Q&A: Coach O’Hara- Varisty Track
What are your feelings and predictions for this winter track season?
Well, we have a very well seasoned group of sprinters that have been very successful in the past
and it would be really nice to see how they do senior year, so I’m very excited about that. We have
to improve both on the girls and boys’ side on the distance and the field events which are throws
and jumps so if we can improve there, I’m not sure how we will do in the district, but we should
have a good shot at hopefully being top four for the ladies and top two for the guys for the
conference.
How did you choose the new track coaches?
Well, I interviewed them, it was a lengthy process, we put out requests for track coaches and when
they contacted me I interviewed a few and some I chose not to interview depending on where there
ability was at or what they could help out with because they couldn’t come at certain times. But,
our new track coaches are Carl Klein, he’s Mrs. Klein’s husband, he’s going to be helping us our
with varsity sprints, we have a girls distance coach, her name is Ivy Row, shes going to be helping
out with the girls distance program and help build them up a little bit to take some load off my
shoulders because now I’m the head track coach so I have a lot more responsibilities. We also have
on staff Mr. Harris and Coach Sykes. Mr. Harris is going to be doing the JV sprints and Mr. Sykes
is going to be doing the throws and hurdles for us.
Who are your key runners for the team this year?
Some of our key runners on the ladies’ side will be Alexis Evans, Destiny Anderson, Istatu
Koroma, Katherine Ross those are our core sprint girls. Asterid Lagande whose one of the best
jumpers in the state – so she’s going to help out with some of the field events I was telling you we
were lacking some points in and shes a really good hurdler too so that core group of girls is really
talented for sprints and a little bit jumps. And then for our guys we are looking at Senusi Jalo,
Nathan Hogye, Aviad Gebrehiwot whose going to help us out with some of our distance, and
Bernard Ando who is our top returning sprinter from a year back. We have some guys that are
coming out for hurdles as well, and we are just really excited to see what our guys can do.
What are your goals this season as a coach and as a team?
Really, it’s just to, when you are starting a whole new program with a new coach just trying to get
everything flowing correctly and make sure that practices are running smoothly and everyone kind
of gets on board with the new program because it is going to be a little bit different than how it was
with Coach Miller and whenever there is changes it takes a little bit of time to get used to. So, I
think the indoor season is just trying to get everybody figured out with their new coaches and
having them understand and get to know their athletes. By spring track, our goal is to really really
blossom as a team and hopefully we can make some large improvements. Indoor track we really
use for conditioning, getting the kids in shape, we’re not as worried or concerned about the end
result. It’s more about preparing for outdoor track.
What are you looking forward to the most this season?
What I am looking forward to most this season is what I look forward to most every season, it’s
just watching kids no matter ability going from you know one level of ability all the way up to the
top of their ability so watching kids really really improve over the season and I’m also looking
forward to having kids compete.
Winnie Masson is a sophomore at Annandale High. This is her first year on the A-Blast staff; as a photographer. She plays field hockey and lacrosse for...