Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Page A-3
Sports
Lorna Byrne track is on its mark
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
The Lorna Byrne Middle
School girls’ track and field team
is gearing up for their first event
Wednesday, April 5. Their new head
coach, Savannah Baez, is leading
the charge. Baez graduated from the
Illinois Valley High School last year
and has competed in track and field
events for a considerable amount of
time but this will be her very first
season as a coach.
Unfortunately, the season has
The IVHS
softball JV team
hosted Brookings
Harbor Saturday,
April 1. Final
scores were not
available at press
time.
Varsity
traveled to
Brookings and
split the series
with a 1-12 loss
and a 6-5 win.
The ladies took on
Klamath Union
in Klamath Falls
Tuesday, April 4.
(Photo by Dan Mancuso, Illinois Valley
News)
gotten off to a problematic start
because the nonstop rain has made
it difficult for the girls to hone
their skills outdoors. With only a
handful of outdoor practices so far
this season Baez said that they did
their best to stay busy with indoor
conditioning during the last couple
of weeks. However, and on the
bright side, the girls will have had
an additional two days, after spring
break, to get practice outside before
the event.
“I think we’ve got a good
team for the practice that we’ve
had,” Bob Clarke, assistant coach,
said before continuing, “Hopefully,
going forward, the weather will
cooperate with us.”
According to Clarke, the field
events like shot put and discus
scheduled for Wednesday are not
yet confirmed to be taking place.
Reportedly, it will depend on
whether the field is repaired by
then. “It was screwed up last season
pretty bad during the football
season,” Clarke, said, summarizing
the problem.
The track and field team
had an unusually large turnout
for the season with over 30 girls
competing. It will be the biggest
track team that Clarke has coached
in his three years of experience. In
addition to track, Clarke is also one
of the coaches for the basketball
team and in the past has coached
football as well.
“We’ve got some great
newcomers that will probably set
some records here at Lorna Byrne,”
Clarke said.
Over the course of the season
Clarke will be drilling “handoffs”
for relay runners more vigorously
than previous years because of their
importance for victory in that event.
“Winning or losing is done on the
handoffs,” Clarke said, “If you have
speed, you have speed, but handoffs
are really what counts. We need to
work on cleaner handoffs.”
Although the majority of the
team has little to no experience
with track and field events they are
reportedly in high spirits and eager
to show the community what they
can do. “I’m super excited about
it,” Baez concluded, “Over half of
our team hasn’t really done track
before so seeing where they shine is
really cool!”