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Spartans are back with state aspirations
By charles grove
BOARDMAN
After a year of not meeting expectations, the Boardman boys track and field squad is primed to get back to Columbus. The only hurdle remaining is the Division I regional meet Wednesday and Friday at Austintown Fitch.
“Last year was the first time in a long time that our boys program didn’t have an athlete at the state meet and goal No. 1 is to have Boardman represented in Columbus,” Boardman boys head coach John Phillips said.
Individually, Brendon Lucas highlights the Spartans. The Youngstown State commit won the 100, 200, and 400 in the district meet. He was also a member of the 4x400 relay that finished third to advance to regionals. Phillips said winning three sprint distrct titles in this area is “almost impossible” to accomplish.
“Brendon’s season has been nothing short of spectacular,” Phillips said. “You don’t see an athlete in Division I, especially in our district, compete and win three sprint events and then qualify in the 4x400 relay.”
Lucas suffered the disappointment of last year more than anyone when he developed Achilles’ tendonitis while shooting hoops at a YMCA basketball court. He missed both the indoor and outdoor seasons of his junior year.
“At first I thought it was just a little sprain in the heel or something, but eventually I got to the point where I couldn’t walk so I had to go to the doctor. They said it was a pretty bad case so I had about three months of therapy,” Lucas said. “I was wondering if it was over for me. I was thinking, ‘Am I able to even go back for my senior year?’”
It took two months for Lucas to be able to jog again, but once he was physically ready to go, the mental side also had to be conquered.
“I still had everything [physically],” Lucas said. “It was just in my head about if I could push off the same as before without thinking about it.”
After all the recovery and training, Lucas and the Spartans have the potential to qualify for state in eight events if they perform well enough at Fitch.
Other Spartans competing at regionals include the 4x800 relay (Chris Butler, Kobe Adu-Poku, Nathan Hadley and Nathaniel Ams), the 4x400 relay (Lucas, Adu-Poku, Hadley, Kris Santilli), the 1600 (Butler), the discus (George Wallace) and the shot put (Jason Jama).
Phillips said the credit for the improvement this year goes to his assistant coaches, Rick Sypert and Jason Armburger, who have developed a training regimen that focuses much more on middle-distance events than in previous years.
“Their training program has been outstanding,” Phillips said. “To put it in perspective, our 4x400 relay was dead last in the district a year ago. This year we’re a regional qualifier.
“They’re focused on the 400 and 800 and training down from those events. In the past we were 100, 200 and then 800 up so we’ve found a new focus there and it’s paid off.”
With only a few practices left until regionals, Phillips said it’s all about fine tuning and eliminating possibilities for mistakes.
“At this point there’s no secret formula to have someone drop seven seconds in a few days,” Phillips said. “But we just want to look for the little things here and there. Maybe a half second there or a couple tenths here and there and just avoid mistakes.”