The kickoff to the Track and Field season began on February 22, 2025, at Reedley High School to take part in the Panther Relays. Not all the athletes could participate in this meet, but nonetheless, it was a strong start to the season. Track and field at DHS is where students who love it and students who want conditioning for their other sports come out to give it their all in their respective events. To the people unaware, there are various events in track and field: there are running events (sprints, hurdles, relays, and long distance), jumping events (long jump, triple jump, and high jump), and throwing events (shot put or discus). As the season goes by, our athletes will have the opportunity to continue to improve in every meet they take part in.
Coaches Perspective
In every sport, coaches will have their worries. Coach Perez, who coaches long-distance running, shared his biggest concern: “My biggest worry is the consistent factor, in the sense of communicating whether you’re going to be here or not and staying consistent as a team.” He wants to continue to grow the team stronger, but it’s up to the athletes’ consistency and their drive to improve.
There are many different perspectives from all the coaches regarding how they want their athletes to perform. Coach Lester, the sprinting coach, focuses on motivation. “Let them know it’s them vs. them—one thing that’s good about track is that you’re not looking at anyone else when you mess up other than yourself.” Coach Lester emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and not letting yourself stop you from hitting your goals.
All the coaches hope to learn from this season and continue to improve as coaches. Furthermore, they want to create a positive environment where these athletes can grow further.
Team Dynamics
Most athletes have prepared for the season by going to preseason practices, which prepares them to have a good opener. Freshmen and other students have taken part in Track and Field for their first year, and many of them have shown great potential in the sport.
All the athletes meet after school at the old campus to train from 3:00 to 5:00 to get faster, stronger, and build their confidence. Many of the training workouts involve practicing technique, strength training, tempo runs, long runs, speed workouts, relay practice, etc. Overall, all the effort put into the training has shown as all the athletes have had great improvement in each meet they participate in.
Expectations and Goals
The biggest expectation from all the coaches is that all the athletes show up to participate in the meets. In his own words, Coach Perez says, “The expectation is that you treat practice like it is school work—at school you’re required to attend the same with practice, do the work, the runs, and post workout.” When you’re a student athlete, if the individual wants to see results in their times or scores, it is essential that they take practice seriously, like you would with school.
Furthermore, the jumpers coach, Coach Vierya, shares her own goals for this track season, “My goal is for every meet that they compete at, that they’re beating their PR [personal record], and I want them to place at the meets, especially the jumpers.” She also shares that she hopes to get more people to jump and help the current jumpers improve. On the other hand, Coach Lester hopes to build his sprinters to get 11s and to be strong by the end of the season. For the throwers, their main goal is to continue to throw farther and farther each meet in the shot put and discus.
All these expectations and goals aren’t for no reason, as they have a purpose for the athletes to gain discipline, work ethic, and improved results. This is shown through the results they obtain at their meets, which are new and better PRs. To get better at something, you must follow goals and expectations.
Athletes attend practices as the season has already begun, preparing themselves for the track meets. Most of these athletes set a personal goal; for example, some of these athletes want to work to beat their PR, which is a good goal to set if one is trying to do better than they have done. Track and field builds a lot of teamwork, as these athletes cheer on their teammates while running, jumping, and throwing. If the athletes continue to stay on top of their training, all of them will show results and be better than they were at the beginning of the season. Ultimately, the biggest battle these athletes must win is the mental battle they face. Track and Field is not a contact sport, but rather a physical and mental one.
