Seoul American senior Kristy Taylor clears the high-jump bar during Saturday's 8th Alva W. "Mike" Petty Memorial Track and Field Meet at Mike Petty Stadium, Kubasaki High School, Camp Foster, Okinawa. Taylor finished sixth with a jump of 1.34 meters -- and Taylor had not jumped in competition or practice since the 2009 Kanto Invitational on May 16 of last year. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa
Imagine a track and field team making its debut in a major invitational meet 800 miles from home, places third in the boys and fifth in the girls standings and breaks four meet records and one Pacific record.
Now, imagine that team doesn’t have its own track. It doesn’t have a discus or shot-put ring. Nor does it have a long- or high-jump pit. Heck, the team doesn’t even have one measly hurdle in its inventory.
“We have a lot of heart,” said sophomore distance runner Amanda Henderson of high school startup Seoul American after its debut in last weekend’s 8th Alva W. “Mike” Petty Memorial Meet.
“We’re out to prove a point, that we might not have as much as everyone else does, but we’re still going to come out here and kick butt.”
Henderson and more than 30 Falcons athletes practice wherever they can. A golf driving range or a 234-meter walking track on post. Or off-post public facilities such as Mokdong Stadium near Kimpo Airport, or the old 1988 Summer Olympic Complex at Chamshil, whenever it’s available.
“It’s hard to do that and then come here and be on a facility you’ve never been on before. I’m impressed,” said meet scorer Jo Pinto, an IAAF-certified official on Guam since 1984. “It’s a tribute to [them] to stick together, work hard to get here and work hard in this meet.”
“You can imagine what they would do if they had all those facilities,” said Charles Burns, Petty meet founder and Kubasaki coach since 1990. “They’ve done a great job considering the difficulties they work under. And it’s something to be admired, to see a team do that.”
That’s exactly the message that the Falcons want to send to the Yongsan Garrison community, of which Seoul American is a part.
“We have a wonderful collection of students who have accomplished so much with not so much as a hurdle,” coach David Abbott said. “And we hope and pray that … maybe a magical track will fall out of the sky for next season.”
But where that magical track will come from, and where it can be put on Yongsan Garrison, on which virtually every inch of available arable land is used for something, is the $64,000 question.
DODEA Korea did not sponsor track until Seoul American, which sports the reigning Far East cross-country champions Siarria Ingram and Thomas Kim, was given the go-ahead in March to appoint a coach and form a team, mostly out of the remnants of the now-defunct Seoul Track Club.
DODEA Pacific spokesman Charly Hoff said there are “no specific plans” at this time to add a track at Seoul American nor at the other DODEA Korea high schools, but they are “looking at all options” for schools without track facilities for next year and beyond.
“Limited space, funding and in some cases limited student interest are all critical factors that need to be addressed before definitive plans can be made,” Hoff said.
Only Camp Casey’s Schoonover bowl and the new athletic facility at Camp Humphreys have existing tracks. But each is at least two hours away from Yongsan on typical afternoons featuring nominal to heavy traffic.
Still, Kevin Madden, Seoul Track Club’s founder and a Falcons assistant with more than 30 years of coaching prep and college teams, feels that while STC’s purpose – to demonstrate the need for high school track in Korea – has been accomplished, that’s just half the battle.
“It always amazes me that we go to a post and it doesn’t have a single basic athletic facility,” Madden said. “There’s two: A gymnasium with a weight room and a basketball court and an eight-lane, 400-meter track. You can do about 40 dozen things on them. Guess what? Our soldiers don’t have a track to run on” at Yongsan.
Whether DOD or the Army, DODEA, U.S. Forces Korea or some combination comes forward to lay out the funding for a track and equipment, “We owe it to these kids. They do not have the opportunities they’d have stateside” in competition, camps and seminars, Madden said.
For now, the Falcons will soldier on. They’ll tote quite the portfolio to the first Far East meet next month, again at Mike Petty Stadium.
Ingram on Saturday not only shattered the Petty mile mark with a 5:24.28, that also broke the 12-year-old Pacific record by more than four seconds. Kim broke the Petty 800-meter mark; sprinter Kristy Taylor edged the 100-meter meet record. On Friday, Henderson recorded the first gold medal in school history in the two-mile.
Burns sees a parallel between the Falcons, whom he said showed the need for track in Korea, and Petty, which demonstrated the need for a Far East meet. The two entities “started from zero and grew to the point where they’re self-sufficient,” Burns said.
“The foundation has been laid … for a good team to come in and be recognized,” Burns said. “If everything falls into place in the next year or so, they’ll be a full-fledged member of this.”