The Greeley West Track and Field team hosted a winter meeting last week, gathering returning student-athletes and those interested in joining the sport for lunch. Most of the coaches will be teachers from West. Tomas Rivera will coach throwing, Tristan Vanguilder will coach triple jump, distance, as well as being JV head coach. Ky Dietz will be coaching high and long jump. Head coach Cody Billings will be overseeing the coaching of hurdles.
A Club experience will be offered for those interested where students can enter into meets not through school, but through the new Greeley West Track Club. While not technically being apart of the school, students will have to pay their own separate entry fee to each meet they choose to participate in. When asked about the schedule for club practices, Billings said, “We are looking at two days a week with a few Saturday meets sprinkled in.”
A set schedule is yet to be in place. “There are several track meets in the indoor season. Due to the amount of snow in Colorado a majority of the meets are held at Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) and the Air Force Academy. A fun new addition to the indoor season is that UCCS is hosting a high school indoor state championship,” Billings said.
West as a whole has never had a true indoor team. It’s not a sanctioned sport through CHSAA so that means it’s mainly a club sport. Due to this many athletes can’t afford a club team or don’t know when the meets are or how to register. The club that we currently have is USATF certified and is named the Greeley Track Club. The name will be used to hopefully represent not just West but the city. The colors of the club incorporate navy for Northridge, gold for West and black for Central.
“We’re trying to keep the costs down to allow kids a chance to run around $200-300,” Billings said.
A lot of the clubs in Northern Colorado charge close to 700 dollars for just a couple months. “The hardest thing to balance is costs; I register the club and pay to keep it valid,” said Billings.
Billings said there will only be about 20-30 athletes for the indoor season all throughout Greeley. “I do already have four kids from Central that are interested in addition to some of the West kids,” Billings said.
West also features their own preseason starting January 6th, going Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each day will have at least one of the coaches to facilitate training for all events. In addition Greeley West will be hosting it’s first meet since Billings became head coach five years ago. “Our team is competitive enough this year to place decently well in a varsity invitational” said Billings.
