For years, there has been an innate connection between football and track. Track, it is said, provides the opportunity for young football players to improve their running form, build short “burst” speed, and stay active while working out in the off season. The thought of keeping one’s players “in uniform” has been appealing to some football coaches. Admittedly, others would rather have their players on a football-oriented workout system with the weight room at the center of activity.
Regardless of whether football coaches are proponents or opponents of having their players lace up the spikes to run, jump or throw, there is no doubt of the impact that football players, turned track athletes, have had in Virginia. Before starring for UVA and the NFL, both Ronde and Tiki Barber were standout sprinters, hurdlers and long jumpers at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke. Before making his name with the Florida Gators and NFL, Landstown’s Percy Harvin helped his team win a 2005 AAA outdoor state title, winning five events on his own. The list of names goes on and on, from Menchville’s Al Toon (New York Jets), to George Washington – Danville’s David Wilson (New York Giants); O’Connell’s Eric Metcalf (Falcons) to Ocean Lakes’ Justin Hunter (Tennessee Titans); in fact, dozens of Virginia high school footballers have made the segue from the gridiron to the oval and found success with both.
More recently, Grassfield’s Grant Holloway has emerged as the premier football and track athlete in Virginia. Holloway has already signed with the University of Florida as a track athlete, and he holds nine state track titles and has won a national title in the indoor 55-meter hurdles as well as set a high school American record in the five-event pentathlon. Yet, the 6’3” Holloway is also a talented wide receiver and defensive back who is prepped to join the Gators football team as a “preferred walk-on.”
Realizing the impact of football players in athletics, Ultimate Recruit.com, which consists of recruit757, recruit804 and recruitNoVA, will be introducing a feature on Virginia high school football players and their accomplishments on the track (and field!). The first article will post early next week as many high school teams take part in their conference meets. We will post every week throughout the championship season, ending in late June. This trial run should give us a chance to gauge the support of this feature from the football and track communities, and also to test the viability of taking on such a large endeavor. The old “I can only be in one place at a time” adage bodes well for this feature. Even MileStat.com, with Nolan Jez at the helm, has several correspondents and photographers, and can place people at a few meets every weekend. They have even kicked me into play for the past three indoor/outdoor 5A/6A meets. Their help will be invaluable.
There should be several key benefits to creating such a feature. First, it gives high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to showcase their athletic exploits, in a game/meet situation, after the football season. The advantage here comes from athletes having new “highlights” and statistics to post for a large forum. For example, if a college wide receiver hopeful is running a 4.9 in the 40 in the fall, but can show that his 100-meter time has dropped from 12.0 to 11.3 over the course of outdoor track season, there is visual evidence that the young man has gotten faster, and more likely to justify the 4.69 run at a combine.
Second, it will give us at recruit757/804/NoVA another forum to flex our own considerable resources. One of our photographers, MaryAnn Magnant, is a key photographer with MileStat.com, and has thousands of track pictures at her disposal after any weekend of meets in the winter and spring. She also works here at Ultimate Recruit and now has a chance to showcase more of her non-football work. To a lesser degree, this feature will give me more time to spend at track meets. After 10 years of competition as a track athlete, 17 more of coaching (in Northern and Southeast Virginia) and another eight as a sports correspondent, I’m looking forward to seeing more meets, and getting back in the thick of the action. My next meet will be the 5A/6A state meet at Todd Stadium in Newport News on June 3-4. I’ll be working this meet for MileStat.com, as I have the past three state meets.
But while I’m covering the 5A/6A meet, I’ll be missing the 3A/4A and 1A/2A competitions, and here is where I need help. This feature is not just for the 757, or the 804, or Northern Virginia. It’s for everybody. With this in mind, I am asking for help. Football coaches – here’s your chance to build up a few emerging star players, and keep them visible to college coaches. And the opposite is also true. College coaches can now keep an eye on potential recruits and follow their athletic progress as it looks at the moment. This could be a symbiotic relationship for all involved.
Players and coaches (football and track) – please feel free to send me your results from each week’s meet. I’ll look to add a spotlight section for individual article entries on athletes each week as a way of showcasing a feature performance. This is currently a work in progress, but after a four or five week tryout to finish this school year, we should be able to reload and retool with the intention of becoming a weekly feature every year between December and June.
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