Coaches Corner for May 26th: Maggie Lloyd, Ogden Track

With us on coach's corner, KWBG, you get a chance to wrap up the Ogden track season. It's Maggie Lloyd joining us. The Bulldogs, I thought, had a really nice state meet, Maggie, when you look back at that. And since that is kind of in the closest rear view, let's go back and look at that. And with what you qualified, I thought, again, a real difficult state qualifying meet. I think we kind of knew that going in. Overall, were the kids pretty happy with who got there? I know everybody wants to get as many as you can. But going into the state meet, how did you feel like the attitudes were? Yeah, I thought the attitudes were really well. They knew one that most of these kids that competed at state hadn't competed at state before. So that's always a new thing in itself, learning how to compete on that oval and with that kind of crowd. I thought, realistically, the events that we took, we anticipated, for the most part, which ones would go and which ones had a farther out stance. So I think everybody was pretty satisfied with the events and between individuals and relays that we ended up taking down to the state meet. It's crazy to think, and I know that we obviously didn't have just underclassmen that were there, which would have been crazy. And I know in some relays, we did. But we had a little bit of senior leadership, and we had kids that were going to, as you said, just participate for the first time on the Blue Oval, which, Coach, to me, is so exciting and terrifying at the same time. Did you have those moments last week? Oh, absolutely. Even as a coach, I get nervous, and I'm not even the one down there. And I don't know if it's nervous, but I don't think it's nerves that I'm afraid something bad's going to happen. It's nerves of just excitement, and I'm ready to see what they're going to do. And as a coach, we get them prepared and ready to go. And yeah, the kids themselves, they handle their nerves in different ways. Some get really jittery, some get really quiet. And so, also as a coach, you're trying to navigate all the different personalities that are down there and finding ways to help support them through it so that they're not overwhelmed or stressed or too anxious, but just confident in themselves. Girls side of things. We'll start with that, and then we'll work our way to the boys side as well. Shuttle Hurdle team, obviously, a qualifier for the state meet. It just feels like if there's something about Ogden Girls' track that I can feel really good about here, and I'm not going to say the last couple of years, I feel like you guys have a Shuttle Hurdle tradition now that's been going on for a while, but that is a group that obviously qualified and Maddie as well makes it in the high jump. Tell me about the girls at state, and then we'll kind of talk about the season with them. Yeah, absolutely. So, our shuttle, this is the sixth year in a row that we have taken a Shuttle Hurdle girls team down to the state meet, and they were seated 23rd coming in based on their time for the state qualifier, and they ended up 18th. So, they were excited about that. It's always exciting when you can place higher than what you were seated coming in. So, yeah, we had one senior on there, Aubrey Leonard, and she had been to the state meet a few times in that Shuttle Relay team. So, to bring in a bunch of new girls, younger girls that are competing for spots, we lost a lot on that team last year. So, it was exciting to watch them compete, most of them, for the first time. And then, yeah, Maddie made it in high jump, and that was one of those things that she did not anticipate going into that state qualifying meet. So, there was a lot of emotions, a lot of excitement, and she was ready to roll, and was super excited. Well, and then, when I look back at the season, Coach, the Sprint Medley team was one that was a lot of fun, I thought, to watch during the season for this girl squad. We talked about Maddie when it came to the high jump. She was a lot of fun there. Elise, I thought, was really good in that 3,000 meter as well. There's some kids that we're gonna talk about here that maybe didn't make it to the state meet, but, boy, you wanna talk about futures looking real bright on that girl's side. I knew we were gonna be young this year, but that also tells me we're young now, but we'll be veterans in a couple of years when we're talking here. So, I guess, Maggie, about that girls group overall. Yes, a little bit of youth this year, but, man, that's exciting for the future. It really is, yeah. So, we were young, and we also dealt with some injuries where girls weren't able to compete at their potential, whether it was at the beginning of the season and it lasted throughout, or if it started happening throughout the season. So, we have a couple girls that are super competitive and just weren't able to compete to the best of their ability due to injuries. So, you're hopeful that they're able to take some time and rest and feel, and see what next year brings. So, yeah, it's another year of experience for all these girls, and hopefully another year of just them being healthy. Well, and I think what's exciting when I look ahead, Maggie, and I'm a big guy when it comes to field events, I wanna score points before I gotta even walk on the track or you don't get to the start line. I think the girls' program's gonna really be able to do that next season. I agree. We were able to score a lot of points towards the beginning of the season through high jump and long jump, and by the end of the season, our throwers were also scoring points. And I know they're super motivated and coming back, and they're ready to, I think, put some time in over the summer to work on their technique, you know, get in the weight room, and you know, just see what next year brings for them. Boy's side of things, I think, you know, we talked about, of course, the relay that was able to make it to state, and I think the four by one was something that I really wanted to talk about. I think that's a tremendous, the future for the four by one looks a lot of bit fun. I thought Jackson as well had a really strong season. I'm looking at the Shuttle Hurdle team, which I know broke a school record early in the year. I mean, there's so many things we could talk about on the boy's side, Maggie. Maybe I just let you go and let you talk about him because there was a ton of positives with that group this year. Yeah, it was. You know, we had a few more seniors on the boy's side, and we had great leadership through them. So yeah, with the Shuttle Hurdle, we lost one kid off of that last year, Riker Cruz, and Zach Crossman kind of filled that gap, and it took him a little bit to get used to the higher hurdles and that pace. And yeah, by the end of the season, they were able to break that school record. So that's always fun and exciting for those kids to get to go through that and feel those emotions. And Jackson coming in as a freshman and being able to do the things that he did this season was a lot of fun to watch him. I mean, he's put in a lot of time and he works really hard. He's super dedicated. And you know, he pushes himself. And it was fun to watch him hit those PRs in between his opens and the relays that he was in and to watch that success. You know, our DMED, we didn't run it for the first time until the State Qualifying Meet. We knew that they are a mature enough group and they were talented enough. And to be able to put a relay together between Braden, Hugh, Jackson, and Miles and know that individually they're all really successful in each of those events. You know, it wasn't one kid trying to carry a whole relay. It was all four of them were able to contribute really well. They ended up tenth down at the State Meet. And you know, to be a really small two-way school, that's something to be super proud of. I know they're not satisfied with that. You know, they want to keep pushing. And that's part of being, you know, a good athlete. You're never satisfied with just where you are. You always want to keep pushing and, you know, get better and work hard. And so they all, I think are, I think Miles, right after the mile, when he was done on Saturday, you know, mentioned that he's ready to get to work and put in that work in the off season and start that training. So, you know, these kids put in a lot of time during the season, but there's a lot of time that they put in outside of the season, whether it's with other sports, training with other individuals, time in the weight room, you know, time by themselves. But yeah, I'm excited to see what next year brings for all of these kids. Well, and I still go back to when the track programs were combined and under one umbrella because it had basically been going on anyway. And so when you guys combined it, Maggie, I look back at that. And now I know that it's not a big deal. I know we've been doing it for a while, but man, that just seems like it has worked out really, really well for both programs. Yeah, absolutely. And when I was coaching in Sheldon, we had transitioned to that method. And I found it to be more successful. It just, it allows us as coaches to utilize our talent in a better and more productive way than to just say, oh, you're a girls coach. You can only coach the girls or, hey, you're a boys coach. You only coach the boys. Even though you don't know anything about long jump, you're gonna coach them anyway, you know? And so it allows us to be more productive and more supportive of one another. And that's probably one of my favorite things about going to track meets is watching our team boys and girls, you know, push each other and encourage each other and support each other throughout the entire meet. It's not a boys team versus a girls team. It's we're one team. Well, Maggie, and isn't the rumor still that if Coach Lloyd doesn't go to a boys' meet or doesn't go to a girls' meet, some record's going down, right? I mean, isn't that still going on, right? It sure happens. I don't know how many times. I can't use myself every now and then. I don't know how many times we would talk, you know, for a coach's corner and you go, yeah, I missed the meet last night and they broke two records. And I'm thinking, Maggie, this is happening quite a few times. I don't know if they're just waiting for you not to be there or what, but goodness. Yeah, it's super fun. Well, you guys had tremendous numbers again this year, Maggie. That's the last thing I wanted to talk to you about. Does the future look pretty good when it comes to numbers frog and track as well? It does, you know, we're losing our seniors. On the girls' side, we only had three that competed. The boys' side, we had a few more. So to lose a low number and to anticipate bringing in a higher number, yeah. We've kind of hovered between the 50 and 60 for boys and girls total, which, you know, the size of our school, I'm super happy with that number. Maggie, want to thank you again very much for all the results, all the coaches corner interviews as well. Really appreciate how to have a fun spring with you and look forward to doing it again next spring. Very much so. Thank you. You bet. Maggie Lloyd again joining us. Ogden Track here on Coaches Corner.