They are not allowed to compete within their own county, they are not funded, they only have volunteer coaches, and the athletes have to pay to compete in every meet and find their own transportation to get to there.
They are the Nottingham High School boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams, eliminated from budget cuts two years ago and now resurrected with club status. Though allowed to represent the school and use its facilities to train, they nonetheless are for the third straight season without an official winter program.
But it could be worse. Township rivals Steinert and Hamilton don’t even have a club team.
If not for a Business Education teacher, Nottingham wouldn’t either.
Melissa Foley, head coach of the school’s girls’ track and field team in the spring, felt it was time to attempt to keep up with most of the state’s spring programs by providing an organized winter program. The hope is to maintain what has become a strong spring program for both the girls’ and boys’ teams.
“The program has meant a lot to me,” Foley said last week. “My senior year I was hurt, and that’s when I realized I loved coaching. I went to school for business (she has a business/marketing degree), but because of coaching, I fell into education. So I appreciate that aspect because coaching introduced me to my career.
“I love working with kids, and I love seeing them be successful. And I don’t want to see the kids who can get a full ride to college and who can go on and do better things outside of school fall behind. And that’s what’s going to happen. You need to be able to compete during the winter in order to stay competitive with everyone else.”
Assistant boys’ track and field coach Jon Adams feels the same. He coaches sprints in the spring and will be helping Foley once or twice a week after the holidays. Fresh off coaching the football team to the Central Jersey Group III championship, he feels the absence of the winter program caught up to the track team last spring.
Two years ago, the Northstars won the state sectional and nearly won the overall Group III title, and last year they came up short in the sectionals.
“We should have repeated, but we didn’t have the depth like the year before,” Adams said. “We didn’t have a chance to train in the offseason, and without that, it will be difficult to compete for titles. Still, with us volunteering, kids are not there every day.”
Foley has been holding training sessions four days a week; twice on Saturdays when they run in Veterans Park in the morning and then back at the high school.
During the week if the weather is nice they warm up outdoors, where obviously field events are practiced. Inside runners do laps in the hallways, and everyone hits the weight room.
“This still puts us way back,” Foley says about the bridge to spring. “I’ve witnessed this for two years. People say, ‘You say that, but your boys’ team is so successful.’ But think how much more successful could they be?
“We have so many athletes in this school who don’t do anything in winter — specifically track. A lot of kids were discouraged when they heard they had to pay their own way.”
The Northstars’ competitive season begins Jan. 3. Among the meets they will take part in are the state relays and sectionals, and they will compete a couple of times at the New York Armory. She also is trying to line up other invitationals.
Because the team is not sanctioned, it is not allowed to compete in Mercer County events such as the relays or the county championships.
Although some spring track and field athletes are involved in other winter sports, Foley estimates that the spring turnout for the girls’ and boys’ teams should at least triple and maybe even quadruple.
The autostradas — the ones that don't languish, unfinished, for decades as corrupt politicians pad their salaries with highway money — are a thing of beauty. True engineering masterpieces, they swoop gracefully through the rugged interior, across graceful arch bridges and long, curving causeways. You can safely drive 200 kph on some stretches, but the speed limit is typically around 100.
As far as roads go, the problem areas tend to be one-way streets in small towns that were built during the Middle Ages — when donkey carts full of citrus and semolina were the norm — and traffic-choked thoroughfares in the island's major cities. Rush hour traffic in Palermo, Catania, Messina, or any of the other more populated areas can be a brutally slow schlep that takes all the joy out of the novel scenery.
Drivers in Sicily are less about observing traffic laws and courtesy than they are about getting where they want to go as quickly and directly as possible, regardless of obstacles. Excessive horn honking is commonplace, as is shouting out the window and gesturing wildly with arms and dramatic facial expressions. But more often than not, the guy yelling "Stronzo!" out the window of his car is driving like a stronzo himself.
Don't be surprised if, when you're driving down a narrow one-way street, the car in front of you stops, and its driver jumps out and scurries into the nearest bread shop for a few minutes. You may be a bit peeved that your progress has been slowed by this apparent insensitivity to your needs, but there's only one thing you can do: depress your car's horn button without letting go until the car deserter returns, and then yell obscenities involving that person and the Madonna out the window until he drives off. When in Sicily...
As a rule of thumb, tiny cars fare better in Sicilian towns and cities than do large ones. Navigating narrow streets is easier, and there are a lot more little spots you can find for parking. Another really good reason to go with a small car on this beautiful Mediterranean island is that gasoline goes for more than $9 per U.S. gallon right now. That's a lot of moneta. Think Fiat 500, Renault Twingo, Toyota Yaris, or Volkswagen Lupo. Anything bigger is truly massive by Italian standards.
But on the other hand, if there's one thing Sicilians respect (as do other Italians, and Americans, too for that matter), it's wealth. If you have a big, fast, expensive car, not only will people get out of your way on the autostrada, you can also park wherever you want without any regard for actual available space or traffic flow. Pull up in a Maserati Quattroporte saloon and most people will assume that you're a big muckety muck who should be treated with deference. On the open road, all you have to do to rid the left lane of that awful Fiat Panda in your way is approach them at twice the legal speed with your lights flashing and your horn blaring. Works like a charm. Most of the time.
But if you have the money, forget all that other stuff and get yourself a classic GT car — something like a Ferrari 250 GTO, Alfa Romeo 8C, Lancia Aurelia, a Mercedes 300 SL, or even a Maserati A6GCS. They're made for these roads, and you'll enjoy yourself immensely if you pick something classic and sporty. You can also grab a modern-day Ferrari or Alfa, but there's a reason why the Targa Florio ended in the late '70s — the cars had become too powerful for Sicily's tight roads, and more fatal crashes were the unfortunate result.
No comments:
Post a Comment