TAMPA, Fla. - You can’t win, if you don’t run the race.

But Nick Migliarese doesn’t need to run the race to win. He wins, simply by being here. This Riverview High junior has bit of stubborn streak, one that started at a young age.

“If he had something in his head he wanted to do, he went for it full throttle,” Nick’s mother Jill said.

His love of track began at a young age too.

“It was a rainy day and track was on the TV in our home and he sat in front of that TV,” Jill said. “He kneeled down in front of the TV and said that’s what I want to do. And he never gave up that dream.”

The decathlon and pentathlon drew Nick in. Why participate in one event when you can compete in several.

“I like doing the throwing. I like doing the jumping. I like doing the running. I like doing the distance.,” Nick said. “I like doing everything.”

Nick doesn’t just multitask on the track. That "can do everything" attitude carries over into other aspects of his life. That attitude came in handy when Nick faced a serious health crisis.

What started as a fever that would not go away in the height of Covid-19, turned into a two-week stint at Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital where doctors, at first, did not know what was wrong with Nick.

“The one day I knew stuff was getting very bad, I was in the hospital and I woke up and my bed was just covered in blood,” Nick said. “The entire bed, just covered in blood.”

“It was, it was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever been through,” Jill said.

There were a lot of tests. A lot of blood work. A lot of questions without answers. And a lot of prayers.

“I didn’t really have fear, as in oh like I’m going to die. I didn’t have that kind of fear,” Nick said. “It was more just like we need to figure out what’s happening with me fast because I knew this wasn’t normal."

“It’s one of those things were your life just spirals out of control in a moments notice and you just don’t know what to do or where to turn,” Jill said. “You’re kind of paralyzed with this sadness and fear.”

Nick was finally diagnosed, not with the Coronavirus, but with a combo of mono and a bacterial infection, a perfect storm that wreaked havoc on his body. He lost 30 pounds in three weeks and had to start from scratch on the track.

“That’s the only thing I really thought about was trying to get back on the track, trying to see when I could train again,” Nick said. “The physical recovery was long. The road really started with when I got out of the hospital. And it was basically on me.”

It was big set back. Nick missed out on a lot. But he gained a whole lot more.

“To be where he’s at, with what he went through and how weak he was, you’re just happy for anything,” Jill said.

Wins and losses have a whole new meaning. Nick learned a lot of about himself throughout this journey. He learned how truly strong he is, physically and mentally. And he learned he has to be on that track.

“If you really do put your mind to it, you can overcome your challenges,” Nick said. “I learned not to give up on myself, to just have faith. Keep pushing through. You know there’s going to be hurdle after hurdle after hurdle and you’ve got to just keep going over them.

“You can’t let anything stop you and get in the way of what you want to accomplish.”