Outdoor track coaches Jackson Nosbisch and Mo Drammeh wasted no time getting their season underway. The distance team ran a one-mile time trial on the first day of practice, while the sprinters did their 100-meter time trial a few days later. With the large number of people who signed up, cuts needed to be made. 

The distance team had been all set and registered until the sprinters team was split in two due to coaches not being able to handle all of them at once. The second sprinters group was originally put as part of the distance team but eventually branched off to create their own training regime. 

The first day’s mile time trial for the distance team went well considering the team is young, with a healthy balance of new and old runners from all four grade levels. All the times were within the five- to eight-minute range. 

New junior discus thrower Brendan Glaser was nervous but excited to kick off his track career on the right foot. “I was nervous at first because I didn’t know what to expect and what events I should participate in,” Glaser said.

Glaser is a first year track and field athlete who took the opportunity to join the sport after missing the previous cross country and indoor track seasons. “I learned that I can push myself to do something I’ve never done before with the right mindset and support,” Glaser said. 

Over the first three weeks of the season, practices began at 3 p.m. and ended around 5 p.m.. A typical day consisted of a two-lap warmup (jog the straightaways and jump skip the corners), a set of 10-12 warmup drills, a main workout, a cooldown run and stretching. 

Throughout the beginning stages of the season, Nosbisch put the distance runners through a series of hill drills, track workouts, road runs, road progression runs and more. Workouts can last anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, or even longer depending on the day. “We have had a great start to the outdoor track and field season. The team has come out with high focus the past three weeks. We will look to build off of our hard work to have great performances,” Nosbisch said. 

The sprinters had to start off their season by seeing their group be split in two, but it didn’t stop them from working hard and working together on speed, agility and strength workouts. “The first couple weeks of practice were a blur. There has been a lot more interest in the team than ever before, which led to some tough decisions that had to be made. But having more people on the team is a good problem to have, we should be able to be more competitive at the county and state level,” Drammeh said. 

The first meet will be held at the home where the Patriots will be taking on their rival Churchill Bulldogs on Wednesday, Mar. 23, immediately after school. “As a coaching staff, we are very excited about our potential as a team. We have done a great job with recruiting in the areas of throwing and sprinting. Our team is very young, and we will look to shock the county,” Nosbisch said. 

Drammeh agreed. “ We hope and expect to have several competitors at the state meet later this spring and have several athletes challenge all time records in Wootton’s school history,” he said.