It's snowing, and it's the beginning of the track season. When I talked to Wendy Taylor, head coach of the Big Sandy Pioneer track teams, she clapped her hands and said, "I'm ready. Bring it!"
"Shersteen Andreasen is our distance coach and our javelin coach. Tucker Taylor is new to us this year and will be our jumping coach for the triple, long, and high jumps. He will also help with the sprints. And then we have Charlie Klimas from Harve, who will still be our throwing, discus, and shotput coach. Sam Weaver, Big Sandy's Kindergarten teacher, will be a volunteer coach this year. She will follow along and work with Charlie, learning the ropes of his coaching system. Sam threw a shot and discus in high school."
Track practice started on March 11. Track Meets are: March 28th Cut Bank, April 4th Lewistown, April 6th Havre, April 13 Choteau, April 27 Shelby (it used to be held in Great Falls), April 29 Rudyard, and April 30 Top 8 in Great Falls. The track meets are May 4 in Havre, District May 8 in Havre, Divisionals May 16 in Great Falls, and State May 24-25 in Great Falls.
They currently have a total right of 25 high school athletes, 15 boys and eight girls. Three or four of them have injuries or have chosen to do other sports this spring. The 25 are solid, but we are a very young team this year. We've got two seniors, Lanie Terry and Cody Boone.
Because they are a young team, they will only be required to do three events each, and Wendy hopes some will want to do five events.
Our junior high kids start April 8, and they have four meets. They are still struggling to find bus drivers, so now they have to schedule the JH track meets on totally different days. In the past, they've been able to split the coaches, two at varsity and two at JH, but because we don't have enough coaches, we'll have to add four more days to the schedule.
Wendy said, "I'm just super excited for our season this year. We are just a young team. We won't have the numbers we've had in the past. But we'll grow into that. Younger boys and girls usually do not beat senior boys and girls. But I'm super excited that the kids make a quality effort with heart and desire. We also have Chase and Sonny participating in the unified track this year. Chase is new to track this year. And he's so proud of his times every time, and that boy is so sore. He can't hardly walk. But he's like, I''m doing this. Let's go. Right.' So, our unified team is going to be phenomenal."
