Isabella Duran is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Centennial High School for AZPreps365.com. 

Dom Brister has athleticism running through his blood. Track and football are two sports that came natural to him.

Brister is a high school senior at Centennial who ran track and played football all four years. Currently, he is in the last leg of his track season before heading off to college. 

From a young age, Brister’s father saw potential in his son to be a great athlete. One of the first sports his father could see his son being exceptional in was track. At first, Brister was not a fan of track but once he started willing, he grew the desire to run more. 

The first track meet that Brister won was in the fifth grade, running the 100 meters with Arizona Rising Track Club. 

“It was a great feeling seeing everyone proud of me and showing I put in the hard work so that pretty much is what made me hungry to want all that praise even more,” Brister said. 

Brister continued to run track with that same club team for about two years before running at Centennial. Running for the club team gave Brister the opportunity to see what running competitively was like. Needless to Say, he fell in love with the sport. 

At Centennial, Brister ran the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, and the 4 X 100. His track career took off his sophomore year, resulting in him having one of the top five fastest times in their division. 

Now, as a senior, he continues to set new personal records. 

“This year I got first in the state for the 200 and second in the state for the 100,” Brister said. 

Just last weekend, Brister broke 11 seconds in the first meet of the year with a 10.70 time in the 100-meter dash. This is the third-fastest time in school history. His 200-meter dash is now tied for third fastest at 21.56 seconds. 

The accomplishments Brister has achieved is a driving factor to encourage his teammates to do well in their races. Kiya Pogue has known Brister since fifth grade when they ran on the same club team. She has seen his growth as a runner and leader. 

“He is a good teammate overall," Pogue said. "He pushes you and motivates you. You have fun with him on the track so that is good too, but hard work too. It is a balance between both. He is a really good asset to the team.” 

Along with Pogue, Coach Steve Ybarra noticed Brister’s presence as a leader for the rest of his teammates and as an “extremely gifted athlete.” Ybarra knew from the first time they met that Brister had the ability to be faster than his previous times. Brister improved with Ybarra to get those record breaking times and other teammates wanted that same improvement. 

“Kids look up to him as an athlete and see what he is doing.," Ybarra said. "They are impressed. They don’t say anything but they are impressed. They want to have those results before they leave too."

Brister’s success as a track star is only half of who he is as a person. The other half is represented by his passion for football. 

“When I was 3 my dad threw the ball to me and then when I caught it he supposedly said he saw something in me,” Brister said. “So he worked with me every week.”

Football started to be a part of Brister’s life before track came into the picture. In Brister's early years he played flag football with his father as the head coach. Since the age of 8, he has played for three different club teams before Centennial football. At Centennial, he played receiver and cornerback, but mainly corner. 

“I started playing football at Centennial and that was such a big school because it was going to test who I was as a person,” Brister said. “I wasn’t the great player but it was going to test my heart.” 

During his time at Centennial, Brister worked extremely hard to be a better player. He came into his freshman season with a cocky mindset. Once he realized this was not the right mindset to be in, he switched his mentality. 

His senior year of playing football, Brister felt prepared to be the player he wanted to be. This couldn’t have been done with the love and support of his family, friends, and trainer. 

He finished the season with eight solo tackles and 12 total tackles. His most memorable moment on the football team was against Liberty High School. Stopping their best receiver from getting hands on the ball to score a touchdown, Brister stood out to himself and others. 

The next chapter in Brister’s life is being a student-athlete at Western Colorado University and hopes of becoming a sports analyst.