With the winter sports season coming to a close, it is time for the spring sports to shine and the athletes to bloom. One of the seven entertaining spring sports is track and field, where Cavaliers have the opportunity to compete in events like long-distance running, hurdling, long jumping and discus throwing. This season, the Cavalier Track and Field team is ready to dominate the 2020 spring season behind Coach Fotso and Coach Padin.

During the 2019 spring sports season, the team performed phenomenally, bringing home a regional championship after toppling the best teams in the district. One year later, the expectations for this team have hardly changed, as Coach Fotso expects his team to be able to challenge the best teams in the district once again: namely Columbus, Ferguson and Coral Reef.

According to Coach Fotso, the team mostly relies on the long-distance runners to get them the majority of their points during their meets. Fortunately, only one of the long distance runners graduated last year, as Jordan Castelli chases his dreams at the college-level. However, there are still a lot of new additions to the team that are ready to step up to the challenge, and Coach Fotso has high expectations for them. If the Cavaliers continue to apply themselves during practice, there is no doubt that this team is going to have a fantastic season.

“I am so excited to be on the team as a freshman. After practicing with the team for a few weeks, I feel as if I am ready to compete with my fellow Cavaliers and take the win,” freshman Cristy Concepcion said.

An everyday track and field practice is very rigorous. First, the team meets up on the track at 2:45 p.m. after school and the entire team does their warm-up and perform calisthenics, a form of exercise consisting of a variety of movements that exercises the large muscle groups. Then, they split into three groups: long distance runners, sprinters and field event athletes. In these groups, they do workouts together while challenging themselves to improve until about 5:00 p.m. everyday after school.

Senior Colin Wilson is one of the remaining athletes from the 2019 track team. Wilson was remarkable during the 2019 cross country season, making it all the way to the state championship competition, and he hopes to keep the streak going during the 2020 track and field season. However, he expects the team to struggle and grow throughout the season, since there is a vast amount of new members to not only the team, but to the sport as well, on this year’s squad. To improve as much as possible, Wilson works to encourage all of the members to attend practice to avoid getting out of shape. He does have some personal goals, such as qualifying for the state championship competition for the chance to compete in the 1600 meter and 3200 meter runs.

“I am very excited for the upcoming 2020 track and field season. It will unfortunately be my last opportunity to compete in high school track and field, so I want to compete as hard as I can and help my team in any way possible,” senior Colin Wilson said.

The Cavaliers hoped to start their season on Feb. 12 on their own track. However, renovations are still being done on the track, forcing the meet to be cancelled. Fortunately, the Cavaliers will compete in their first meet of the 2020 season on Feb. 15 at Traz Powell Stadium. With all of the effort they have put in at practice over the past couple of weeks, they are prepared for the runs of their lives.