Braves looks to have strong competitors in track and field season

Caleb Williams likes to be weighted down.

Whether it is the strapped ankle weights he walks around school in or the 40-pound vest he wears for half of his practice laps, it is part of the program that makes the H.L. Bourgeois senior a speed demon.

“I don’t run or jog with the ankle weights on,” he said. “I’ve been walking on my toes since I was little so my calf muscles could get stronger.”

There will be more weight placed on Williams at the first meet of the indoor track season on Saturday at the LSU High School Classic at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.

“We’re looking to him to be the number one 400-meter runner in the country,” said fifth-year head boys track coach Joe Riley.

Last year, Williams, 18, finished second in the 400-meter dash and the triple jump at the Division I state indoor championships and won the Class 5A state outdoor 400-meter title. So he is not fazed by the high expectations placed on him.

“My goal this year is to make the All-American list,” Williams said. “Probably be in the top five.”

He is not alone in carrying high hopes into the 2009 indoor track season.

The Braves boys’ team was Division I state runner-up to Catholic High School of Baton Rouge in 2008.

“The unique thing was we only brought six guys last year,” Riley said. “Hypothetically, it’s harder to win an indoor track title because we compete against schools that are in 5A and 4A.”

The boys’ team lost several key seniors from last year’s team including Christian Williams (Caleb’s cousin) who won state titles in the long and triple jumps, Tyler Lirette and Brandon Thibodaux. All three now run track at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

While the girls’ team did not fare as well as the boys’ last season, it boasted four members who competed in the state championships, including 16-year-old sophomore Tashawna Westley, who placed fifth in the high jump.

“It was exciting. I had no experience to speak of, and I was just a freshman at the time,” Westley said. “I didn’t think I could do that well because those girls were just flying over the bar.”

“We’re looking for her to compete on the national level in the high jump,” said second-year girls’ track coach Cory Adkins.

With most of last year’s girls’ team returning, Adkins is hoping for more consistency in 2009.

“They’re more experienced and putting in the work to get better,” he said. “So, I’m expecting big things from the team this year.”

Riley and other local coaches began taking individual athletes to indoor meets in 2002 to get them exposure to the sport. Bourgeois did not field its first teams until 2004.

“Indoor is mainly for your elite athletes – those who think or know they are going to compete in college,” he said. “We try to emulate the college level. If you get a track scholarship they don’t just have an outdoor season. They have an indoor season too.”

Riley said he has two goals for his indoor team: get them recognition from college track coaches and scouts and get them better prepared for the outdoor track season.

“A lot of kids who run the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles are stronger toward the end of the race,” he said. “We use the 55-meter to help them start better.”

The 55-meter dash and hurdles replaces the 100-meter dash and 110-meter hurdles for indoor track, which is a little scary considering there is a padded wall not far beyond the finish line.

“It feels like the start of a race. As soon as you reach top speed and pick your head up, the race is over,” Caleb Williams said.

With no nearby indoor track facility to imitate the conditions, coaches train their athletes basically the same as they do for the outdoor season.

However, running indoor track is far different from outdoor track – a 200-meter oval with tighter turns and shorter straight-aways than a 400-meter track.

“The main difference is the mindset. When you run an event like the 400 (meter dash), it’s two laps, and it plays psychological factors on the kids,” Riley said. “It’s usually harder to breathe indoors, so you don’t see times as good.”

“You can’t train for it. You have to just anticipate it. It’s kind of weird the first time you do it because you have to pass the same spot twice,” said Williams, who also runs the 55-meter dash, the 800-meter and 1,600-meter relays and the long jump.

The LSU High School Classic is one of the biggest high school meets in the southern United States.

With teams from all over the region competing, it is a good measuring stick of where prep athletes stand.

“A lot of these guys run track year round and don’t play any other sport,” said Williams, who is also a four-year letterman in football. “So the competition is tough.”

“We’re at a disadvantage because we’re competing against track clubs from all over the south – Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and South Carolina” Riley said. “You probably have the best of the best competing on Saturday.”

Whatever shortcomings H.L. Bourgeois may have, heart is not one of them. The 10-member boys’ team and eight-member girls’ team will be in Baton Rouge ready to prove last season was not a fluke.

“We don’t get paid to coach indoor track. We volunteer our time for these kids,” Reilly said. “If they are committed to doing it, then we commit ourselves. We tell them to make the commitment to be here every day and do whatever it takes to be successful, and they do that.”

H.L. Bourgeois sophomore Tashawna Westley practices her high jump for the LSU High School Classic on Saturday. The event kickoffs the indoor track season. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF