TRACK
day.”
Gahanna, which has roughly 65 boys and 65 girls, fields a pair of state powerhouses.
In theory, it takes only a handful of standouts to win a state championship. Deep rosters, however, boost a team’s chances in dual and conference meets.
“It’s a blessing and it’s a curse to have huge numbers,” Olentangy Liberty girls coach James Dingus said. “For every 10 kids you get out, you’ll probably find only one really good one. But with numbers, you build a culture, and I like to view it as an opportunity to impact a lot of kids. In the big picture, at the very least we make sure every kid gets a phenomenal workout and the feeling that they’re part of something special.”
The staffs at Liberty, Orange and other large programs often need to be creative in satisfying the competitive urges of their younger and lower-level athletes. They hold JV meets and run multiple heats in some events, pushing meets to well over three hours on some weeknights.
Hilliard Darby coach Don Seymour said the booming numbers usually correlate with advanced middle school programs and coaches in other sports who encourage athletes to keep busy year-round. Darby has roughly 150 boys and girls out for track.
“Any kind of participation is a good thing for kids, as far as I’m concerned,” Seymour said. “I want to make sure each kid down to No. 150 knows he or she is valued and we work hard to help them experience some feeling of success, even if it’s in a JV meet setting.”
Orange senior distance runner Rhyan Pearson views track as a natural extension of his favorite sport, cross country, which Walters also coaches. And though he is not one of the team’s stalwarts, Pearson has called his track career “100 percent fulfilling.”
“I don’t go out there expecting to place in races, but to set (personal records) each meet,” he said. “The community aspect has kept me going. I get to spend every day with people I consider friends for life.”
Junior teammate Erin
Barr, who runs hurdles and sprints, conceded that she likely won’t ever be a standout for Orange.
“We’ve got an awesome team and I like being part of it,” Barr said. “Even though we’ve got a large team, we’re tight-knit. This is a healthy way to spend my time after school.”
Some coaches speculated that a small percentage of their athletes come out for track partly to gain a waiver from physical education classes and enhance their college applications.
In his 43 years as Columbus Academy coach, Bob Kirk rarely has had to deal with an overabundance of athletes. But that hasn’t kept the Vikings from being a perennial smallschool state power.
“That’s mind-boggling to think about dealing with 200 or 300 kids every day,” said Kirk, who works with 34 boys and 28 girls.
“Frankly, I could not handle or hope to accommodate 100 kids. That would be unwieldy. Ideally, I want there to be a core of 10 to 12 serious kids at the end that I can devote all my attention to and help us make our late-season push. In my mind, it’s not the quantity, but the quality that you look for.”