Track and field season began February 26 in hopes of continuously having as good of a season they did last year . Since then, practices have been from 4:15 pm-6:30 pm. During these practices, the athletes start with jogging 1-2 laps then go through warm-ups as an entire team. These warm-ups consist of things like shuffles across the track for 40 meters, scoops, and karaoke’s. After warm-ups, athletes split into the events they do in track. These include running events like 100m, jumping events like long jump, and throwing events like discus.

Running events

Coach Ciara Tatum and Jared Fenstermacher, also known as Coach J, are in charge of sprinting events such as the 100m, 200m, 400m, and all relays besides the 4x800m. According to Coach Tatum, the sprinters go through a rotation of days throughout the week. These days are speed days where the athletes work on increasing their speed and technique, lactate days, which are more difficult days when athletes sprint semi-short distances, and finally recovery days. These days are made up of light exercises that give athletes a day to rest their bodies after the previous days before. For hurdlers, Elizbeth Adcock is in charge. Hurdlers start their practices with a few stretches then go over a few hurdles using blocks. Like regular sprinting events, hurdle practice days have a rotation of exercise days they go through. Harder days are running over hurdles in semi-short distances, and easy days consist of walking over hurdles and additional stretches. Finally, Last of the running events, there are the distance events. According to female distance coach Maddie Cranny, the runners usually start with stretching. Next, the coaches choose between easier distance runs around the track some days, or harder distance runs around the neighborhoods surrounding Battle other days. Lastly, the distance runners finish their practice with some core workouts. 

Jumping events 

Head coach Brian Hancock and Elizabeth Adcock are the coaches of the jumping events at Battle. Hancock, who is specifically the coach of pole vault, long jump, and triple jump, says that the jumpers spend one portion of their time working on technique, and another working on speed. “In jumping events, they can be very technical, so it’s critical the athletes develop the foundation skills to excel” But what he says is really important though, is speed. “Speed improves everything in track and field, and this applies to the jumping events.” An example of technique improvement the athletes work on is counting their steps as they sprint to the mark they jump off of. They do this so that they don’t scratch at track meets. And an example of speed improvement from the athletes is the practice of running on the ball of their foot until they get to said mark they jump off of. Pole vaulters, according to Hancock, “Practice full run throughs of pole vaulting usually 5 times, and spend time perfecting jumping measurements.” The last of the jumping events is high jump. These jumpers spend practice working on technique fully approaching the bungee. The high jump coach, Adcock, expects all of the athletes she works with to show up ready and work hard. ”If you can improve, you should consider your season a success.” 

Throwing Events 

. Throwing events, shotput and discus, are coached by Alexis Griffin, and javelin is coached by Adcock. For shotput and discus throwers, they first do ab exercises and then work on technique of their throws. Javelin throwers also do some ab exercises and then later move on to some full effort throws. 

Team Fundraiser 

Something Battle Track and Field does every year during the beginning of the season is a fundraiser revolving around selling cookie dough. According to Hancock, they do this in order to afford things like meals for meets, additional snacks, and new equipment. The minimum amount of orders for the athletes to make was 15, but if they made 20 orders, they were able to get a free  Nike Dri-FIT shirt off of the Battle Track and Field website. If an athlete was able to make 30 orders, they could receive a free Nike backpack with the words “Battle Track and Field.”

Conclusion

Both coaches and athletes of the team are very excited for what’s in store for this year’s track season. They are all hoping to improve in their events and represent Battle High School well.