Neepawa-based track club turned regional team
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- Published on Thursday, June 2, 2016
Submitted photo. From left: Prairie Storm athletes Kiera Senkbeil, Jensyn Baron, Charlot Butler, Ben Perrett, Taine Middelton, Morgan Ramsay, Brooklyn Perrett and Lara Denbow competed at the Boeing Provincial Indoor Track Championships at the University of Manitoba in February.
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Neepawa track and field athletes have had a “little secret” since 2012 that has become less secretive in the last couple years. Bryce Koscielny, the Neepawa Area Collegiate (NACI) track coach and a teacher at the school, started a track and field club back in 2012 for a handful of NACI students who wanted more training. Koscielny said that the club started as a quiet, little thing and just “blossomed into what it is today.” Today, it is more of a regional club, having 17 full time members, coming to train in Neepawa from the communities of Brandon, Chater, Rivers, Rapid City, Carberry, McGregor and, of course, Neepawa. “[It’s] the only club in Manitoba outside of the perimeter [of Winnipeg],” Koscielny said.
It is an official, registered track club and goes by the name of Prairie Storm Athletics. They have team jerseys and they compete as a team at club meets throughout the year. Being the only coach of the club and wanting to be able to work with each athlete individually, Koscielny is trying to keep it relatively small. “There’s kind of a short wait list of kids who want to be involved, I’ve kind of said I don’t have room right now,” he explained.
Most of the club members are runners, with some of them also participating in cross country, but they also have a couple jumpers. The age range is 12 years old and up. “The majority of athletes are in senior high, but I do have three middle years athletes that have been fit in,” noted Koscielny.
The club generally has two practices a week and it goes all year long, working on every aspect of the athletes’ performance. “We try to break the year apart into chunks of time and we’ll focus on different things at different points of the season,” explained Koscielny, “So late summer, early fall is going to be general strength, athleticism, kind of building up a foundation, if you will. Into late fall, early winter, a lot of technique, running mechanics, how do I move properly. And then slowly, as competition nears, we start to work on getting in peak form.”
Sometimes in the winter, the club travels to Winnipeg to do some training at the University of Manitoba’s indoor track. They also occasionally go to an outdoor track in Brandon to practice running with cleats, because cleats can’t be used on asphalt tracks, like the one in Neepawa.
Recently, the Manitoba High School Athletics Association (MHSAA) Zone Seven championship was held in Neepawa, where a number of the Prairie Storm athletes competed for their own schools against their club teammates. Even though they were competing for their own school team, Koscielny still considered them as his team. “They support each other, they have to compete against each other, but we’re a team,” he said. He noted that all of the athletes who are a part of Prairie Storm who competed in the Zone Seven championship qualified for the provincial MHSAA championship.
Koscielny said that clubs like these are important for dedicated track athletes, because there are a lot more chances to compete than just the high school meets that happen in the spring. “There are a lot of opportunities out there. I think a lot of people don’t realize how many meets there are year round. We’ve had athletes go to Idaho this winter to a track meet of 2,000 athletes, the biggest one in the western half of the US. Athletes can be ranked nationally, they can compete nationally, they can compete provincially, they can compete locally. So there’s kind of an opportunity for athletes to really pick and choose where they want to go and they can be rewarded for hard work,” he explained.
Koscielny is planning on keeping the club going for as long as there is interest. “I probably get an email every couple of weeks from people that are interested,” he said. “So I foresee for a long time now that we’ll go. I’ll go until I can’t find any kids that want to do it.”
