Indoor track: building better athletes

For head indoor track coach Dan Hansen, the upcoming season isn’t about winning a state championship.

Hansen said he wants the team to improve on its performance last year at State, when the Wolves scored 16 points at the competition. However, he wants to help give the competitors an edge in whichever sport they later participate in.

“Our goal is to get better,” Hansen said. “We’re just trying to build better overall athletes.”

Indoor track is often seen as an activity that prepares and feeds athletes into spring track and field. Hansen also admits some of the athletes he sees go into other sports during the spring and fall seasons and wants to help them improve as well. While practice doesn’t officially start until Jan. 2, Hansen said he’s encouraging kids that have signed up to put their work in at the weight room after school. Hansen said he has 35 students signed up for indoor track, expecting another 10 or 15 students to join before the start of the new year. Of those students, he expects a few, like seniors Marcos Valerio and David Martinez, to join the spring track team. Valerio took seventh at the state cross country meet in Sheridan, earning All-State honors in the process. Martinez took fourth in discus at the state track-and-field meet last May.

Hansen said he’s grateful the school board decided to continue the indoor track program. The activity was initially scheduled to be axed due to reductions in funding from the state, but the school board found alternate funds to continue it, as well as the spring tennis and wrestling cheer activities.

“Without that, what would these kids be doing,” Hansen said. “These kids need to get a competitive edge. It makes you a better athlete.”