Hornet track team off to fast start
Published 9:51 pm Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Brandon Harvell (left), Cory Dreson and Kelsey Tripp leave the starting blocks during Tuesday’s track practice at Dallas County High School. The first-year program is spending much of its time practicing in the parking lot of the school. -- Chris Wasson
When you walk the campus of Dallas County in the afternoon you see the usual practices: baseball, softball, spring football and, for the first time in 10 years, track.
The Hornets have started up an old program and have had success in their first year back after such a long absence.
“We’ve really competed well in every meet we have been in,” Hornets track coach Robert Dolbare said. “We went to Demopolis a couple of weeks ago in their track meet and were able to win the thing and in Friday’s (Selma Invitational) I know we should have at least placed in the top three.” Practices for the fledgling program have gone back and forth between Memorial Stadium in Selma and the school parking lot at DCHS, which doesn’t have a track to call its own.
“We try to make it down to Selma, but the cost of gas is so much for them (the team) that we can’t do it all the time,” Dolbare said. “We have to run out here, but they are good about getting their work done.”
The Hornet team has plenty of raw talent to work with, but Dolbare said they are doing a good job of learning the proper technique to run faster.
“We have all of these raw athletes but we have tried to put a system to build on that athleticism,” Dolbare said. “You have to have proper technique and this is the first time about 75 percent of my team have played on a sport in high school.”
The learning curve may be a steep one for the young team, but they are quickly adapting to what needs to be done to shave time off their game.
“The hardest thing we have to deal with is the distance running,” Dolbare said. “January was the first time many of the team started conditioning, but they have done a great job of working hard and we were even able to win the 4-by-400-meter relay at last weeks event. That shows you the kind of progress we are making.”
With the AHSAA sectional tournament scheduled for Friday and Saturday, the team is working on its last practices to prepare, but the season is already a success no matter how far the team gets.
“We have the discipline and we have the hard work to get better,” Dolbare said. “That’s all we can ask to build on.”
