With the Outdoor Track and Field season beginning, most students don’t know the exceeding benefits that come with joining.
We watched them jump, pivot, and heave- so it’s safe to say that Track and Field isn’t just a ‘running’ sport. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need an extreme amount of stamina to achieve success within the sport. Many other aspects and activities that are involved with this team are building confidence in yourself, developing an athletic skill set, honing your discipline, and providing yourself a good amount of cardiovascular exercise all in one program.
Our track team is led by Coach Caroline Destin, who has pursued not only physical education since high school- but Track and Field specifically. “I turned into a long distance runner, so I started running New York City marathons…I feel that when it comes to running, it’s so therapeutic for me” said Ms. Destin.
With such a drive to take running into her life as a form of therapy shows the sheer amount of not only dedication, but the connection that Ms. Destin has with this sport.
On the variety of track and field events, Ms. Destin said that “There are so many different events for all of them. For example there’s throwing events, there’s jumping events, for example for throwing there’s shot put, discus throw, javelin and even scholarships for that. There’s long jump, there’s high jump. My former athlete from Wingate, he’s the city champion for long jump.”
Members of the Track team take some downtime between practicing at Kaiser Park in preparation for their initial meets on March 18 and 19.
With this much variety in just one team you can confidently find what is right for you at Track and Field.
Senior Darius Sim is currently enrolled on the team this year and in previous years had started training on the team. Sim strongly feels his experience with track helps in the other sports he plays, saying “Especially with getting in shape and stamina, out the roof it has helped a lot.” As our conversation went on with Sim, he made it very clear that track helps him stay in shape during the basketball off season as a member of that team- with cardio being at the forefront of developed skills for basketball players.
Going deeper into the interview with Sim, he expressed how he feels practicing and going into these track meets, summarizing it in five words: “Hard work, dedication and butterflies.” He further explained that the butterflies he feels is nervousness of the competition- but with the love for improvement, he continues to stay on the team for this year for his last year as a senior.
The track team helps bolster this school’s diversity with such a wide array of physical and mental improvement. With Ms. Destin’s long term experience with track training, and her accolades as a former city champion, she brings a different level of experience to the team that will help in the long run. Make sure to support the track team by attending their meets- for the girls, their first meet is on Tuesday, March 18 at Lafayette and the boys is the following day, March 19, at Old Boys & Girls High School Field.
