By Jared Tansimore, Courier Staff Writer
The James Logan track and field program has had success in the past couple of track meets, but will this reign streak hold up? In this past month, more than 50% of the practice days consisted of rain. The rain can severely affect the progress of the athletes, especially in the technical events such as the pole vault, long jump, triple jump, hurdles, high jump, and the throw events.
The water from the rain can damage the equipment to the point of breakage, so the coaches decided to shield them by placing them in dry areas. However, athletes won’t have the chance to perfect their technique, thus taking time away from practice.
For the pole vault event, putting the pit away can take upward of 1 hour with a minimum of 8 people. This task takes away more time from their hectic schedules.
“We have put away the pit over and over! This is our second time doing it this week. I getting tired of this, I’ll probably go practice with sprints” says Vahn, a junior.
Some athletes enjoy the rain, who are not in those technical events, because they believe its “just flat out fun to run out in the rain while you’re wet” says Jackson, a sophomore in distance.
Running in the rain can give some of these athletes “motivation” as it just “pushes me to run harder when I know the conditions are against me” says Armando, a sophomore in distance.
The former head coach now distance group coach, Lee Webb, believes that “[The] athletes should show the same amount of effort on a rainy day than on a sunny day, weather has no effect on the determination of runners.”
There are many mixed emotions about the rainy days on the track but all of them are working to get the most out of it. The track and field team will not settle for less, they will practice as hard as they can no matter the circumstances, which is why they are so victorious in their competitions against other schools.