BROCKTON, Mass. ---- First year head coach Matt Jordan and the 2015 edition of Warrior Track and Field team are excited to get things rolling this spring.
Jordan has seen the team roster nearly double from last year’s inaugural season and has 11 total student-athletes signed up to compete in the team’s first meet. The Warriors will take part in the Jim Sheehan Memorial Invitational hosted by Fitchburg State on April 4 to begin the year.
Throughout the preseason, Jordan, who also serves as a personal trainer at Club Ex in East Bridgewater, has put his athletes through a variety of strength and endurance exercises in preparation for the upcoming meets.
“They’ve really come together as a team,” Jordan said. “We are really working hard in the gym. We haven’t been able to touch the track quite yet, but, we’ve been doing a lot of body weight stuff, plyometrics, things are shaping up nicely for the first meet at Fitchburg State.”
The Warrior roster features eight student-athletes on the men’s side and three on the women’s side. Massasoit returns NJCAA National 5,000-meter qualifier Kerry O’Neil (Stoughton) and Adam Blanchette (Brockton) from last year’s squad.
Joining the returners are nine newcomers:
Women’s Track: Emely Abellard (Brockton), Rosie Debrito (Brockton)
Men’s Track: Ruthersmith Bercy (Brockton), Adam Conte (Halifax), Jacob Hume (Brockton), Alex MacMillan (Brockton), Rokas Piragis (Brockton), Mitchell Vaughn (Kingston), Nick Vaughn (Kingston)
Overall, 10 of the 11 student athletes will compete between two and four events and the Warriors are signed up for the program’s first two relay races.
“The team is really excited that we have two relays (4x100, 4x400) scheduled for the first meet,” Jordan said. “We are going to really try to make sure that everybody gets a shot to do one or two relays throughout the season.”
The track team, which only competed in running events last year, also added field events to the slate. For the first meet, Warriors are signed up for the high jump, triple jump and javelin in addition to sprints and long distance races.
In addition, Jordan has been impressed with not only the team comradery, but the knowledge and experience his student-athletes have in track and field.
“I was really pleasantly surprised at seeing that 95 percent of the kids have a track background and some are pretty well decorated in their events from high school,” Jordan said. “I think it is going to be exciting to see if they pick up from where they left off when they competed in high school; or if they surpass my expectations and their own expectations.”
The track team hopes to train outside soon and have scheduled practices at nearby East Bridgewater High School prior to the opening meet. The team has picked out their events and excited to compete against a number of Division III colleges and other junior colleges from New England.
“It’s exciting, there are some nerves, but it’s all healthy,” Jordan said. “I think more than anything it’s anxious in a good way to get it under way. I sat down with the kids the other day, we picked out the events and since then we’ve been customizing the workouts so leading up to the first meet we have some confidence going into it.”
