Bloomington High School North, Nikean, 2012, Page 171

Description:	Vhat do you do to det pumped for a meet?T.J.: First thing, we yell and we holler and we get loud. We just go crazy. We think about all of thework weve put into it. The coaches get us pumped up.Trip: The coaches really help pump us up. They have a nice breakdown that they always like tohelp us. It gets your adrenaline going and it gets you ready to do stuff.Buddy: I played football as well, and Coach Bless always talked about how when you think ofyourself in a football game, you think about yourself making the big play. Well I do the same withtrack. I think of the stands full and think of what my job is and me doing a perfect job at it. Itmakes me think about how I cant let my teammates down.Caleb: I usually pump myself up by being loose and silly with everybody, to kinda set the moodso not everyone is all tense. I want them to feel at ease and its just a race. I mean yes, you dowanna win, but I just try and keep them happy and not so crazy when theyre running so theyhave a good race.Trip: Another thing to add, a lot of people listen to their own kind of music. Each person is alittle different. They might listen to their favorite rock song, their favorite rap song, or I evenknow a couple of people that listen to Mozart to calm themselves again.Vhat traditions does the traok team have?Buddy: Everyday, theres just a crowd of people who go through Subway. Like at least 3A ofthe girls and guys teams go through there. After the meets, its usually somewhere like Steak NShake or Red Mango.T.J.: I think one of the traditions that Bloomington North has is hard work. Especially underCoach Clark, because he is definitely crazy. He is a great coach, definitely. I havent really beencoached under any other track coaches, but I can say that he is one of the best out there. Hesdefinitely making us work hard.4s .seni^ns, how do you plan to Ave up your last season?Caleb: Probably just by being the best that I can be. As a team captain, its a priviledge to bethe top dog on the team. Trying to figure out how to help all of the runners and just be opento help them out.Buddy: I just wanna try to be a good enough captain and try to be a good role model for them.We do have a lot of talent from the younger classes. When I was a freshman, I was probably thegoofiest kid. I had the goofiest arm and I ran all funny. Ive been working on it really hard. Ive gottenbetter and Ive improved. I think weve got a lot of potential in the school right now.Trip: Like Buddy alluded to earlier, theres a lot of potential going on here, especially the youngerguys. As seniors, we dont have much time left. I hope what we teach these guys will be seen in thenext 3 or 4 years. If we teach these guys well, theyll hopefully teach the next generation well. It kindacontinues from there. Installing good values and hard work in those guys will definitely make it allworthwhile for me.T.J.: This year for the seniors is more about the young guys. I mean, theres only a handful of seniorsand I think weve all accepted the fact that were working hard and were good, but compared to thepotential that we see in these young guys, its crazy. I think this group of seniors is just focused onimproving the younger guys and making sure they grow up to work hard and do well in track.Vhat is somethnd peopk dont know about the track team?Buddy: Well, we have more freshmen than seniors times two, possible three. Weve got a tiny seniorclass. Theres 7 of us. Another unique thing is that our sprinters mostly all have a field event, at leastone. Coach Clark really believes that we can get a lot stronger if we have field events.Vhat is an interesting story about your head coach?Caleb: Coach likes to be a little bit goofy sometimes, just jack around with us while were trying towork hard. A lot of his jokes are a little unnecessary, but theyre really funny sometimes. They like thegood game butt ^pss^^^Hij^H^MiJMMlMMTrip: Another thing is that he cannot dance to save his life. Thats a little known fact about him. He isvery much white and he shows it. Sophomore year, he tried to dance. I believe Kenyan was dancing atsome point. Coach Clark tried to show him up and it just did not work very well.Buddy: At the very beginning of the season, we had a club meet with a few of us. It was me andCoach Clark and Delvon (Wilson) in the car. On the way back from Bloomington, Coach Clark looks atDelvon and says, Hey its black history month, you get to pick where we eat, Delvon! And Delvonstarted cracking up and said, Okay, lets go to Subway.heAirdest thing is justicing against yourself.Theres a lot of times whenyoure in a race and youreout in the middle of nowhere. Theres the guy behind you whos a lap behinand the guy in front of youwhos a lap ahead of you,and so youve gotta makea decision whether youregonna try or not. The difficulty comes down to reallyworking against yourself.As it goes for sprints, its all aboutWfpenMion. A half of a second can bea huge difference. You always wannatrain for perfection. You always haveto give it your hardest, because if youdont, you know theres someone elseout there thats going fast and goinghard. Theyre either pulling ahead ofyou or about to come up on you. Younever wanna have that. im captain,its alfrivilege to bethe top dog on theteam. Trying to figure out how to helpall of the runnersand just be open tohelp them out.Anderson<5Pr*-
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomnorth/id/7333
Collection:	Bloomington High School North

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