Colby Phillips has a passion for sports. It's easy to tell.

Between training for cross country and spending time practicing soccer and baseball throughout the year, the Athens Bible School senior hardly has time for anything else. But he doesn't mind. He enjoys what he does.

As a sophomore, Phillips joined the cross country team and participated in three races that later earned him all-state honors. After seeing what he was capable of, cross country coaches Bill and Brad Murrell and last year's track coach Tom Davidson encouraged him to start his own off-season training program. It paid off. He was able to use the training to help build back-to-back successful seasons his junior and senior year.

However, in addition to his off-season training, which included participating in several races like the Killen Founder's Day 5K and Living Waters 5K in Decatur, he spent time running between 30 and 40 miles a week during the season as well.

The blood, sweat and tears put into the trails paid dividends. He completed his cross country career at Athens Bible winning five races, having 15 top five finishes, and leading his team to a 1A State Runner-Up title this season. In addition, he also helped his team to a third place finish last season and now holds the Athens Bible 5K school record with a time of 16:32 that he ran in the 2008 sections, where he finished as sectional champion for the second year in a row.

"I guess I did alright this season," Phillips said. "I wanted to do a little better at the state meet, but as long as our team did well, that's all that matters.

"My pre-season prediction was that we would finish second," Phillips added. "I was really happy the team came through. I felt like we had the potential this season."

Phillips isn't the only senior at Athens Bible who has had success on the trails in their career there. Chelsea Burgess began running cross country in ninth grade and admits that the only reason she decided to participate was because that's what all of her friends were doing.

Fortunately for Trojans coach Bill Murrell, she had a knack for posting impressive times every time she hit the trails.

Burgess hit her stride at the state meet two years ago by posting a personal best of 21:04, helping the Trojans finish fourth overall. That year, she also finished first at the sectional meet. This season, Burgess paced the Trojans all season long, helping lead the girls’ squad to a 1A State Runner-Up trophy and a fourth-place finish.

"I was very surprised," Burgess said of the girls’ runner-up finish at the state meet. "I was happy. We had a lot of younger girls step up and help us complete the team. When they came up, it made it more like a team because everybody was encouraging each other."

Now that the season is over, Burgess has switched gears and is now helping lead her team on the hardwood. As for Phillips, he's been training for the 2008 AAU National Cross Country Championship being held Saturday at the Oakville Indian Mounds.

While the two are still several months away from graduation, Burgess said she isn't sure yet if she's going to continue her athletic career after high school but said she does plan on attending UNA. And although Phillips has a passion for soccer and baseball, he said his desire at the college level is to run cross country and track while pursuing a Bible-history degree.