Since the men’s track season has just begun, many of the players and the coach have set goals for this year. The next meet is the Patriot Indoor Qualifier at Anderson University for the Hoosier State Relay qualifier on March 14. The team has been practicing outside all week to prepare.

According to Head Coach Kenneth Browner, “The weather has been nice, and we have just been able to practice outside all week, and we’re just excited to be excited for a change instead of being trapped indoors. (To prepare), a couple of days a week we have what is called ‘cardio days’, and the other days are called ‘skill days, where (the athletes) would work on their specific event, such as high jump, pole vault, long jump, discus, whatever the event.”

During practices, senior Isaac James has been preparing for his two events he will compete in on March 14. James will compete in sprints and long jump.

“Mostly for my group we prepare, since we’re sprinters predominantly, and just getting out fast, and we emphasize technique, so stuff with your arms, and knee drive, so that you can faster and more efficiently. I also do long jump, so I do a lot of runway approaching practice, so  it’s never the highest intensity that it can be, but more about emphasizing the little things.”

This is the beginning of the track season, and Browner and James have both set their goals for this year. Browner had his two main goals to be the champions in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC) and to be State champions this year. James had a more personal goal.

“My goal is to set records for myself, and hopefully the school, but most importantly, I want to win my event,” James said.

On the subject of how Browner coaches his team he said, “We try to balance out the cardio with the skill training the best we can. I try to balance the team as best as possible, you’ll see some teams are really good on four, five events, but terrible in others. We just try to be the well-balanced team across the board in all 16 events.”