{"id":736,"date":"2015-11-20T11:21:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T16:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.wpengine.com\/?p=736"},"modified":"2015-12-04T13:00:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T18:00:26","slug":"on-our-way-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=736","title":{"rendered":"On our way there"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rachel Renou<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Odyssey<br \/>\nTroy Athens HS<br \/>\n1st Place<br \/>\nDivision 1, Yearbook<br \/>\nSports Feature Writing<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>With 30 rookies, the girl\u2019s track and field team was shocked to find that their coach would not aim for a winning season. Instead, their season was focused on learning and improving. The sole purpose to prepare for future seasons kept the girls focused on trying new events and contributing their time and sweat into working toward accomplishing the next year\u2019s high standards.<br \/>\nCoach [Michael] Stallsmith was ecstatic to work with a young team. The 12 new freshmen and 10 sophomores on the team left him filled with promise for the years to come. Stallsmith took right away to dividing them based on their skills<br \/>\n\u201cThe secret to being a track and field athlete is to be patient as a rookie. You\u2019ve got to understand that growth and progress in a specific event or specialty is going to take time. As coaches we need to bring them along slowly, so they understand the sport and appreciate even the smallest gain,\u201d Stallsmith said. \u201cThat\u2019s how a team and individuals grow and get better. The more experience we have as a team the more success we will have. It can be fun, it can be hard work, and it can take lots of time. In the end, any commitment that one makes, requires these attributes.\u201d<br \/>\nSophia Georginis, junior, was quick to favor the sprinting part of track competing in events such as the 100 and the 400 relays. This meant practicingwith her teammates to work of each other and improve on their running ability. At times, Georginis found it difficult, but was eager to develop her skills further.<br \/>\n\u201cAt first it was hard to keep up with everyone but now I have gotten more in shape so it doesn\u2019t seem as hard as it used to. Sometimes I would get discouraged but I knew eventually it would become easier. Things that helped me were learning how to use<br \/>\nstarting blocks, pacing, and moving my arms faster to propel me forward,\u201d Georginis said.<br \/>\nIn the long run, Georginis would be more equipped for competitions and setting a goal to compete on varsity as a senior. Though for her first year, it was all for the experience.<br \/>\n\u201cRight now it\u2019s a lot of fun because even if you don\u2019t do well in your meet no one rags on you; but, next year, I look forward to a more competitive season where I focus more on winning.\u201d<br \/>\nA bump in the road came early for sophomore Kaylee Allen, when two weeks into practicing she pulled her hamstring. With the setback, the upcoming meet would be out of the question for her; however, Allen didn\u2019t let herself become discouraged.<br \/>\n\u201cI pulled my hamstring so I wasn\u2019t able to sprint. I ended up missing a lot of practice which meant I didn\u2019t condition before the season started. Now it\u2019s just recovering and improving my skills, so next year, I will be able to do better,\u201d Allen said.<br \/>\nIt looked like the odds were in the rookies\u2019 favor. The years to come after their year of hard work and improvement would carry them far in their meets. Though it was the veterans that did the majority of work at meets, everyone else waited for their time to shine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rachel Renou The Odyssey Troy Athens HS 1st Place Division 1, Yearbook Sports Feature Writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[103,3,11],"tags":[48,20],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sportsfeaturewriting","category-yb","category-ybverbal","tag-48","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kelsey Parkinson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=3"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-bS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}