Kevin Joerger began running for his health.

He was a “chubby” seventh-grader and needed a way to burn off excess weight. What started as a way to improve his fitness has turned into much, much more.

“By the time I hit freshman year of high school, then it was my passion,” Joerger said.

The Thousand Oaks High graduate’s progression has only continued from there.

Joerger, who was part of the Lancers’ 2008 Marmonte League cross country championship team, will continue running in the fall at Loyola Marymount.

His achievements don’t stop at running. Joerger maintained a 4.6 grade-point average and has earned The Star’s Boys’ Scholar Athlete of the Year award.

Joerger has maintained a busy schedule that includes running, as well as a part-time job tutoring and volunteering as a youth-group teacher at his church.

Running is in Joerger’s background. His father used to run at Westlake High. His younger sister, Melanie, is a varsity runner for Thousand Oaks.

Distance has always been a natural draw for Joerger. He enjoys taking off into the Santa Monica Mountains or running in Wildwood Park.

“I like being up on the trail because the different turns and hills and stuff keep it from getting boring, whereas 12 laps on the track get pretty monotonous,” Joerger said.

Running trails allowed him to get away and think.

“It’s a huge stress release — the best stress release I’ve ever found,” Joerger said. “It also just teaches you how to work hard.”

The strong Thousand Oaks running program has helped Joerger push himself to improve. Racing amidst a strong core of runners as he came through the Lancers program had Joerger enjoying running amidst the pack.

As a junior, Sean Gildea, Andrew Snyder and Asher Lober pushed Joerger. Gildea and Joerger finished 1-2 as Thousand Oaks won the Marmonte League crown for the first time since 1999.

That changed his senior year with several teammates graduating and placing Joerger up front.

“I was basically on my own to push myself all year,” Joerger said. “I actually say I enjoyed being back in the pack more, struggling to help my team.”

“Up in the front, it gets more individual and about individual success and less about team success. Whether you’re first or second, you’re basically having the same effect for your team score.”

He had several standout performances, but also had races that didn’t go as planned and tested his resolve.

Joerger ran a time of 16 minutes, 5 seconds in the Foot Locker West Regionals last December at Mount San Antonio College.

He raced to a 9:07.77 finish in the 3,200 in the Masters meet at Cerritos College this spring.

Joerger also made it to state in the 3,200 in Clovis. Joerger went out with the lead pack that was trained to break nine minutes.

“I figured it was my last race so might as well go for it, like all or nothing. I got the nothing,” said Joerger, who placed 20th in 9:23.10.

“I was right on school-record pace through six laps and the last two laps I was completely empty.”

The initial disappointment gave way to acceptance.

“I eventually just realized that making it to state was a huge accomplishment for me,” Joerger said. “Even though I didn’t do well there, I’m still happy that I made it there.”

If there’s any regret, it was falling short of the school record in the two-mile by three seconds but that’s a small blip on what Joerger said he considers a successful high school career.

Joerger credits the training methods of Thousand Oaks cross country coach Shawn Morris.

Joerger has been receiving workout information from his college coaches at LMU.

“A lot of the training philosophies in college are the same ones that I’ve learned all these three years running with Coach Morris,” he said. “It’s still a pretty big transition but that makes it a lot easier.”