COACH TALK: Ellwood City & Riverside Track & Field Teams Each Looking Forward To Seasons

Ellwood City is hungry for more.

With mostly freshmen and sophomores helping to lead the way with an all new coaching staff, Ellwood City has an appetite for more this spring on the track.

“We were a young team last year,” says second year coach, Nathan Brown. “Many of those kids saw successes they weren’t expecting and now they’re hungry for more.”

The team was uprooted from its home track last year due to Helling Stadium rennovations, forcing practices to be held at neighboring Riverside’s track facility and all meets to be on the road. The boys team finished 3-6 while the girls finished 0-9 under the guidance of Brown who was in his first year as head coach.

This year, the Wolverines have three senior captains, Trent Bonfield, Lennon Lloyd, and Breonna Sullivan who each have different leadership styles according to Brown

“Lennon is an active leader and is able to organize the team while Travis and Breonna are more similar in style,” says Brown. “They lead by example.”

Sullivan and Bonfield have each excelled for years and other athletes want to emulate their success adds their head coach.

“I can’t speak to the last few years but from last year to this year our kids have set goals of where they want to see themselves,” says Brown. “Runners have target PR’s (personal records) that they want to hit before the end of the year.”

The attitude of team leans towards hard work associated with getting stronger, faster, and becoming more positive.

The 2023 campaign will be the first for the team on new Helling Stadium track and field surface, bringing new excitement to the program.

“Everyone’s excited! How can’t they be?” exclaims Brown. “The old track surface was great and served its purpose but having that Royal Blue, firm texture makes me smile every time I see it.”

Brown adds that having turf gives the team the ability to work on a more forgiving surface to help athlete’s recovery and injury prevention.

The team hopes to put up great performances against every team on the schedule but at the end of the day Brown just want to improve internally and build a strong foundation, on the new turf at Helling Stadium.

“More kids are stepping up and into leadership roles providing a foundation for the future,” concludes Brown.

RIVERSIDE BOYS TRACK AND FIELD

Small and mighty (and young) is the motto for the Panthers boys track and field team this team.

The team is looking to replace 11 seniors who graduated last year from a squad that placed 2nd overall in the WPIAL Team Championships.

A fifth straight WPIAL Championship eluded the Panthers and the team will begin putting work to rebuild the areas of strength that was lost with the graduating athletes according to head coach Chelsea Kordecki.

“This year is an extremely young team and very small at that,” says Kordecki. “We are prepared to excel where we can and build on each athletes abilities as the year
and years progress to get us back to WPIAL Championships.”

Leading the charge this spring is senior Joe Reed along with a pair of sophomores – Gavin Lutz and Carson Emerick.

Reed is a state ranked competitor and a great resource for the younger throwers according to Kordecki.

Reed swept three WPIAL semifinals field events last spring, placing first in the shot put (49-02.00), discus (124-03), and javelin (155-06), moving on to finish second in the javelin in the 2022 WPIALs and

Lutz and Emerick had great indoor seasons/training and are athletes to keep an eye on this spring according to head coach.

“Gavin runs hurdles and the occasional 800/4×400 relay,” says Kordecki. “Carson is one of our throwers and has already set high expectations for this years performance.”

Distance now may be an area of weakness for the Panthers with the loss of standout runner Ty Fluharty to graduation, but the team has
a few young athletes already taking on the role in the 1600 and 3200.

“Every year is a different year and a different group of kids. We set our expectations high each year but realize we won’t always live up to them,” says Kordecki.
“I know this team has heart and fight and will give it their all during each event and meet.”

Small and mighty may well fit the team moxy this year.

“We always look forward towards Ellwood as a rival meet and Shenango as our toughest competitors, but Laurel was a very close meet as well last year,
so we’re just going to approach each meet as they come this year,” concludes Kordecki.