our weeks after the last indoor track meet, members of the track team will be lacing up their tennis shoes and walking to the track to begin the outdoor season.
After three successful meets, the team recently finished up their indoor track season. The outdoor season begins on March 17.
The track team uses the indoor season as an opportunity to prepare for the outdoor season. Head coach Steve Guymon said that their main priority is outdoor track.
“We are going to have a lot more people,” Guymon said. “We really focus on the outdoor, so it’s going to be a big group. I think with the outdoor season we have quite a few athletes that could possibly set some school records, qualify for nationals, set personal bests or do very well in the meets that we go to.”
Sophomore Landon Belcher, who shaved off two seconds in sprinting since last year’s indoor meet, said he is hoping to continue to improve throughout the next season.
“I’m feeling excited,” Belcher said. “That’s probably the best way to describe it because outdoor is kind of tough. It’s a tighter turn on the track. It’s probably a 200 – or 300-meter track. So, we run a lap and then a portion of a lap but it will be nice running outdoors. Plus, if the weather’s nice, it’s nicer than being in a stuffy building.”
Junior Tiffany Chambers said that preparing for the outdoor track season by practicing five times a week and having meets on the weekends takes a lot of work and brings the track team closer together in a variety of ways.
“You have to learn to work with each other, you learn each other’s weaknesses and where to help people out,” Chambers said. “Some people need positive encouragement. Coach can tell them, hey, this is what you need to do to fix it, but everybody else needs to encourage them. Some people need to be yelled at. That’s how they perform better. It allows you to read other people and be on their level in order to help them become better. It’s a learning experience if you’re willing to get into it.”
The track team has one home meet for the outdoor season on April 7 during Spring Sing weekend.
“Our kids get a chance to run in front of their own friends and things like that, so it’s important to them,” Guymon said. “Not a lot of people know a whole lot abut track and field except for the Olympics when they watch it, but it takes a whole lot of work. There is a lot of things that are involved other than getting on the track and turning left all the time. Some people can do it and some can’t. That’s why I’m proud of our guys. They’ve got guts and it’s hard work and they don’t get the recognition other people do.”
Chambers said that it would mean a lot to the track team for their fellow students to come and support them.
“It’s just a come and go event,” Chambers said. “For baseball you have a billion home games. Basketball, you know, had a handful of home games and football did too. We have one home track meet. No one ever comes to watch us, so for us to have the rest of the student body come and support us in what we do everyday and what we put our lives into would be really awesome.”
