The Haines High School track season starts 3:30 p.m. Friday with the Haines Invitational, pitting local runners, throwers and jumpers against athletes from Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain. It continues 9 a.m. Saturday.
Haines Glacier Bears track coach Jim Stanford said his new motto is “Roll with it.”
Stanford this year is wrestling with a “screwed-up timetable” that puts the regional championship meet after high school graduation, as well as scheduling conflicts with other school activities and family vacations.
A local coach for about 20 years, Stanford said he was “pulling his hair out” last year when about nine local athletes who qualified for the state track meet went instead on a Haines Venturer Scouts trip to Australia.
“Can you imagine that happening during the basketball season? They’d lynch somebody,” Stanford said.
Track has attracted 25 students. Some of Stanford’s juggling will be trying to reschedule this weekend’s boys’ 4-by-400 meter relay for Friday. The event typically comes last at a meet, but several athletes need to take SAT tests at that hour, he said.
With several “awesome” Haines runners in the event, the relay should be a meet highlight, Stanford said. “These guys will give Juneau a run for their money.”
This year’s team lacks “super-fast” sprinters but has strength at middle distances and in field events, Stanford said.
Seniors Keegan Sundberg and Jennie Humphrey lead the squad. Sundberg will run the 400-meter run as well as the 1,600-meter run and hold a key position in the 4-by-400 relay. Humphrey will compete in the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter runs.
Junior Matthew Green is one of the team’s best “all-around athletes” and will compete in the 200-meter run, high jump, shot put and discus. He and junior Casey Bradford lead the team’s discus throwers, with Bradford also competing in the 200-meter run, and sprint relays.
Junior Trevor Cox, a transfer student from Skagway, should be strong at middle distance. As Skagway has no track, coaches there routinely run athletes out the highway toward White Pass, Stanford said.
Junior Kai Hays will compete in the 200-meter run, shot put, discus and long jump. Junior Neil Little is expected to carry distance events for the boys, including the 800-meter and 1,600 meter runs.
Other boys will include sophomore Mori Hays, long jump and relays; sophomore Dylan Palmieri, shot put and discus; senior Itaaehau Tupou, shot put; freshman Carl Tupou, sprints, shot put, and discus; and senior Elliot Wilde, sprints and 400-meter run.
Junior Bailey Stuart should boost the Haines girls, competing in shot put, discus, 100-meter dash and 4-by-100 relay. Stuart is one of three “excellent throwers” for the girls, including junior Destinee Cowart, shot put and discus; and junior Autumn Gross, shot put and discus, Stanford said.
The squad includes senior Natalia Taylor in the 400-meter and 4-by-l00 meter relay.
The team’s assistant coaches include Tyrell Horton, Greg Brittenham and Tara Bicknell.
A Haines team slimmed by participation in a Solo and Ensemble music festival in Anchorage will compete at the Juneau Invitational May 9-10. Regionals are scheduled for May 23-24 in Juneau. The state meet is set for May 30-31.