Coach Wilson recruits freshmen lunch line sprinters

What sport is most of the Class of 2028 joining this year? Believe it or not, track and field. Mr. James Wilson, the track coach, has seen the untapped potential that lies within some of these freshmen and has started attending the freshman lunch, around the second week of school, just to see which freshman can sprint to the line the fastest after being called up to get their food. 

The reason it is so easy for the track team to do the scouting during a lunch period is because the environment is very similar to a race. Once Mr. Bill Nolan calls a group of tables, every freshman starts their run. Mr. Nolan is like the starting gun at the start of every race. However, In school the starting position is getting up from your seat but, in a race, the racers will be using a block start.

Not many freshmen recognized Mr. Wilson as the coach because they had only been at the school for two weeks. This allowed him to get the best idea of their speed and form. As time went on, though, some freshmen learned about who the track coach was and they began to start racing between each other as a way to show that they were the best recruits compared to any other freshman. 

Some students are against the competition that comes with the track coach scouting at lunch, “It’s exhausting enough to try and get my food first without getting called back because we got caught running,” says Joseph Handy, a freshman involved in no extracurriculars, “but now every time I go to get food it’s like an actual competitive race. I tweaked a hamstring last week.”

Other students have been enjoying the competition that comes with the races at lunch, “I think it’s been a really fun test of skill,” says freshman Sergio Valdez, a member of the soccer team. “It's like racing your friends in kindergarten, but there's an actual prize at the end.”

The track team is trying to focus on the freshmen who don’t have any clubs or commitments throughout the year. Most of the fastest freshmen who had planned to participate in other spring sports have decided to change plans after being told they have a future in track.

“It was weird when I saw more and more kids holding track shirts the halls,” said junior Cameron Smith, “I always thought that we kinda got thrown under the bus compared to other teams but the publicity is cool I guess”

Mr. Wilson could have attended any lunch period he wanted but chose the freshman lunch to make them more involved, and the freshmen were the most likely to sign up for a sport they had never done before.