Track and Field is back again, training their hearts out in order to get ready for this upcoming season.  

This year’s coaching staff includes Dave Garrett, Stacy Garrett, Drew Ellis, Davis Taylor, and Greg Blakeman.  Coach Blakeman leads the middle school team and has been a coach on the team for four years.  

Coach Ellis joins the Gators for a second season as the team’s distance coach.

Coach Taylor also returns for his second year and will be helping the team with sprints, starts, jumps, and relays.  Taylor was also a former athlete on the Greenwood Track and Field Team participating in the 4×100 relay, 4×200 relay, 4×400 relay, and the long jump.  

Coach Stacy Garrett has been a part of the team for three years and is Director of Track and Field Operations.  Coach Dave Garrett has been the head coach at Greenwood for eight years, but it is his 33rd year coaching Track and Field.

Track and Field consists of 18 events, 12 track events, and six field events. The track events have four relays: 4×100, 4×200, 4×400, and 4×800. The relays consist of a team of four people who hand a baton off to each other after they have run their allotted distance. The team with the fastest time wins the race.  The track is 400m long, so in the 100 they would run a fourth of the track, in the 200 they run half of the track, and so on.  

There are also two hurdling events.  Hurdlers can participate in the 100/110m hurdles and/or the 300m hurdles.  The 100m hurdles is a girls event.  The athletes run the straight and are required to jump 10 hurdles.  The hurdle height for the girl’s event is 33”, and athletes are required to stay in their lane for the whole event.  The 110m hurdles is a boy’s event and have all the same requirements except the height.  Hurdle height for this event is 39”.  The 300m hurdles is open to both boys and girls and requires the athletes to run the curve and the straight while jumping eight hurdles.  Hurdle height for the girl’s race is 30” and 36” for the boy’s race.

Athletes are offered six open events that they can participate in.  An open event means that the athlete is running alone, trying to set their own time.  These events include the 100m dash, 1600m run, 400m dash, 800m run, 200m dash, and the 3200m run.

Field events consist of two throwing events and four jumping events.  Discus is a throwing event offered to both boys and girls where the athlete throws a disc made out of wood-steel or rubber.  The girl’s disc weighs 1kg and the boy’s disc weighs 1.6kg.  Shot Put is another throwing event offered to both genders.  Participants throw a steel ball with one hand into a gravel pit.  The girls shot put weighs 8.8 pounds and the boys shot put weighs 12 pounds.  

Jumping events for field athletes include: long jump, triple jump, high jump, and pole vault.  All jumping events are offered to all athletes.  During the long jump, the contestant sprints down a runway plant one foot and jump into a sand pit.  The jump is measured wherever the back of their foot lands.  In the triple jump, athletes run down a runway and jump off one foot, they will land and jump off the same foot again, finally, they will land and jump off the other foot into a sand pit.  It is measured the same as the long jump.  

High jump and pole vaulting are different than the other jumping events because they do not include a sand pit.  Athletes run toward a horizontal bar during the high jump.  When they reach the bar, they will jump off of one foot and go over the bar backward, head first.  They will land on a foam mat, but if the bar falls the athlete will not be scored for that round.  If the athlete succeeds, the bar will be raised.  

The pole vault is where an athlete runs down a runway carrying a pole, which they will place into a box.  The pole will then carry the athlete into the air, where they will let go and propel themselves over a horizontal bar.  If the bar falls the athlete will not be scored for that round, and if they succeed the bar will be raised.  

Points are given to the top eight competitors.  10 points are awarded to first place, eight to second, six to third, five to fourth, etc.  The girls and boys are scored separately but both points will contribute to the team’s overall score.  A meet typically lasts around four hours but could end up going on for much longer.  Meets are also carried out through rain and snow, as long as there isn’t lightning.  

The first meet will take place at Greenwood High School on March 3.  All Warren County Schools and City Schools will be attending.  Click here to see the rest of the schedule.