Golden Meadow Lower receives $200 stipend for safety
March 23, 2010
Local lawmakers’ pre-filings a mixed bag
March 25, 2010
For more than 20 years, the South Lafourche track team has staked its reputation on dominance in field events and long-distance running.
But thanks to a few new additions this year, the Tarpons are also burning the rubber on the track in the shorter races – making the team one of the teams to beat in the district season.
“We have sprinters, distance runners, jumpers and kids who are doing well in the field events,” said South Lafourche coach Joey Guidroz. “It’s a blessing. There are not too many times that happens.”
The first Tarpon speedster is senior Rusty Borne. A natural-born athlete, Borne took up track for the first time during his junior season.
“I’m a fast learner,” Borne said with a smile. “It’s just running and jumping. I let my athletic ability take off.”
Since joining the team, that ability has yielded nothing but success for the Tarpons as Borne has collected countless points for his team and even more trophies for his trophy case.
The senior is a regular winner in the long jump and triple jump events and is the anchor leg of the Tarpons’ 4×200 and 4×100 meter relay teams.
Borne said adding speed to the team’s arsenal will allow the team to make a push at the state title later in the spring. The athletic speedster won first place honors in all four of his events at last Tuesday’s Tarpon Relays, earning 36 total points for his team.
“We’ve never had success in most of these events before,” Borne said. “It’s really making us an all-around team.”
Learning on the fly is nothing new to Borne, who played his first season of high school football earlier in the school year for the Tarpons.
The result?
A senior season with more than 20 touchdowns and a spot on the All-State team.
“I’m just very competitive,” he said. “I love to compete in anything. My favorite track event is the triple jump because of that – because it’s so hard to get the jumps down.”
But the Tarpons’ short distance teams were also blessed with another newcomer, senior Alton Jenkins, who picked up track and field for the first time this year.
“I had never tried it out before,” Jenkins said. “I was always more laid back, focusing on hitting my books. But my senior year, I said to myself, ‘Let’s go all out,’ so I played football and basketball.”
Jenkins said he was mulling track and field and a talk with Guidroz sealed the deal for him.
“I talked to coach and he said, ‘Jenkins, I heard you have a little bit of speed,'” he said. “So I tried it out and showed [him] what I had, and he liked it.”
To say that Coach Guidroz “liked it” would probably be putting it mildly as like Borne, Jenkins was four-for-four at the Tarpon Relays. He won the 4×200 and 4×100 meter relays, as well as the 100 and 200-meter dashes.
Jenkins said he has been improving as the season goes along as he gets experience with track.
“At first coach would put me in just a leg of the relays,” Jenkins said.
“Then he tried me out in the individual runs and I had some problems at first with cramps. But I told him to keep me running, because I was going to get them. And I did it. I got them.”
Like Jenkins, Guidroz said coaching two runners who are winning with little experience is a major plus, because he knows the team will improve as the season goes along.
“It’s all about building their confidence,” the coach said.
“At the beginning of the year, they didn’t know that they could produce, but they are producing now. They’re getting to the day of the meet and are looking forward to it, instead of dreading it.”
The coach added that while both sprinters are seniors and his time with them is drawing close to a completion, he is excited about how far the team could potentially go.
“This is the first time in 25 or so years of coaching that I have sprinters as good as my distance runners and my distance runners are good as my throwers,” Guidroz said. “It’s just a fun group, and we’re excited about seeing where we can go with them.”
South Lafourche senior sprinter Rusty Borne pulls away from the pack in the 4×200 meter race during last Tuesday’s Tarpon Relays. Borne is one of the driving forces behind the team’s recent surge of speed. * Photo by CASEY GISCLAIR
