The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
LOST DEVELOPMENTAL YEAR YIELDS CONCERN
Some Mayfield cross country runners returning in the fall approached longtime coach Steve Canfield with a question.
Questions, of course, have abounded during the novel coronavirus pandemic as the high school sports community contemplates the next steps forward.
“Kids have asked, ‘Coach, when should we start training?’” Canfield said. “And I say, ‘You should start now. You don’t have your track fitness. You need to get started as soon as possible.’
“That two weeks off, you’ve already had all of that, so you’ve got to get going.”
Therein lies the problem, among many, as coaches and athletes figure out just how much of a step back the sport has taken without a spring 2020 campaign.
One of the most vital facets is what it will do in the way of event development.
Earlier this month, Perry coach Layne Richards noted in detail what the cancellation may and will do to pole vaulting.
That event, though, is just part of the conundrum.
It extends to everyone obviously. But performers in specialty events such as hurdles, jumps and throws also face further burden.
“It’s definitely difficult,” Wildcats standout hurdler Josie Conti said. “We don’t have access to a lot of the equipment that we need to kind of get better by ourselves. It’s one thing to say, ‘Oh, we’ll do speed work or strength work.’
“But you really don’t have that one-onone with a coach to tell you how to get better over the little micro achievements or the micro things that you would change to get better in specialized events. So losing out on a year to make these small, minute changes — the better you get, the literal you can really improve.”
Canfield takes some solace in knowing athletes were able to get in the entirety of indoor season before the outdoor campaign was canceled.
But a halt in development still goes a long way.
“A lot of it is going to be mental,” Canfield said.
“If the kids realize that they’re not going to be where they should be — they have to be a little bit more patient than otherwise. After a season outdoors, they come to indoor and they have all that practice time under their belt, then they’re going to be at a certain place.
“A lot of them are going to think they should be at that same place when, realistically of course, they’re not. We’ll see. Some of them I think will get back into it fairly quickly and will make the necessary progress. A year off in a specialty area is definitely very difficult, especially when it’s as competitive as it is.”
Sprinters and distance runners are obviously also up against it as well. In the case of a sprinter, though, speed work can be done to some degree away from the track. Distance runners can still log their miles on trails with social distancing.
But again, that can only go so far.
“In theory, it would seem that way,” Canfield said of distance runners possibly being better positioned for a stoppage. “But again,
I know that we occasionally — Val Sague, who was one of our aces, lives in our neighborhood. We’d see her occasionally when we were working in the yard. She would be on her way riding her bike up to the track.
“And then she would stop on the way back, and she would be like, ‘It’s so hard to do anything by yourself.’ That’s the hardest part. And again, some kids are going to be a lot more resilient in that regard obviously. But yeah,
in theory it is a little bit easier. But the motivation — kids are kids. They’ve got to be motivated to take that next step, or they’re not.”
So unfortunately, with another outdoor track and field season now nine months away, the sport may suffer until a new normal is achieved.
Which is exactly why Canfield told his cross country runners to begin in earnest, a message that extends broadly, too.
“I feel like a year getting used to better techniques or getting used to getting out there and getting used to the competition and just getting better and more competitive, so I feel like it really just knocks you down by a year,” Conti said. “It wasn’t a couple weeks. It was an entire season, and that’s huge. So I think it will make a huge difference.
“Coming into next season, you’ll definitely see a lot of rusty performances.”