While a majority of the winter sports have started practices already, the indoor track team won’t be seeing any action until Jan. 4, 2016, when practice begins.
Head coach Steve Boyd said indoor track traditionally has been a training opportunity for athletes interested in outdoor track during the spring sports season.
Boyd said many soccer players participate so they can start to build endurance for soccer. However, since indoor track became a sanctioned sport six years ago, Boyd said it has become just as competitive as other sports. While he isn’t sure exactly how many students will participate in indoor track, Boyd said he usually has between 35 and 45 students.
“The kids love running indoor track,” Boyd said.
Boyd does have a returning all-state competitor in senior Josie Givens. Givens competed in cross country earlier in the school year, earning all-state and all-conference honors as part of the team. Boyd said she took second in the 800 meters and fourth in the 1,600 meters during indoor track last year.
Boyd said there are some challenges with indoor track, as they’re unable to practice as much with certain events like pole vaulting, but meets the team compete in serves as training for the two major indoor competitions; the Simplot Games and the state meet in Gillette.
Boyd said one of the more competitive aspects about the sport is the teams aren’t divided into classes like other sports. Green River will compete against students from every high school in the state, with students at smaller schools that don’t have an indoor program competing for the larger schools that do.
For example, a student at Shoshone High School could compete as part of Riverton High School or Lander High School’s indoor teams.
However, despite that increased competition, Boyd said the indoor events tend to be more relaxed than other sports. The team won’t have local meet.
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