This is Coach Phil Tran, championship-winning high school football coach.
Spring sports season is here. For high school football players, this means track and field is effectively mandatory in many parts of the nation.
For high school football players who are not good enough to make the baseball team, the pressure to run track and field is very strong. First, track and field has long served as the de facto football spring offseason for many football programs. Second, many college football coaches will think a prospect has something to hide if he does not run track to get an official measurement on his speed.
Every high school football player who runs track is doing so to improve his chances of playing football now and at the next level. Those are a laudable goals, but I challenge high school football players who run track to go further.
Enjoy track and field for what it is. Football players will get more out of track and field if they treat it like it is the only sport that matters to them in the spring season. Any transferable benefit to football is just ancillary. Run track for the sake of running track.
Furthermore, football players will greatly benefit from track and field if they branch out of the football bubble and develop meaningful relationships with the non-football athletes, especially the cross country runners and female athletes.
It is not unusual for track and field teams to have cliques that break down along the clearly defined lines of football players, non-football playing sprinters and throwers, and cross country folks. In many schools, the boys’ track team will train alongside and travel with the girls’ track team so there are more opportunities to interact and connect with others.
I am speaking specifically to football players, but every track athlete will benefit over the long term by developing meaningful relationships with every boy and girl in the track and field program. A football player’s track teammates should be as important to him as his football teammates are.
Track and field will make a football player a better football player. Football players can maximize the benefit of track and field by enjoying the sport on its own accord and developing strong bonds with track teammates who do not play football.
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