Lindsay Ball is the best athlete in the state you have never heard of. A sophomore at Lawrence High School and a member of the track and field team, Ball is a coaches' dream.

"The best thing Lindsay does, and what we all should do, is stay positive," said Rob Stanton, the distance coach with the Lawrence track team. "That's Lindsay's main strength."

This season, Ball, 16, has run the 800-meter and 1,600-meter run for the Bulldogs. She also skis competitively each winter.

Lindsay Ball is blind. She has been since birth.

Ball has skied for 10 years. When she's free skiing, her parents will ski in front of her and Ball will listen to their directions. Last winter, she trained for the giant slalom at Sunday River.

"I just wanted to do something," Ball said. "I get bored very easily."

During practice, Ball will run with a teammate. During meets, she'll run with Stanton on her right side. Coach and runner each hold the end of a small length of rope. Ball sets the pace, and Stanton lets her know the basics. Here comes a turn. You have this much farther to go.

"I keep going and he says how far we've gone," Ball said. "I just keep going until it's over."

"The curves are the only real barrier," Stanton said. "I'm certainly encouraging her along the way."

Coaching Ball made Stanton rethink his coaching methods.

"Lindsay has forced me to realize how much of my coaching is based on them seeing the other runners," Stanton said. "(With Ball) I tried developing a sense of pace, how it's supposed to feel."

Until last week, Ball's event was the 800. She first ran the two lap race in a meet at Skowhegan on May 1.

"I was really, really nervous," Ball said. "It was cold that day."

Ball finished that race in three minutes, 39 seconds. Last week, she ran a 3:28. In an event like the 800, a second is a year. Making 11 seconds of progress is incredible. It's improvement of the highest order.

"I just want to get better each time I do it," Ball said, adding that her long term goal is to finish the 800 in under three minutes.

In her first 1,600, at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham on Tuesday, she ran the first two laps in 3:48. Normally she'd be done the 800. In her 1,600 debut, she looked at the rest of the race practically.

"I just had to do the same thing again," Ball said.

Ball finished with a time of 7:58.76. As Ball caught her breath at the finish, Stanton told her she completed the race in under eight minutes.

"Is that good?" Ball asked.

"That's good," Stanton said.

Ball ran the 1,600 again at Saturday's Community Cup meet at Winslow, and she's considering going out for the cross country team next fall. With 100 meters to run on Tuesday, Ball passed the stands lining the Mt. Ararat track. The applause started with the other athletes milling about the infield, jumped over the track to the bleachers, and grew with each step. It reached its peak as Ball crossed the finish line.

Ball didn't see the finish line, but everyone made sure she felt it.

Travis Lazarczyk -- 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com