Eagles begin 2009 season with solidity

Thursday, April 2, 2009
Chris Smiley

With the start of the 2009 season just around the corner, SPHS Coach Carl Coons is starting to get antsy.

"I'm really anxious to just see where we are at," Coons said. "These kids have been working hard and we have such an excellent group of kids and we've had such great weather; so I just want to see were we are right now as a team."

The Eagles return this year with a solid group of seniors in Loren Ashcraft, Seth Bowen, Eric Drawbaugh, Hunter Edwards, Conor Frame, Tyler Heavin, Dayne Nelson, Jacob Parker and Chris Smiley. But the one thing that Coons is happy about this year isn't that he has so many seniors; it's that he has so many numbers in every event.

"I think that we are going to have people score points in every event," Coons said. "If you look, we have numbers in every event as far as participants. Like in the sprints, we don't have blazing speed; but we have very competitive people in those events.

"We have a nice group of seniors, juniors, sophomores and a decent group of freshmen. So we have a nice mixture of talent on the team this year," Coons said.

Coons said that he really couldn't say which events would be his team's strongest this season, because of all the athletes on his team.

"We have such a wide range of talent in all these events, that if I would sit back here and say that this event or these events are going to be our strongest, it wouldn't right. It wouldn't do justice to everyone else on the team," Coons said.

There is one thing that Coons does want to improve on from last year -- consistency.

"I want to see more consistency this year. Most of these athletes are a year older and wiser and have been down this path before," Coons said. "Most of these seniors have been with me on this team for four years and I appreciate them for that. But we are looking to improve on from last year.

"I was looking over the times from the conference meet last year and that made me feel good to see all the people that are back this year," Coons said.

Coons may be ready to start the 2009 season, but he's already looking towards the end of it.

"You always aim for the biggest meets at the end of the year because that is when you want to be your best like the county, conference and sectional meets," Coons said. "I'm not saying that the dual, three-way and four-way meets aren't important because they are. We just set our sights for the end.

"The one goal that we have as a team is to improve. We are not going to be as good in our first meet as we will be in our last and if we are, we're in trouble and these athletes know this," Coons said.

South Putnam opens the 2009 season a week from today when they travel to Northview for a three-way with the Knights and Owen Valley starting at 5 p.m.