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This week, I had the opportunity to interview girl’s track coach, Keith Smith, and sprinters Sofia V. and Sam D. about the upcoming and previous track meet. The track team has 11 girls with one of those being manager, Cora H. The girls do everything from running to throwing. The girls have attended four track meets and have had a good amount of wins at these meets. They have seven track meets left until districts. Track girl, Samantha D., says that her favorite memory of track so far has been, “the experience”. To further that, she said, “she meets several different girls and embarks on experiences with a wide variety of high schools”. Another one of her favorite memories so far is “The competitiveness shown at the track meets when they are only a few points away.” Track girl Sofia V. says it is hard to narrow it down to one but her favorite memory this year would have to be “Coach Smith reading inspirational quotes from a book about track while he tapes my shins”. Coach Smith remarked his favorite memory of track so far is when “the girls are putting in their hardest work and he sees it pay off at the meets with each of them getting faster and pushing harder at each one”.

When I asked track girl Sofia V. about the sportsmanship shown on the team she said, “this year on the track team, we have become very close-knit due to the fact there are only ten of us. I have noticed that throughout each meet we attend the girls have really shown a need to push each other and have shown some of the best sportsmanship towards other teams we compete against which I feel reflects great for Putnam County”. When I asked the track girl Sam D. said the sportsmanship shown on the team, she replied, “this year sportsmanship has been pretty good; Track is an individual sport unless you are talking about handoffs, there can sometimes be problems in that but altogether the track girls have shown good sportsmanship to each other and other schools ”. When I asked Coach Smith about the sportsmanship shown from the girls he remarked, “this year I have been so proud of the 11 track girls I have had this year, these girls are constantly pushing each other to do better, this year they have all shown me they really care about our sport of track”.

During track season at Putnam County, the practices start around early March and go on until around the end of May. When I asked Sofia V. what her favorite event was to participate in, she remarked it was the 4x1 because “I get to run the curve and try to get ahead of the others before I have to hand it over to Adeline”. When I asked Sam D. what her favorite event was to participate in she replied it was 4x1 because “it is always the best I love starting off in the blocks and it is such a fast pace race it’s one of the best”. As a journalist, I enjoyed sitting down with all three of these track enthusiasts and talking about one of my personal favorite sports, and hope that they exceed at districts on May 8.