Athletes, consider track as a second sport

Fuad Shalhout writes that there are benefits for athletes who participate in track and field, and high school teams could benefit as well with bigger rosters.

Viewing some of the local track and field rosters prior to the season, I noticed some with low numbers. That’s nothing new.

I also noticed those with a large amount of athletes have winter and fall athletes sprinkled throughout. That’s nothing new either.

But it begs the question as to why it’s difficult for some schools to generate a large team to begin with.

No matter what other sport you play outside of the spring, track and field to me seems as if it could be a great second or third sport for a lot of studentathletes.

Let’s take a look at three main benefits to competing in the sport.

• It helps keep you in shape. Obviously.

• It’s relatively safe, mainly not dealing with head injuries.

• There’s an event for everyone. If you hate running, try a field event. If you hate the field events, show off your running skills. Or you could do both if you choose wisely.

Vermilion senior Zack Kelly is a two-time AllOhio soccer athlete and a 2016 Morning Journal Player of the Year. Soccer is clearly his forte, but track and field never even crossed his mind until now.

The senior is running for the first time and has already made noise. At the Brookside Invitational on April 20, Kelly won the 400 (51.37) with a meet record, the 200 (22.92) and placed second in the 100 (11.42) and sixth in the 4x4.

After the meet, Kelly wasn’t remotely shocked.

“I honestly expected this,” Kelly said. “To come out and win it is special. I was walking on the way to the bus and my friends told me to go back to get my award (MVP). I worked really hard before the season and my coaches have been amazing. So basically I just kept pushing and working for meets like this. I honestly didn’t know a single person around me today, I just went and ran.”

It begged the question as to why he didn’t run before this season.

“Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to do track before because of club soccer,” Kelly added. “But if I can go back, I would definitely change that.”

Kelly isn’t the only example, but he’s a prime one.

Lorain football coach Dave McFarland was the track and field coach for the past two seasons: His main reason for doing both was to bring out more football players onto the track team. He did that. Specializing in a sport is no longer the way to go unless you have an ungodly amount of talent in that particular sport.

I understand if you’re a five-star football recruit, you’re not going to do anything that jeopardizes your health.

But consider this: Eight of the first nine players picked in the 2017 NFL draft had a track and field background, according to letsrun.com. And, in all, 19 of the 32 first-round picks competed in track and field in high school.

Your favorite football player most likely participated in track as a secondary sport.

My colleague at The News-Herald, Chris Lillstrung, did a story on a Lake Catholic athlete who is known for his basketball skills and who jumped in track and field to win an event. Sophomore Luke Frazier was persuaded to give track and field a try April 10.

On April 13, he won the high jump at the South Invitational, and he was the only one to clear 6-feet. The crazy part? Track and field was never on Frazier’s radar.

“Not really, until I started doing it,” Frazier told The News-Herald. “It’s really fun now that I’ve gotten into it. This is literally my first time. My mom was a cross country coach at West (Geauga). But it’s the first time I’ve tried it.”

Track practices are short, you aren’t required to do it year-round and it springboards you into the summer to hop back into training for your main sport.

Track and field coaches don’t need me to say this and excuse me for stating the obvious — but they should never stop working their school halls because you never know when you might find the next Zack Kelly or Luke Frazier.

Fuad Shalhout can be reached at fshalhout@ morningjournal.com and on Twitter @shalhoutf.