Malden High’s indoor track team gets ready for the coming season. Despite missing a season last year due to COVID-19, the team hopes to make up for lost time.
This year’s senior captains, Leslie Rodriguez and Marcos Ruiz, are excited to make up for the time lost due to COVID-19. Ruiz expressed that he wants to see “the team get better.”
Rodriguez further supported this sentiment saying she wants everyone on the team “to get to a point where they are proud of themselves.”
Coach Marc Ferrara has been coaching for three years and this is his first year as head coach. He mentioned that this year’s indoor track team has “a lot of talented individuals.”
Coach Michel-Le Meranda contrasted this by saying, “it is really hard to gauge [them] with only two weeks of practice.” However, it is safe to say that both coaches have an optimistic outlook for their team this year. Coach Ferrara mentioned that his goal was to “build up a new Malden High School track team.”
“Coming off the COVID year and missing our last indoor season, my hope is to really build up the athletes that I have,” said Coach Ferrara. He truly intends to “build a strong track team like [Malden High School] had in the past.”
Seniors Alyson Kwong and Kayla Montina, who are participants of indoor track, agreed that COVID-19 had a big effect on them. Kwong said that she hopes they “get that same experience back” from pre-COVID.
“For [the coaches] to be able to pick up after the mess that happened last year, it’s just so good,” said Kwong. “They work so hard to make sure that we’re doing our job but they also kind of give us a sense of independence.”
Montina mentioned that the coaches do a great job of “showing support” and that they care about everyone, even outside of their running, throwing and or jumping.
Freshman Lovely Gerochi said that the captains also do a great job and “help [them] with warm-ups and stretching.”
The track team has been working really hard, according to Rodriguez who stated that “people are showing up every day, they’re doing the workouts, they’re doing what they need to do [and] they’re asking questions.”
Ruiz agreed that everyone is showing tremendous effort. He believes that the team’s progress is going really well and they keep striving to improve.
Rodriguez and Ruiz want more than just a strong track team, they hope to build a family. Rodriguez said that she wants the underclassman to “make friendships…, come back” and “be the next ones to lead.”
Ruiz further hopes “they learn that they have a team in track,” and that “if they push themselves, good things are going to come from it.”
Of course, as Coach Meranda stated, “it would be great to win a GBL title” but, they intend to get more than just triumph out of this winter season. This year’s team will continue to push past their limits and improve, but also be there for each other and create a familial atmosphere.
