The first official Trojans cross country practice was over the weekend on Saturday. Trojans Coach Matt Kolozieczyk hopes to continue building a quality team for both girls and boys. The team lost 13 seniors last year, seven girls and six boys.
The big loss was Stefanie Thelaner for the girls, the team’s best runner.
The big losses for the boys were Shane Weber and Devon Montgomery, who were the best runners for the boys.
Kolozieczyk remained positive for both teams saying that he sees a lot of hard workers on the team.
“We need a broader range of runners. Right now everyone has a positive attitude and everyone wants to work hard and that’s what it comes down to. We don’t have a lot of freshmen coming out. They see running as boring. They don’t understand the camaraderie and the challenge it can pose in a good way and how they can grow and build on that,” he said.
The coach wants to expand the team and hopes to attract serious, hard-working runners to build a team with.
“I’m hoping to add more kids after the first practice. I am missing some girls. Erica Sanchez is one. She was good for the team and good at bolstering morale. For the girls, it will be a bit of a challenge, especially since they increased the number of teams in the conference. Daville Ansick is coming back along with Shiloa Gulden. They should both be strong. Amber Skilling will be coming out and this will be her first time coming out. It will be a test for her. Fenny Descuatan and Jayvanna will also be coming out. Fenny has great form and she works hard,” he explained.
On the boys side, the coach believes he will be strong with a promising freshmen class coming in to bolster hard-working runners like Dylan Montgomery. Dylan Montgomery ran as a freshman and was a great sprinter on the track team and Kolozieczyk believes he will run better this year. “We also have Steven Thelaner coming out and Bryce Odegard, both very talented freshman,” the coach said.
The coach said the summer conditioning workouts could have been better.
“A few of the kids came out during the summer and followed the program. I can definitely tell those that hadn’t and they are the ones hurting now. Most of them got together and came out and ran on their own. I have not seen some veteran runners out yet. I am hoping they show up. We are in a rebuilding process,” he concluded.