sometime this year, and if not then I'll definitely be trying to come out next year with a bang.
Q: How are you enjoying your first year at USC?
NG: So far it's been great! I love the weather, love the people, I just love diversity in general. USC is a very diverse campus, and I've grown up in a very diverse family so it fit perfectly. I've made some really good friends, so overall it's been a pretty great experience so far.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge in transitioning from high school to college?
NG: The biggest challenge is probably the school-load paired with the workout-load. In high school I wasn't used to having to wake up at 4 a.m. to go do hills and then have three classes after and then have to come back in the afternoon to do more rehab and other activities, so it's definitely the workload and learning how to find balance. Even though you come in like 'Oh, I'll only have to take four classes,' it's a lot of work outside of the classes with actual workouts and stuff. So just learning how to balance has been probably the toughest challenge.
Q: What is your favorite part of being on USC's Track and Field team?
NG: Definitely the community. Our team is actually really close, and so we have a lot of good experiences together. We always go out; just being able to hang out with friends has been the best, making really good connections and friendships with all my teammates.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to come to USC or how did you make that decision?
NG: I was originally born in California, and my dad's favorite school was USC, but we moved around a lot so I always knew I wanted to come back to Cali, so I either wanted to go to UCLA or USC, but I'm glad I chose USC because we don't like the Bruins [laughs].
Q: What was it like moving around so much growing up?
NG: It was pretty difficult trying to move around, just starting to make really good connections with friends and then having to move. But I felt like it actually benefited me in the long run because I was able to get to know a lot more people and learn how to deal with different situations. I'd go from a very diverse school with mostly African Americans and Hispanics, and then I'd try to move to the country like Kansas where it's predominantly white like ninety-five percent white, and all the rest is other, and so it helped me build my horizon and learn how to deal with different situations.
Q: What achievement are you most proud of?
NG: I would say my greatest achievement is graduating top 9 in my class. We had 936 kids out of my graduating class, so being able to be in the top 10 was a really proud achievement. My parents always pushed me to work hard academically, and so being able to do that on top of track was really big for me.
Q: How old were you when you started running?
NG: I would say I was about eight when I started running, but I started out as an 800m runner, and then it slowly went down. I was ten or eleven when I finally transitioned into doing hurdles, which is my main event.
Q: What role has your family played in shaping you both as an individual and as an athlete?
NG: My family is probably the most supportive people in my life. Anything that I need, I can just call them and they'll be here in a heartbeat, so them being able to support me and push me and believe in me really helped elevate me and made me believe that I could do all the achievements that I did. They played a really big role in me believing in myself.
Q: What's your favorite Drake song?
NG: [Laughs] I don't know, I love a lot of Drake songs, but my favorite one probably has to be Marvin's Room.
Q: Why haven't you been able to compete yet?
NG: I've been dealing with injuries since my senior year, so all my times that I posted in high school were from my junior year. Then I got to senior year and I ended up tearing my hamstring, and so it's been that repetitive learning how to deal with the injury and getting back into running. It's been a lot of injuries. They say once you get one injury a whole bunch more happen, and I am a testimony to that because I've continuously been tweaking something else after one thing gets healed.
Q: What has it been like having to watch your teammates so far and not being able to compete with them?
NG: It's been humbling because you come out of high school like 'Oh yeah, I can do this. I'm top in the nation, I'm going to come in here and do my best,' and once you have to just sit down like 'Ok I can't run right now,' you just need to go back and be patient. So it's helped me become more patient and just trust in the process a lot more.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add?
NG: I love USC, love the coaches. I'm trusting the process and hopefully I can run sometime this year, and if not then I'll definitely be trying to come out next year with a bang.
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