Track, a sport with 17 total events, has grown quite a lot over the last few years. What was once about 70 athletes last year is now 85-90 athletes, according to head coach Mr. Mikel Rathmann.
“It’s nice to have a bigger team,” Mr. Rathmann said. “With track [and field] we get to fill a lot of events.”
Improving their performance for districts this year in comparison to last year is one of the biggest goals Mr. Rathmann has set for the team. Everyone enjoying their time is also something that he would like to accomplish. As long as everyone works hard and dedicates themselves to this sport, the team will be seeing “improvement at the district meet,” he said.
Mentality also plays a role in accomplishing their goal of improving at districts.
Track being an individual sport “can be mentally tough just because you’re in your own element,” Mr. Rathmann said. “You need to push [to] the best of your ability.”
One of the pros of track and field to Mr. Rathmann is that an individual’s result isn’t based upon just one factor. For example, in another sport if you make a bad pass, it could cost you the whole game. But in track, if you have a bad start, that doesn’t solely determine how fast you can go and you can still run a good race.
“It’s a great sport because it is individual, so you can just improve at your ability, and you can see that quantitative improvement,” Mr. Rathmann said. “It’s also a great sport in that the team is always so supportive.”
For senior Natalia Gonzalez, the appeal of track and field is that “there’s so many options for people to do, [and] even if you don’t know what you are doing or you just started, it’s a chance to do a new sport [and] to meet a lot of new people,” Gonzalez said. She also says that track and field is not only about running, so if running doesn’t suit you, then you can do a different type of event such as long jump, shot put, or javelin.
Being able to meet and connect with other athletes is one of the reasons why junior Maya Crimin enjoys being part of the track and field team. “It’s so many different people from so many different places,” she said. “Usually track isn’t somebody’s main sport, so everyone’s kind of training for a different thing and you’re all coming together in one place with lots of different experiences.”
Gonzalez says that most of the time the team connects on the way to meets, but they are also able to bond through team dinners throughout the season.
According to Mr. Rathmann, the track and field community is very positive and encouraging. If one of the athletes isn’t participating in an event, they stand on the sidelines cheering their other teammates on.
“The community aspect is pretty strong,” Crimin said. “We all warm up together every day, [and] we warm up at meets.” After everyone warms up together during meets, everyone splits into their groups. “There’s the larger community and then there’s the smaller sub communities which are even stronger, and that’s really nice,” Crimin said.
