[The Introduction below is designed for newcomers and was copied from previous years as an introduction to Indoor Track and Field. There seemed to be little reason to "recreate the wheel!"]
Back in the Dark Ages, when Winter or Indoor Track was first envisioned by coaches here in South Jersey, the programs were designed for really tough athletes! Many of the local meets were so-called "Polar Bear Meets," held outdoors when coaches thought having young people running around wearing shorts and singlets in freezing temperatures was good for their physical and personal development! In addition, other meets were held indoors although those facilities were badly designed for racing! They fashioned flat "tracks" of irregular lengths in cafeterias and basketball courts or they set-up shaky banked wooden tracks in civic centers, gymnasiums or "armories" generally untouched since World War II! At several places back in the 70's and 80's, the sprint track ended through garage doors into a parking lot! Yes, sprinters did 40 or 50 yard dashes and finished out in the parking lot where, on snowy or icy days, coaches caught them before they fell! At the now-famous NYC Armory, before it was renovated, homeless people lived in the stairways and often urinated "close to home!" And everyone who ever participated in Indoor Track back in the 70s and 80s will remember the pungent odor of "Atomic Balm" (a greasy chemical muscle warmer) until the day they die! Today, the indoor facilities are much improved: the Toms River "Bubble" is tight but fairly comfortable, and the Ocean Breeze facility on Staten Island is absolutely magnificent! If only someone could work on those long bus rides! (For more details, ask Coach Shaklee and Marlton Rec Coach Shea what it was like "to be manly-men when they were just boys!")
Those early programs were designed as preparation for the Spring Season (and as a way to sidestep NJSIAA rules about coaching athletes out of season). Coaches concentrated on foundation and strength training for distance athletes, and skills training and conditioning for the sprinters, jumpers and throwers. That continues today, although the team participates in a number of meets at decent indoor facilities (including the Throws Meets at Cherokee High School) for both experience and a change of pace.
Today, with the Coronavirus, some are suggesting a return to "Polar Bear Meets," while others recommend indoor meets at places like "The Bubble," but severely limiting the number of teams/athletes permitted. As of December 21st, no decisions have been made and much of it will be left to the District and to individual athletes and their parents. Stay tuned and stay safe!
We always want to see our athletes come together as a team to prepare for Winter competition but, faced with the many confusing and dangerous aspects of the Coronavirus, one thing we don't want to see is someone come down with the virus! Training individually is very difficult but distance runners and sprinters training in small groups, and allowing some room among the members of the group while training, seems to be a reasonable way to deal with the virus. In addition, using a little imagination, strength training for runners, jumpers and throwers can also be accomplished, and no one has to join some fancy gym and use weights to do so! The Army has no gyms at Ranger School! The Navy has no gyms in SEAL training! Make no excuses, just do it!
Even now, when they're administering vaccine shots to blunt the epidemic, don't be careless! You CAN be infected by the virus and you CAN easily spread it to your family, friends and teammates! At this point in Mid-January, New Jersey is experiencing another surge: try not to be part of it!
This month, the state is still talking about having Indoor Track but that seems highly unlikely! Some enterprising coach, looking at the next week's weather forecast, might set-up an abbreviated outdoor Meet, usually featuring runners, but even there transportation can be tricky. One thing is certain, if you want to be competitive in the Spring, when we are far more likely to have outdoor events, you must work through the Winter!
On January 9, 2021, our photographer happened to hear about a small, totally unofficial, event at Haddon Township's High School Track, featuring three distance races -- the 1600m, the 800m and the 5K -- for post-college, college and high school runners. The temperature was about 32 degrees and there was a moderate wind but he discovered four Cherokee runners ready to race: Seniors Nico Grilli and Brett Shea, Sophomore Tommy Bromley and Freshman Andrew Free!
Nico, Brett and Tommy raced in the fairly competitive 1600m race, but Andrew was forced to run in a two-person 800m race when several of those entered withdrew at the last minute! (Whadda ya think, Andrew, what were they afraid of?!) The four looked very good throughout their races as the pictures demonstrate!
Jnauary 21, 2021 . . . confined by the Coronavirus restrictions and looking back on earlier, formative years in my life . . .. One maxim I learned, but didn't always follow, is to "always look for positive people with whom to associate." Those were the people who didn't just wander or stumble through life but actually had long-term goals and worked diligently to accomplish them! But they didn't expect to achieve them overnight nor were they easily sidetracked!
In Track and Field, they weren't the ones who usually ran 5:20 in the mile or 14.8 in the 100m, or threw 9 feet in the Shot and then set extraordinary goals for themselves, like a sub-4:30 mile, a 10.9 in the 100m, or 55' in the Shot! They may have dreamed about that stuff but they set reasonable short-term goals to achieve some level of success and moved on from there!
Much of this was reinforced by a recently-unearthed 2015 letter by the billionaire Warren Buffett, where he explained succently how to achieve success and even leadership greatness: "Much of what you become in life depends on whom you chose to admire and copy." Buffett was probably referring to extraordinary adult individuals but it also applies to extraordinary Track and Field individuals in your own lives, guys like recent Cherokee graduates Luch Pizzaro '19 and Ethan Wechsler '19 and some of the truly focused, positive-minded athletes on today's team!
Look for those people, associate with those people, copy those people!
Is a chill in the air and a little snow an excuse for not training? You decide!
On February 2, 2021, our photographer relived those days of "yesteryear" when Winter Track Teams were confronted by huge snowstorms that interfered with their training schedules. Undismayed, they regularly brought their shovels to the track and cleared space for runners and throwers! Here are a few pictures that suggest such an effort, including one that is reported to show Coach Shaklee, a long, long time ago, as a boy on the track at his high school!
Thinking about that, our photographer drove over to Cherokee's track this morning hoping to find team members clearing the track for the day's practice. Here's what he found:
On February 8, 2021, someone sent a Twitter message from the good men at Matawan HS containing a recent picture of the team doing what our photographer suggested last week: clearing a lane of snow for practice! Not to be outdone, once again, our photographer drove to Cherokee hoping to catch the team in action! There, he was disappointed both by the snowy emptiness of the Track and by an explanation given to him by a custodian. He explained to the custodian that he hoped to get a picture of the team clearing the track of snow and the custodian explained that the team couldn't do that for insurance reasons! Really?! They couldn't call it "strength training?!"
On February 17, 2021, our photographer carved out a few minutes in his busy schedule -- really, only a few minutes in this seemingly endless epoch of dreary, meaningless, useless Caronavirus days?! -- to stop by Cherokee and shoot a few athletes during practice! It was a great day for running: sunny, cold but not insanely cold, no wind . . . a great day for running! He found the distance squad across the street doing hills in the neighborhood and the sprinters on the track. Here are a few of those he captured.
