WAKEFIELD – With the track still being cleared off and now rain water running across, athletes of a northeast Nebraska track and field team will be gearing up for indoor competition.
The Wakefield Trojan girls and boys track & field team will take part in the Class II Wayne State College Indoor Invite this Friday, March 15. Event competition will begin at 12:30 p.m. from the WSC Recreation Center.
Mike Hassler is in his ninth year coaching track & field at Wakefield. Coach Hassler takes care of the throwers and is assisted by Shannon Carroll (distance), Austin Galles (sprints) and Iris Borg (hurdles). Continuity is always a good thing and all the coaches are on the same page, according to Hassler.
“It’s good that you’re always delivering the same message,” said Hassler. “We just believe in competition and competing against ourselves. When every coach is delivering that message to the kids it makes it a lot easier to get things accomplished.”
The girls team is sitting around 22 athletes out, but extremely young with plenty of freshman and sophomores.
“That’s our goal,” Hassler added. “To give them a change to excel. So, early on we’ll probably having girls hoping around from event to event just trying to find out where they fit best.”
The Trojan boys will return six state qualifiers as the team tied for 48th with two points at last year’s Class C State Track & Field Championships. Boys who competed in state basketball will get an extra week off allowing the new additions to get on the track.
The first outdoor competition scheduled for Wakefield will be the Stanton Invite on March 26.
With expectations to be in the top half of the team race for the girls, coach Hassler mentioned the same goes for the boys.
“If we’re healthy and we’re loading up on our events there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be in the team title hunt of every single meet we’re in this year,” Hassler mentioned. “We should definitely have an opportunity to win any meet we enter this year.”
April invite competitions include Wayne Invite (4/2); Lyons-Decatur NE Invite (4/9); Wisner-Pilger Invite (4/16); Wausa Invite at Pierce (4/18); Wisner-Pilger Invite (4/23); Norfolk Classic (4/25) as well as the Lewis & Clark Invite at Plainview (4/27).