MONDAY: Happy April Break! As is tradition, the athletes had the day off today and were encouraged to check out the Boston Marathon.
TUESDAY: On the most beautiful day of the season so far, weather-wise, we hosted Arlington Catholic and Archbishop Williams for a CCL scrimmage meet. With all three teams missing some of their athletes due to vacation, we used the meet as a chance to “stretch our legs”. We had a great day overall, with the PR Board filling up! A few highlights included Scott Amin high jumping 6’4” in his second meet ever competing in the event, Nick Fusco running 5:02 in the mile as a sophomore, Jazmin Rodriguez jumping 4’8” in the high jump in her second meet ever competing in the event, and Mia DeLeon running 1:08.4 in the open 400. With so many outstanding performances, it was a great day for the Spartans and a pleasure to host Arlington Catholic and Archbishop Williams.
WEDNESDAY: Day off post-meet!
THURSDAY: With morning practices for vacation, we took our time and practiced in groups.
The hurdlers, as always, kicked off the day. The session’s focus was on the beginning of their races, with the 400 hurdlers working with Coach D on getting their steps down to the first 2 hurdles and the high hurdlers working with Coach Smith on the same, trying to hit 8 steps to the first hurdle out of the blocks. Coach Smith also worked with some new high jumpers, finding potential in Nathaly Pineda and Nick Fusco as the next generation of high jumpers.
Distance hit their weekly workout, a heavy speed ladder of 200-300-400-500-600-800-600-500-400-300-200. The volume of the speed workouts has been increasing, but as we approach next week and get into the two meets a week schedule, it will begin to taper off. It is hard to believe it is almost May!
Coach Themo was on hand to coach shot put, discus, and javelin. Several throwers, including Jordin Perry, Cooper Snow, and Tyler Desmond, picked up a new throwing event this week, which is exactly what we are looking to do!
Long and triple jumpers focused, as usual, on nailing their approaches. “The approach is something like 93 percent of the jump. The plant is 3 percent, the aerial is 2 percent, and the landing is 2 percent. So, we are going to spend 93 percent of our time working on the approach,” Coach Smith explains. We did go over landing as well, especially focusing on keeping feet together. All in all, another solid day of practice.
FRIDAY: This was a special day for the team. Distance did a recovery run, the throwers threw heavy objects, and the sprinters chipped up with FreeLap to run 10m flies with a 20m run in (the goal being each one faster than the last – once you got slower, your workout was over).
But more importantly, we had our day of service at the Lynn Senior Center. After practice, around 40 Spartans arrived at the Senior Center and undertook tasks such as preparing the garden, making thank-you cards, helping reorganize closets, and preparing and serving food and drinks for the seniors. Senior Sal Vigliotta even called bingo! We enjoy taking the time as a team to give back, so this was a special opportunity. And, during the service project, Coach Smith found out that he passed the bar exam and will soon be Coach Smith, Esquire!
SATURDAY: With an excellent week of practice, including a very successful meet on Tuesday and a terrific service project, the weather just did not hold off for us to practice on Saturday. However, the break should be somewhat welcomed, as next week we enter the two-meets-a-week period of the season for a while. The fun is just beginning!
