Boys Track will compete with mix of talented athletes

Park Hill’s Boys Track team will soon be off to the races as they focus on building upon their 2nd place conference finish last year. Although they return several talented athletes from last year’s team, not all necessarily seniors, they’ll look to both young and old in their pursuit of taking the top spot at conference this year.

“We are still a pretty young team, although we have some seniors that will also contribute,” Gourley said about the makeup of his group.

State champion long jumper Trace Norfleet will defend his title as a junior, but won’t be able to compete until mid-season as he fights a bulging disk injury. Nick Smith also returns as a junior in the shot put. He was a state qualifier and finished 8th in last year’s championship. In addition to Norfleet and Smith, the Trojans will look to some other key areas of their team for support. Junior Luke Bossert has looked sharp so far in the pole vault. Senior Jack Pearl will take the lead in the discus. James Leach and Ricardo Garcis will be strong distance runners for the Trojans while you can expect to see some speed from De’Rion Rambo in sprints. Gourley was particularly excited about his 4x100 relay team which advanced to sectionals last year.

With track focused so much on individual performances, you might find it unusual for both the teams to take an overall team approach to the season.

“Believe it or not, we’re very team oriented,” Gourley said. “We really focus on conference as the biggest meet of the season, with the concept that we rely on individuals to get that team score.”

The team concept has promoted competition, and therefore leadership, within each individual event.

“For instance, Ricardo is a distance guy so they kind of look up to him, De’Rion is a sprints guy so they look up to him,” Gourley said. “You have leaders by events and you really have to perform well by event in order to be a leader.”

Gourley emphasized the importance of getting ready and hopes his team can build momentum as the year goes on.

“It’s a three part season: getting ready to get ready, getting ready, and then the championship part when conference starts,” Gourley said.

As far as when a coach can tell whether his team is towards the top of the competition, Gourley left the book open on this year’s team by saying, “You get about three big meets under your belt and you can tell if you have a shot or not.”