Butler Junior High athletes excel in track and field
This spring, the Butler Junior High Track and Field Team completed another successful season, boasting many accomplishments.
The track and field program is one of Butler’s largest and most successful sports organizations, especially in recent years. The girls team finished the regular season with a record of six wins and three losses, and the boys team finished at 8-1. The team also performed very well during the invite-only meets, with a second place overall finish at Seneca Valley’s Raider Relay meet as a highlight. Also, there were 24 athletes across both teams who earned a spot on the Top 10 records in the last meet alone.
Everyday for the past two months, the team met in Cafeteria B for practice, which lasted from 3:15 to 5 p.m.
During practices, the team warmed up together, but split up depending on the event they wanted to practice that day.
The track events offered were the 100, 200 and 400 meter sprints; 100 and 300 meter hurdles; 800, 1600 and 3200 meter distance runs; and relays for the 100, 400, 800 and 1600.
The field events were shot put, javelin, discus, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and high jump.
On days with a meet, athletes left school early, as most opponents were almost an hour away.
Students and the coaches alike favored the Butler Invite, which is the last and biggest meet of the year.
There were multiple coaches for the teams, with the head coach of the boys team being Josh Uncapher, and Carrie Birckbichler-Smith as the girls head coach. Also, many teachers at Butler served as coaches, including Brian Hilderbrand who helped with the sprinters and Katherine Hegedus who coached the jumping events.
The Butler track and field team usually has the biggest team out of any sport in the district. According to Uncapher, part of the reason is there is something for everyone.
“Everybody is trying it for the first time, and all the athletes participate,” Uncapher said.
His favorite part of the year was “seeing everyone reach their goals.” However, if he could change one thing about this spring season, he would want to improve the weather. Next year, he hopes to recruit even more athletes to participate.
Hildebrand agreed that the weather was challenging.
“It was worth it to see all of the kids succeed,” he said. For next season, he wants to find a way to get the athletes more excited for the races.
Track and Field can teach many life lessons and is a very valuable experience for students, according to Coach Uncapher.
“Students can learn goal-setting, accountability, discipline, control, effort and attitude,” he said.
Also, track is not only restricted to seventh and eighth grade students. Students in fourth through sixth grades can participate in summer camps and an end of the year meet for student athletes in elementary school.
To prepare for next season, Hildebrand advised students to: “Get fit and stay fit.”
Drew Diamond is an eighth-grader in the Butler Area School District.
Taking Flight: An Eagle student journalism project
Taking Flight is a student journalism project conducted by the Butler Eagle to encourage responsible journalism and inspire more informed readers.
The project encourages students in seventh to 12th grade to write an article or review an event in the community or at their school. Articles were submitted for review and were edited by the Eagle staff.
The article is then published in an edition of SOAR, a student newspaper produced by the Butler Eagle in cooperation with area school districts, or in the newspaper itself.
