As winter sports season returns, that also signals the start of the indoor track season. The Oakdale Bears look to defend their 2021-2022 county and regional titles. 

The boys started the season off at 3:40 on Friday, December 9th, 2022 at Hagerstown Community College for the Terry Baker invitational, which is the first indoor track meet of the year. 

When asked about the expectations for this season, head coach Ronnie Beard remarks, “Our expectations are always high for the season. We have a different team make up than years past, but still some key pieces returning.”

As the season progresses, the coaches are looking forward to seeing the players progress and develop their skills. They are hoping to have similar success to last year.

Senior Jason Blakesly, a shot-putter, is especially looking forward to the upcoming season and sees it as a challenge, since it will be his last: “My goal is to make it to some of the championship meets. It will take a lot of work to get there, but I am ready and willing for that challenge.”

Playoffs are scheduled to start on January 27th, 2023 with the CMC (Central Maryland Conference) meet taking place at Hagerstown Community College. Following that will be the regional meet on February 9th at the Baltimore Armory. They will end the season with states on February 21st at PG Complex.

Striving for playoffs seems to be a common goal between both players and coaches, as sophomore David Tressler explains, “My goals this season are to break the sophomore indoor 2 mile record and run sub 10. I want to set a new personal record for my indoor mile time and improve my 800. I also want to run at states.”

The team has 63 rostered athletes, only 10 of which are seniors. However, the team also has 41 underclassmen,leaving lots of opportunities for upperclassmen, especially seniors, to step up and become role models for the newer participants. 

Although track itself and the field events are often considered interchangeable, the process that goes behind training is very different. Field events typically require more refined techniques, while track is more focused on endurance or short distance running. 

“As a thrower, there is a lot of strength work as well as drilling technique. A lot of fine movements go into throwing that take a long time to master,” Blakesly comments.

The boys varsity team finished the meet on Friday coming in 9th place out of 20, only 11 points lower than last year.