Girls’ Indoor Track Off to Great Start
February 10, 2010 • Brianna Matava, Staff Writer
Filed under Sports
he Indoor Track team is off to a great start. The coach of the indoor girls’ track team, Mr. Ray Owens, is in his ninth year as the Head Girls’ Cross Country & Track and Field coach, and previously coached freshman boys’ basketball for four years. Team captains, Jamie Ehrenfield, a senior, and Amanda Arcand, a senior, were chosen by their coach for their experience and hard work. Amanda, a previous cross country captain, is a winner on and off the track.
“Her positive attitude is infectious, and she is one of my best teachers,” says Owens.
All of the girls are work hard during practice. Practice is usually a series of workouts where the team is divided into squads including short sprinters, long sprinters, distance runners, jumpers, hurdlers, and throwers, and although it’s very tiring, the girls bring a fun vibe to the team.
When asked if Mr. Owens is hard on the team, he answered, “If weight training, sprinting, distance running, skill and technique, as well as plyometics is considered ‘hard on them’ then yes, I’m hard on them, so that everything else in life may seem a little bit easier.”
The 2010 winter season is not as intense since there is a severe shortage of high level of competitive athletes at RHS, but the new and inexperienced athletes have made coaching rewarding for Owens. Get ready for new rivals this season, too. With the removal of South Windsor from our school’s conference, Fermi has become the new, but very friendly rival.
“Since the Fermi girls’ track team has improved, and our team has become so young and inexperienced,” explains Owens, “I can see Fermi outscoring us at this year’s conference championship meet.”
The coach also has some goals for the team this year. Their goals over the past few years has been to work up to their potential, which placed them at the top of the conference and among the best girls’ track teams in the state. While keeping this goal, Owens wants to make the girls more devoted track and field athletes that will be committed until they graduate, regardless of their current skill level.
Coach Owens’ last thoughts were, “Loyalty and commitment are qualities often lost in today’s high school student athletes in any aspect of their lives. Wasteful activities have become more attractive so convincing young women that running, jumping, and throwing is fun is the boulder that I push up the never ending mountain. Rockville once had this loyalty and commitment… I would like to get it back.”
Loading ...
