SPOKANE, Wash. -

Chewelah's Zack Schneider makes things look easy, and even sound easy, playing guitar in his band 'Canary In The Coalmine'. But becoming a top-ranked hurdler was anything but easy considering he doesn't even have a track to practice on.

"We have a dirt circle that's not regulation length, and then on top of that, it's overgrown by grass and weeds all year long," says Schneider.

"Coming from a small town and a small situation on a dirt track - to do what he's done, in hurdles especially where timing is a big deal, it's pretty phenomenal," says head track coach Pat Kostecka.

In order to train, Zack lines up one hurdle at a time in the school hallway, which is why race day is like a holiday.  "Really we're just excited to be like 'Oh we get a track! We get to run on rubber and not on carpet or mud!'"

Zack's just thankful to be running track at all after doctors told him that he'd never be able to play football or wrestling again - two of his greatest passions.  "[The doctor] told me that I had a back problem and basically what it was, was that it would be really easy to cut my spinal chord and paralyze me down at the bottom of my spine. I'm going to be honest, I cried for a day or two but after that I was like, 'Ok, shut up' so I decided to not really feel sorry for myself about that."

Since then, Zack's running past the competition, and even broke a 29-year old school record which belonged to his dad.  "He always wanted to do that and his father encouraged him to do that," says Kostecka.

"Oh he cried he was so happy. He was excited," adds Schneider.

Excited about the record and his son clearing all of life's hurdles.