For Hendricken's Troy Silvestri, running cross country is more than just a sport

The message from the specialist to Jim and Lisa Silvestri wasn’t news any parent would want to hear.

It wasn’t a secret that their son Troy was having issues in the classroom. He was  struggling with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and that made learning nearly impossible. Jim and Lisa went in search of help and got one response that shocked them.

“Troy will never graduate high school,” one specialist told them.

“It’s pretty stunning for someone to say that about someone who was 10 or 11, that you’re never going to graduate,” Lisa said. “Yet we had other experts telling us that that wasn’t true.”

Turns out it was the farthest thing from it.

Troy Silvestri is now a senior at Bishop Hendricken. The path from being a student unable to handle classroom learning to getting ready for his final year of high school wasn’t a straight one. It took a stop at the Wolf School, where a teacher introduced him to the sport in which he would become an All-Stater.

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“When you look at Troy’s journey, he’s always amazed us. But we never thought he’d be at this position, particularly where he is athletically,” Jim Silvestri said. “We knew he could do it — and as Troy talks about it all the time, being underestimated throughout his life — but he’s worked very hard and diligently to get to the spot he has.”

“I like to prove people wrong because I feel great when I do that,” Troy said. “Now they know I am very successful and I like when they know that.”

Lisa describes Troy as a “bundle of energy” when he was younger, someone who was always very talkative in the classroom. His intelligence was never in question, but his ability to focus and learn was an issue.

There were times when Troy was a disruption in class. It wasn’t intentional. It was just how his brain worked. That led to him being pulled from the classroom, which increased the gap between him and his peers.

His parents looked everywhere for answers before finally finding one in the Wolf School, a small private school in Rumford that describes itself as a place that “inspires complex learners to discover confidence, compassion and a love of learning to reach their full potential.”

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Troy had to start the learning process over at Wolf. Classes were smaller, allowing for more one-on-one learning. The school was giving him the tools and strategies necessary, not only to learn and move on to the next grade level, but also to take with him for the rest of his life.

“He just needed the right people and the right place to discover that and give Troy the opportunity,” Lisa said. “That’s important to anyone who struggles — to give them the opportunity to find that environment.”

Sports at the Wolf School are also an important part of that. They are in place to give students opportunities they might not have, due to whatever difficulties they face, in their hometown recreational programs. It’s a chance for students to experience playing with a team and how to be a supportive teammate.

Mike LaRose is a physical and health education teacher at Wolf. He met Troy that first year. During the following summer, he did fitness tutoring to help keep him active and to use the energy that was so obvious.

Troy and LaRose would do such activities as shooting hoops on the basketball court, playing catch and kicking a soccer ball around. Running was introduced and one day, during Troy’s second year at Wolf, LaRose took him on the bike path near the school. LaRose was on his bike. Troy was on his feet.

That’s when the magic happened.

“I look over and he’s jogging. Meanwhile, I’m in fifth gear and cranking,” LaRose said. “We did a half-mile in, like, 2½ minutes. That’s when we came back to the school and I told his mom this is his thing.”

“It just felt amazing,” Troy said. “The feeling in my brain is what was incredible. It just felt so good to be out in nature.”

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LaRose continued to coach Troy as he grew both as an athlete and a student. After he had finished his stint at Wolf, his parents enrolled him at Hendricken, where they believed he could flourish both as a student and maybe even as an athlete.

Nobody had any idea it would end up the way it has.

Troy slowly became an ingrained member of the Hendricken cross country and track teams. He was constantly in search of improvement in his running, unafraid to ask questions. He found mentors in veteran runners who — to the surprise of coaches and teammates — he was keeping up with during training sessions.

While learning put Troy and his family through various trials and tribulations, running was different. The cross country course or the track was a place where he could be free.

“It helped me because when I didn’t run, what would happen is I would have to take medicine because it would increase my heart rate to help me focus,” Troy said. “Now when I run, it increases my heart rate and it keeps my synapses firing and that makes me function better.”

As a sophomore, Troy had a breakout season. He closed the Rhode Island Interscholastic League season by finishing 12th at the RIIL Boys Cross Country Championship.

Last fall, Troy was even better. He finished in seventh place as an individual, earning All-State honors. More importantly, his performance helped Hendricken win the state title, its first since 2018.

The only time Troy showed nerves was in a post-race interview with The Journal — the first he’d ever done — where he managed to find some words to describe the team title.

“To win the state championship, we had to get tight as a group,” he said after the meet “Especially when we’re coming along at the finish.”

Months later, talking outside the track at Hendricken for a video interview after he was named the Journal’s 2021-22 Courage Award winner, Troy spoke more in-depth about the title.

“It meant the world to me. It really did,” he said. “I was, like, ‘I’m here with my family; it was incredible.’

“My team is my family because they take care of me.”

Not that he needs to be taken care of. Not anymore. Sure, mom and dad had to hold their breath the first few times Troy drove himself from their home in Seekonk to Hendricken on his own, but now it’s no big deal.

He knows what he’s doing, whether it’s behind the wheel of a car, in the classroom or while he’s running. Troy will move through his final year at Hendricken and then on to college, where he’ll find a home on a track or cross country program, just another case of Troy Silvestri proving the doubters wrong.

“It’s hard to put words to it. Just seeing your child go through what he’s been going through and in this journey today has just been a phenomenal run for us,” Jim said. “As parents, we’re so grateful for all the things people have done in his life to support him.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Running has helped Hendricken's Troy Silvestri better manage his ADHD