The Torch

He's not the fastest.
He's not the strongest.
But Isaac did have one thing going for him.

"How does it feel to have single-handedly brought the Rubik's Cube craze to PHS?" the senior girl's cross-
country captain asked Isaac during preparations for the team banquet. Isaac shrugged pasting a photocopy of the 3-D puzzle (and running photos) onto his page for the coach's scrapbook.

During this third year as a cross-country runner, Isaac spent the transport time to meets sitting on the bus solving the Rubik's Cube.

"Here," Isaac said handing the puzzle to various teammates. "Mess it up and I'll solve it in less than two minutes." (Thanks YouTube!)

Soon other runners brought their own Rubik's Cubes along for ride. Isaac taught them how to solve the puzzle and a new kind of racing began. In these competitions, Isaac sped to the finish unbeaten, inspiring and encouraging others to near their own solving times to his 1:08 minutes. Together, the team's enthusiasm sparked other high-school students to pick up a puzzle too.

At today's cross-country team banquet, Isaac went forward to receive two items:

an orange-plastic flag permanently marked "Rubix's Award" – bestowed (tongue-in-cheek) by the team captains;


and autumn-colored leaves woven into a white-plastic fork permanently marked "Captain's Torch." This token showed the honor his team voted Isaac to carry next season.


Fast?
Strong?
Inspiring...
The Torch.