LANCERS PROGRAM ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Windsor hosting OUA championships this week at Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse
Building a track and field program does not happen overnight.
Colin Inglis was associate head coach under Dennis Fairall in the late 1990s when the Windsor Lancers were the standard by which all other Canadian university programs were measured.
Inglis left and was named head coach at York University in 1999, but returned to Windsor in 2017 to become head coach and begin the process of trying to build the program back to its former prominence.
“It's a longer process than you think,” Inglis said. “When I left Windsor and went to York, we were third at (nationals) and I thought, with most of the same cast returning, that we could contend again the next year and it didn't happen for 15 years.
“It's a long process to get the team and building up the roster. Cecil Smith (the former executive director of the Ontario Track and Field Association) told me that Dennis told him it took 10 years to get where you want to be. We're in year seven now and we're closing the gap.”
The Lancers will host the OUA track and field championships on Friday and Saturday at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse, with the men's team ranked No. 6 in the country and the women ranked No. 7.
“Things are trending in the right direction,” Lancers fifthyear men's pole vaulter Nojah Parker said. “I think (other schools) see us more as a threat than they did four years ago.”
The team concept that Fairall and his staff always preached remains a pillar for the program and one of big draws for attracting athletes to Windsor.
“Any time I talk to other athletes from other teams, they say, `Your team looks really close knit and is there to support each other,'” Lancers second-year women's runner Isabella Goveia said. “Even outside (the program), they say it.”
Dinner together and time to do posters and the Our House banner always bring members closer together and give Inglis and his staff a chance to mix athletes from different specialties.
“There's been a lot of talk this year about not only what each individual group has to do, but how we can support each other,” the 19-year-old Goveia said. “Stuff like that wants me to be a part of it because I know traditions are really big.”
Both the men's team and women's team came up just short of a podium finish in the team competition last year, and that's the focus for this event.
“We were so close last year, but I think we can do it this year,” Lancers second-year women's thrower Harley Martin said. “Of course, individual is important, but it's all a team atmosphere. We all try to work together as one, do our best and support each other. It's great here and I'm very happy here.”
The bigger the medal, the more the points, but Inglis is encouraging athletes to remember that anyone in the top 8 will score points for the team, and that's another pillar the program was built on.
“We want someone in the top 8,” Inglis said. “Every point matters with this team and the focus is top 8 and how many can be in a podium position.”
The Lancers will be the hosts for the OUA championships again next year along with the U Sports championships, and the Lancers would love to make this year a stepping-stone to bigger things in the future.
“Windsor's a legacy school,” Parker said. “It would be nice to get some of that back. We wanted that (podium finish last year) and this year, if we don't get it, we would be really (upset).
“It just seems it has to happen. It's been too long and needs to happen.”