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Summer programs provide fitness, fun for area youth

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  • Originally published July 22, 2008 at midnight, updated July 22, 2008 at midnight

Even though the end of the school year brought a close to the spring track and field season for middle school and high school runners, some area youth have continued to compete throughout the summer.

The Boys and Girls Club and a local program offered by area coaches have provided the opportunity for youngsters to continue competing through the summer.

Runners make national meet

Last summer, Victoria school district athletic director Mickey Finley started a summer track program, which is now overseen by three other local coaches – Wayne Baker, Troy Johnson, and Justin Gabrysch.

“This is the first summer I’ve coached the track club,” Baker said. “We started the second week in June.”

They started the summer with 20 athletes and seven qualified for the AAU district meet, which was held July 12 and 13 in Round Rock.

“We had five qualify for nationals at that meet, but we can’t take them due to financial limitations,” Baker said.

To qualify for the AAU national meet, which will be held in Detroit, athletes must place in the top four in their events. The local athletes who qualified were all in the 13-14 age group.

“We really wanted them to gain the exposure of going to a big meet and competing against higher-level athletes,” Baker said.

The five who qualified for the national meet were Marcus Rendon (second place in the long jump); Brandon Salazar (first place in the long jump and second place in the 200 meters), Terry Ramey (second place in the high jump), Anthony Gipson (third place in the 100 meters), and Dreshawn Frenchwood (fourth place in the 110-meter hurdles).

There are no plans for a cross country program this fall, but the track club will return next June.

The Boys and Girls Club

Most of us know that the Boys and Girls Club provides after-school opportunities, but it also holds summer camps.

Last summer, some of the organizers of the camp decided to start a running program. Nicki Hagel, who works as a homework tutor during the school year and a camp counselor during the summer, took on the job as “running coach” last summer.

“Our previous director was looking for activities to draw in kids to the summer camp and we decided a running program would be good”.

The children, ages 6 to 13, just finished their second track season and will begin cross country in August. A total of 13 youngsters came out this summer and the club is hoping for more in the fall.

“We meet every morning and afternoon for a workout,” Hagel said. “We usually go to the track at Memorial for our workouts, which last about an hour each.”

The summer camp offered at the Boys and Girls club runs five days per week, from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., and is an excellent way to keep youngsters involved in positive activities during the day while parents are at work.

The summer camp costs $35 per week, with an additional charge for the track program to cover meet entry fees and to help pay for gas.

This summer, they competed in three meets and against other youth track programs from all over the South Central Texas region. Most of the meets are held in the Corpus Christi area, but the team recently traveled to Round Rock for a district meet that served as an AAU national qualifier. “We didn’t have any athletes that qualified this year in track, but last year we had three runners qualify for nationals in cross country,” Hagel said.

“We were able to raise money to help take those kids to the national meet.”

The cross country program will start up after Labor Day. The Boys and Girls Club is a non-profit organization that gives area youth a positive place to go while parents or caregivers are at work. If you would like to help sponsor the track and cross country programs at the Boys and Girls Club, you can contact Nicki Hagel at 361-573-4411.

Missy Janzow is the running and fitness columnist for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-574-1206 or by email at janzowml@yahoo.com.



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