Dan Falloon
The Muskie track team has boosted its numbers once again—jumping from a dozen athletes in 2009 to 15 this year.
The extra competitors aren’t the result of an unusually large influx of juniors, but actually senior students who decided to give track and field a shot.
“I would have thought that we would have had more Grade 9 students coming out,” admitted Natasha Shack, who coaches the team along with Kendall Richardson and John Dutton.
“We’ve actually had some males come out in the Grade 11 and 12 area,” she noted.
“I’m not sure what sure what spiked their interest.”
Another trend that developed this year is more students are coming out in field events. The Muskies primarily had been a track team in previous years.
“We had a lot more students come out this year, in jumping, both long and high, and in shot put,” Shack remarked.
“We’ve been predominantly a running team, and this year the dynamics have changed a little bit.”
Shack credited the interest in field events, at least in part, to the success of Josh Strain, who has qualified for the all-Ontarios each of the last two years in both the high jump and long jump.
“I wonder if it has something to do with his successes,” she mused.
“We still have our runners,” Shack stressed. “We have more [long] distance runners than we have short distance.
“So we have, maybe, about three individuals who are sprinting and about six individuals who are working on the 800m, 1500m, and 3000m.”
The team is getting set for the NorWOSSA championships in Thunder Bay on May 19-20, which leads to the all-Ontarios on June 3-5 at the University of Western Ontario in London.
Shack has a feeling Strain again will be in the mix for his third-consecutive OFSAA appearance given Fort High was able to bring in proper training equipment for him.
“Last year, we were able to add a high jump bar and some high jump mats to the track and field program, so he’s been able to practise a little bit longer,” she explained.
On the track, Shack said the 3000m race is the most difficult in which to train the athletes, and is the only race in which the runners aren’t subjected to time trials.
She reasoned the runners have the physical ability to post a competitive time in that distance, but the area of scrutiny lies more in the mental focus of completing such a long race.
“The 3000m is one of the more challenging races mentally because you’re out there longer,” Shack noted. “You can see all your competitors on the track.
“In the 3000m, it’s the mental game that plays an effect on that one,” she stressed. “Of course, the athlete has to be prepared for it.
“With the amount of training that they do, when they go out and run on Mondays, they run long distances, they’re running five-even km.
“They have the distance on them to run 3000m,” Shack added.
“We really work with them about what they need to think about on that first, second, third lap and then their last couple laps, what they need to do,” she concluded.
One advantage the team has been afforded this year, as with the Muskie soccer squads, is that the pleasant weather has allowed them to compete much earlier in the season in its natural environment.
“This year, it has been key that we’ve had the track open, that there’s no snow on it,” enthused Shack.
“That has been a really big help because our kids started out the second week of track practice, which was the second week of April, on the actual field.
“Usually, we get on it about two weeks before the meet,” she noted.
Shack said it takes time to get a feel for training on a track with its curves, as opposed to on the road or in a gym.
“Just the mentality of running out on a track is so much different than running out on a road,” she remarked.
As well, given the increase in team members, the squad has been able to make use of three coaches to ensure the athletes get the attention and instruction they need.
“We’ve had a coach on the track for practices, a coach running long with the long distances, and then a coach working field,” noted Shack.
“We got really lucky that we’ve had three coaches.”
