Havre High track teams trying to work around winter's relentless grip

When you live in North Central Montana, on the Hi-Line, then you know what to expect when spring rolls around. It's going to be cold, it's also probably going to be windy, there might even be a little snow.

However, what residents in Havre and the surrounding areas have had to deal with the past few months and so far this spring, is well beyond the norm and the havoc it's wreaking on local sports has continued into track season.

Of course, track isn't the only sport that is being affected. Tennis and softball are having their issues as well, along with golf, which is played by Class B-C this time of year. One of the worst winters in memory had a huge impact even on basketball, wrestling and swimming, with games and trips being canceled or postponed. At this point, the Havre high track team still has a few weeks before its first meet of the year, which is April 4, with the annual Cal Wearley Track Meet, held at the Havre Middle School track, but this point, even that is looking unlikely.

"If you want to see something impressive, go see the snow at the track," HHS head coach John Ita said. "The only black track that you can see is right in front of the door, kind of where the start for the 100 meters is. But other than that, there is 4-5 feet of snow all the way around. There will be no one on the track in the month of March. It could be 60 degrees tomorrow and stay that way and you are still not going to be on the track. It's like a glacier, you can't even get on the track, you would have to dig through all the snow just to get there. It's pretty impressive to see."

Of course, a big part of track is running, so you might think it would be easy to practice, but when it comes to running sprints, hurdles and even distance, there is a lot more to it than just lacing up the shoes and going for a jog. There is form that needs to be perfected and starts that need to be practiced. Getting out of the blocks is important, especially for sprinters and that's something that the Blue Ponies have been able to practice, in just a limited fashion inside the walls of the Havre High School.

"We are fortunate that our high school has those two hallways," Ita said. "So we are very fortunate that we can get some work done. But, those hallways on young bodies, beat them up pretty quick, so you have to be really careful. So we will work some form stuff and do some form sprinting, then the next day we go to the (pool). We come down here and do some conditioning and tempo work to make sure that we are off our legs. We are getting our heart rates up and getting a lot of cardio and endurance stuff in the pool. There is a lot of strengthening going on, we are just trying to be aware of not beating them up in those hallways. It doesn't take very long to start getting shin splints and things like that."

The reason it's called track and field, are the field events. Certainly, the sprints, distances races, hurdles and relays are a really exciting part of the sport, but another part that's equally exciting are the field events such as pole vaulting, long jump, high jump, triple jump, javelin throw, shot put and discus.

And while some of those events have been hampered, Ita said his throwers have probably gotten the most normal practice repetitions of any athletes on the team.

"I think that coach Gabrielsen has done a really good job with our throwers," Ita said. "We have an indoor shot put and he has kids throwing the discus out on the soccer field. You just have to keep track of where it's going because of all the snow. He has worked on a lot of form and footwork, but for the first two weeks, that is what he works on anyway."

Ita said the athletes who are hurt the most are the pole vaulters and the relay teams, which don't get to work on their timing and handoffs.

"The only thing that is really being hurt is track time for the relay teams, we will have no sense of that," Ita said. "And also things like pole vaulting. I can long jump them, triple jump them and high jump them, I can work on all those things. But we have no way to work on pole vault."

While the track teams are managing the best they can, splitting time between the high school and the swimming pool, Ita said his biggest concern was low morale should the weather issues continue, keeping both teams inside for longer and longer.

"Kids didn't sign up for track and field to be indoors," Ita said. "They want to be outside. That's where they want to be and I don't like seeing them in the hallways. But attitude, moral and motivation, I worry about that. But, I think once we get them on the track, they will realize that they haven't lost that much."