Attack on the Track: The Upcoming Track and Field Season

Anticipations for the upcoming track and field season

Staff Writer

The arrival of March brings the spring season, and with it one of the largest and most popular sports at American: track and field.

Head coach Renee Zamora has been coaching AHS’s track team for 9 years, and she explained what her expectations from the team are. “As long as everybody puts forth the work and can run their best by the end of the season, then I think that is the expectation.” Senior Matthew Riffle (12) said “Everyone’s focused just to beat their own personal goals. It’s cool for the whole team to do well and play through all the championships, but the main focus is just to improve yourself.”

Beyond expectations and personal goals, Coach Renee also expressed hope for development in real life skills. “I hope that [team members] will acquire leadership skills and skills that they can use in other areas of their life,” stated Coach Renee. “What [colleges] do care about is what you learned from the experience and how you apply it to your everyday life. I’m not here to just teach running, I’m here to give students the opportunity to build leadership skills.”

The team this year consists of 106 members, largely in part due to “a good social media presence online,” according to Coach Renee.

Just as important as physical form and fitness is mental strength. “To maintain motivation and inspire these kids, it really comes from within themselves,” said Coach Renee. “You always will face somebody who is faster than you or can throw farther, jump higher and jump longer than you. You need to be willing to take on those challenges, to be willing to lose in order to get better.”

This is all in anticipation for the various meets through the track season. Coach Renee greatly anticipates the MVAL league finals, saying that “it’s kind of like a final for a class, like this is what you’ve learned, let’s see how you can do in your test.” Riffle agreed, also anticipating the “MVAL championships at the end of the season, where all the teams will come together and face off.” The team Riffle is most looking forward to facing is Washington. “They just beat us a week ago, and also Washington sucks.”

Coach Renee emphasized maintaining focus for the finals, saying “I just hope that everyone can beat the finish line and maintain focus, so they don’t lose the integrity and intensity when we are in practice. I hope that everybody can see that all this is for the end goal of league finals.”

As guidance for new team members, Coach Renee said “We have to be willing to fail, and we have to be daring enough to be great. Good is the enemy of greatness.” Riffle gave a final piece of advice for new team members: “It’s scary and hard at first, but it gets a lot better. Trust me.”

Caption: Sprinting across the track is Romir Gandhi (10). Track practice is in full swing, and team members are working hard to prepare for upcoming meets. Matthew Riffle (12) related that “[There’s] a lot of preparation, mentally and physically. It takes a lot outside of just running.” (PC: Romir Gandhi (10))