The winter track season happening in the middle of the pandemic last year made it a learning experience for all the coaches and participants. This year, the track season is expected to be back to normal and, needless to say, the coaches are excited.

Last year, the only meets that met the COVID restrictions were Polar Bear meets which were outdoors and against local schools. The meets were limited as the season started in February, so most coaches were focusing on the Spring season. This year the meets will return to indoor venues with six scheduled meets and three qualification meets. 

For the throwing coach, Mr. Barclay, in his second season coaching winter track, and his first normal season, the biggest goal this season is to see all of his throwers break their personal records.

“If somebody is throwing [in their first] or fourth years, I just like watching their journey improve from day one to the last day,” he said.

Barclay is looking forward to improving his coaching ability and gaining more knowledge as well. He is hoping all of this will reflect on the athletes becoming better.

Senior Aidan Johnny is expected to have a successful season to finish out his NPHS indoor shot put career .

Barclay stated: “His target last year was 44.4′ which was excellent. He’s coming off a good football season and looking good.”

Head running coach Mr. Meyer is excited for this year being closer to a normal season. Unlike last year, he said: “We can get in the weight room, we can be in the building if the weather is bad, and we can get back to doing all the things we usually do for track and field.”

Meyer focused on being the sprinting coach for his previous seasons, but this year he is overlooking both sprinting and distance, so he can work with athletes more in the weight room. Especially this year, Meyer wants to make the practices as enjoyable as possible because there are a lot of underclassmen participating and he wants to change the sometimes harsh view of the sport.

The standout boys distance runner is junior Hayden Singer, who is coming off a strong Cross Country season and expected to make a large impact. On the girls side, seniors Ava Glaser and Bree Boyle are two experienced varsity runners, who will look to continue their success from an excellent fall season.

The sprinters on both sides are working to gain race experience as most of the team has only been running for a few weeks to a couple of months. In this, Meyer expects there to be drastic improvement by the end of the season in all event groups.

Meyer thinks the biggest change for athletes who have never competed in a regular indoor season is the environment of the race.

He said: “We’re going to be at a big track and kids need to get the experience of having many hundreds of other athletes around. The roar of the crowd and racing on a short track is a pretty unique experience.”