“On your marks, get set, go!” The athletes prepped along the track hear as a whistle blew nearby, they began to sprint down the track. Sweat dripping from their foreheads, their feet stomping on the track. Now, imagine trying to go run on the GlenOak High School track to practice on your own, and it is locked. Some may wonder why this is the case.
The public (including student athletes) is not allowed on the track during any hours of the day, as coaches need to be present in order to keep track of any equipment.
“We mostly do practices during the summertime,” assistant athletic director Noah Dockus said. “We mostly use it for fitness, of course, summer is just when it’s most popular.”
Now, due to this people may think it’s hard to get all of the athletes off of the track, but it’s actually quite the opposite of this. During the fall and spring sports seasons, there’s schedules set in place for the athletes. For example, if football is on the track at a certain time, the time also has to get off at a certain time
“It’s really not that complicated, actually,” Dockus said. “They have set schedules for football, track, and so on.”
In the winter, it gets really interesting for the student-athletes at GlenOak High School. Coach Bryan Krosse goes into detail about what workouts they do to replace some of the outdoor activities while still getting some good exercise.
“I try working on the basic fundamentals for workouts with my athletes, while I am mostly inside with my workouts,” Krosse said. “It is easy to get the athletes to adjust to the indoor workouts, such as sprinting to build some lower body strength.”
Due to winter conditions, athletes are kept off the track in order to keep kids supervised, safe and warm.
“Making sure all the athletes are supervised and warm is a good thing to keep track of,” Dockus said. “As well as making sure none get injured due to the winter conditions, it’s way too cold out there.”
Now some may ponder, why not just put salt on the track. Well, it isn’t as simple as that, as if they did so, it would tear at the seal that is placed on top of the track, which will cause more problems when trying to solve one.
Overall, the staff behind all sports activities want to ensure the safety of their athletes, as well as keep the track in prime condition.
