Young Athletes Learn About Track & Field

Note...My newspaper editor is not publishing a lot of my stories these days, so this is the place where they will appear!


Just as sure as the flowers bloom, young athletes step onto the track or onto the field of athletic competition for the first time in local high school meets.

Toledo Sophomore Yaya Crocker traveled all the way to Ilwaco for her first track & field meet. “My big fear was what do I do?” laughed Crocker. “Am I own my own or do I have to do this all by myself?”

As soon as she got off the bus, those concerns drifted away. “I had a couple of friends doing the same events so I just followed them”, continued Crocker.

For a rookie, she had quite a day. Crocker threw the shot put 21”9” and the discus, her specialty, 69’6”. She also placed 3rd overall in the 200 meters and ran 15.57 in the 100 meters.

“The discus is my main event. That is what I am going to focus on” continued Crocker. As for the running events, she competes in those to “get back into shape”.

Toledo Head Track Coach Rene Ketchum encourages new athletes in track and field to sample the goods. “Try a lot of events. You don’t know what you are good at until you try it”.

Ketchum also noted other new Toledo competitors that had excellent days in Ilwaco. She was very impressed with the performances of Sophomore Gibb Freece and Freshman Mikhail Hopf who placed 2nd in the Two Mile.

In the meantime, Crocker will continue to learn the craft of discus and shot while getting into shape on the track.