Q: How long have you been running?
A: I’ve been running since I was a little kid, probably six or seven years old.
Q: How has the track season been going?
A: Good, we’ve got a great group of guys. We’ve got a hundred young men out for the team and anytime you have a hundred guys out for the team they’re going to be successful just because we have the numbers and depth. It’s a great group of guys, they work hard and are committed and we’re looking forward to seeing great things come up in the future.
Q: What is the best part of coaching?
A: Just being around kids. A lot of them have a lot of energy and passion for the sport and I feed off of that. Hopefully, they feed off of my enthusiasm and passion for track and field as well. The fun thing is that it keeps you young. I think you hear that a lot from older coaches that are my mentors, you never get old when you’re around young people that just have positive attitudes. Make it fun, that’s what it’s all about.
Q: What is a typical workout for someone in track?
A: With track and field, it varies because of all of the different events. I think everything begins with strength and endurance training that we do in the weight room. It’s also over into the track with speed training, what I like to call speed-endurance training, and then even endurance training with our distance runners. We have agility with technique with pole-vault, long jump, triple jump, but it’s a wide variety of athletic training that is all going in to make our athletes something special.
Q: What is a typical diet for someone in track?
A: Basic nutrition. It’s one thing I preach about all the time, we go over handouts and we talk about making good choices with their nutrition. It’s not a diet in the sense of cutting back food or calories, I encourage each and every one of our young men to take in five thousand good calories a day. One because they’re growing teenagers, but at the same time because they’re competing training all the time so it’s important that they’re getting in their carbohydrates and protein. It’s very important that they get in all their fruits or vegetables and drink a lot of water throughout the day.