By Roscoe Nance
The good news for Norfolk State’s MEAC men’s track and field opponents is the three-time defending indoor champion Spartans will field its youngest team since Kenneth Giles has been coach.
The bad news is Giles predicts this season’s squad will be his best ever, even better than the team that ran away and hid from the rest of the field at 2008 MEAC Indoor championship with a record 170 points. Runner-up Delaware State had 64.
“I expect us to repeat the success we’ve had,’’ says Giles, adding that his expectations include is surpassing the Spartans’ record point total. “But we don’t take anything for granted. As the defending champion, we’re the hunted.’’
On the women’s side, reigning co-champions Hampton and Maryland-Eastern Shore appear to have strong squads again and are likely to battle each other for the crown.
Maryland Eastern Shore opened its season by setting a pair of school records in the Maryland-Eastern Lid-Lifter Dec. 12. Saisha Woodward set school records in the weight throw and the shot put.
Hampton opened its season by winning four event titles in the Christopher Newport University Holiday Open Dec. 5. The Lady Pirates followed that performance with five event titles at the Maryland-Eastern Lid-Lifter Dec. 12.
Sophomore Racquel Vassell of Irvington, N.J., won six the Lady Pirates’ nine event titles, three in each event. Vassell won the long jump and 60 meter hurdles and anchored the 4x400 meter relay team at the Maryland Eastern Shore Lid-Lifter. She won the long jump and 55-meter hurdles in addition to anchoring the 4x400m relay team at the Christopher Newport Holiday Open.
Norfolk State has outstanding crop of newcomers, who will team with 19 returning lettermen to give the Spartan men unparalleled depth in the MEAC.
Senior middle distance runner Dominic Luka, the Most Outstanding Performer on the men’s side at the 2008 MEAC Indoor Championship, is among the returnees. Luka, who received his degree earlier this month, won the mile, finished second in the 5,000m and the 800m and ran a leg on the winning distance relay team for a total of 28.5 points.
“Dominic Luka changed the face of this program,’’ Giles says. “The only thing he has done is help us win championships and get a degree. He’s a model of what we want in our student athletes.’’.
Also returning is sophomore Marlon Woods, the MEAC indoor and outdoor high jump champion and the NCAA Southeast Region Field Athlete of the Year. Junior Corey Vinston is the reigning conference triple jump and long champion. He qualified for the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championship in the 60 meters, the long jump and the triple jump, making him the only athlete to qualify in three events. Sophomore Brett Dodd, who won the conference indoor pole vault crown by clearing 14-2 3/4 ? a school record ? and senior middle distance runner Keenan Harris, the MEAC 1,500 meter outdoor champion, are two more solid performers for the Spartans.
“With kids like these, who can compete in any conference in the country, I don’t expect any tail off,’’ Giles says.
But the Spartans’ newcomers are the ingredient that will make the squad special, Giles says. They include sprinter Thomas Speller of Indian River High in Chesapeake, Va., who signed with the Spartans in 2007 but sat out last season. Speller was second 200 meters at the 2007 Nike Indoor National Championship. Darryl Brickhouse of Nansemond River High in Suffolk, Va., and Sean Holston of Robert E. Lee High in Fairfax, Va., who beat Speller in 200 meters at the 2007 Nike Indoor Championship, are two more highly touted freshmen. Giles also expects immediate contributions from Keith Nkrumah, a sprinter from Midwood High in Brooklyn, and Vincent Rono, a distance runner from Kenya who joins the team in January.
“The key for us is how the young kids mature and adapt to competing at the Division I level,’’ Giles says. “We have kids who we know nobody can compete with at the MEAC Championships. We have to utilize them to put the young guys in that same position. We can’t put the load on the veterans. We have to make sure the young kids mature. Looking at what’s going on in practice, I expect that they will.’’
Giles says having squad with so many young athletes has caused him to alter his coaching methods, even though the newcomers are supremely talented.
“You have to babysit the young kids,’’ he says. “You have to make sure they do what they have to do in the classroom, do he proper things on the track as far as warming up and cooling down. With veterans you don’t have to do that. They know what to do. Why we have to follow the same path and make sure they mature. If they develop like we expect, we’ll have something special.’’
Giles looks for Delaware State and North Carolina A&T to be the Spartan’ primary challengers. He says both have “outstanding athletes who can compete with any with anybody.’’
Delaware State opened its season with two first-place finishes in the Navy Invitational Dec. 4. Donte Holmes, the reigning MEAC champion, was first in the 800-meter run. Holmes also ran the third leg on the Hornets’ first-place 1600-meter relay team.
North Carolina A&T, which starts its season Jan. 9 in the Virginia Tech Invitational, has just five seniors on its squad and will rely on youth as the Aggies try to overtake Norfolk State.
The Spartans will also compete in the Virginia Tech Invitational, which will be their first meet. Giles is eager to see how his team stacks up.
“We have superior depth, and we have kids we know nobody in the conference can beat,’’ Giles says. “We still have work to do but, but we’re on the right track.’’