Two local track and field coaches are founding a new club designed to help local residents participate in the sport.
Lela Danforth and Billy Snow, with help from parents of members of the Sweet Home High School track and cross-country teams, are founding the club to help not only experienced athletes but encourage beginners to get involved in the sport.
The Sweet Home Track and Running Club, open to athletes ages 8 and up, will meet daily at various times during the summer at Husky Field. Cost is $25, and members must have a USA Track and Field membership card, which costs $20. Additional family members are discounted.
Danforth, a former runner herself and mother of several boys who have competed for Sweet Home, including current junior national decathlon champion Dakotah Keys, said she has believed for a long time that Sweet Home needs a track club.
“I believe that we need to think healthier for younger ages,” she said. “When we (adults) were younger, we were outdoors, playing all the time. We were a lot healthier. The emphasis with kids any more is a lot of television, a lot of video games.
They’re not really thinking of health, of keeping the body active.”
Danforth, who has coached Sweet High junior high girls soccer teams to two league championships in the past two years in a Eugene Kidsports league, said that she thinks track offers opportunities for any youngster, unlike other sports.
“Not all kids can play team sports,” she said. “They’re not coordinated enough and they get tired of sitting on the bench and they quit. This gives them an opportunity. It’s a whole different way of looking at a sport, so to speak. Track and the running end of it, that’s a lifestyle. You may not play basketball or football the rest of your life. But running is something you can do for the rest of your life.
“That’s partly why we chose to do this.”
She said another problem is that even athletically capable youngsters are at a disadvantage when they try to get involved in team sports in which other players have previous experience. She said that, as a foster parent, she has seen it happen more than once.
“When you take a child in junior high and put them on a team with kids who have played basketball four or five years in rec sports, they don’t have a chance,” she said.
“That’s the fun thing about track and field or running, especially in summer meets. Team points are not what we’re worried about right now while we’re developing this.
“It’s promoting a kindred spirit in the community and seeing if this is an alternative to a team sport that somebody might do.”
Danforth emphasized that the club is not affiliated with the high school in any way other than that it is permitted to use school facilities and some high school team coaches may assist with the club when school is not in session.
As a USATF Level 1-certified coach, she will serve as head coach and team manager, while at least two other coaches are USATF-certified as volunteer coaches.
The club has USATF certification and organizers are working on registering as a 501c nonprofit organization so they can apply for grants and buy uniforms and gear for younger athletes.
Danforth said younger children will be an emphasis in the club because organizers want to get them interested in a healthy lifestyle at an early age.
Snow said the club will provide a means to “connect with younger kids.
“There isn’t a program in our elementary schools for them like there are in other sports,” he said. “The Boys and Girls Club (track program) is only for a brief period of time. We really don’t have much connection with that. This way they can go to informal meets or more formal competitions.”
Danforth said they hope to connect high school-aged athletes with those in elementary school to teach youngsters skills and help them train, and to hold track meets in each school and then have an elementary championship meet that brings together the best athletes from the elementary schools.
“That would promote the sport of track and field by itself but would also give another element to kids who couldn’t necessarily play team sports, instead of sitting at home playing video games.
Sweet Home youngsters, including Keys, have been competing in summer meets in recent years, but their opportunities have been limited, Danforth said, because they have to do it unattached. Having a USATF-recognized club will allow Sweet Home to field relay teams in regional and national youth meets and will give them identity that they have lacked in the past.
“Dakotah competes as an unattached athlete from Oregon, not Sweet Home,” she said.
Besides Snow, Danforth said high school sprints and jumps coach Jim Kistner has expressed interest in being involved and she will also have help from Tina Collman, who will focus on distance runners.
In addition to the summer all-comers meets, which run through July, there are cross-country runs through the end of November that local runners can compete in under club auspices.
“We’re not just a track club,” Danforth said. “We’re a track and running club. I believe it’s important for the community to know it’s for older people too. There are masters meets and fun runs they can compete in. We’ll see where it goes.”
“We’re hoping by next year it would be more put together and have better focus,” she said.
She said practices will be based on “what people want to do, what they want to put in it.
“I have kids that want to be out there five days a week, but younger kids and adults may not be able to do it five days a week,” she said.
Snow emphasized that the club is for everyone.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a 40-year-old €“ or 50 or 60 €“or if you’re a 4-year-old who wants to jump into the sand.”
For information on joining, contact Danforth at 401-3575 or Snow at 401-1952.
Danforth said she thinks Sweet Home’s state high school championships in wrestling, swimming and track have potential for a ripple effect.
“I believe that the success of the sports program here and the excitement of the kids is contagious,” she said. “A lot of kids give up sports because they don’t think they have potential. They have never been taught to reach their potential. There is so much talent, athletically, in this community. We’re tapping into that little younger.
“The purpose is to help people get healthy and help kids find out that they might be good at something.
“The ultimate goal in a track and running club is to promote health and teach a lifestyle that will stay with them the rest of their life.”