Local coach Al Wirth along with 5 track stars from the Morden/Winkler areas are gearing up to head to Edmonton as part of the Western Canada Track Challenge this upcoming weekend.
"It was a little disappointing finish to the year when the high school provincials were canceled," Wirth says ahead of the team heading west. "I sort of asked some of the better kids if they wanted another opportunity. About five or six agreed, they wanted that. So, we started training after the high school provincials, and we've been training for about a month, two or three days a week. We're just trying to get ready. We went at the end of June for the trails for this event, so you had to go through trials and be in the top two or three in your events to make it to the team. Luckily, we had five kids from the Morden/Winkler area make it."
Wirth says the kids couldn't be more excited about going and details a bit about who will be making the trip, and what they'll be doing in Edmonton. "We'll start with Kemi Omoleye, she's in shotput and discus, she's from Morden. Lincoln Cantlen, also from Morden, he's throwing shotput after making the shotput group. Lua Pauls, Morden, she made the cut in javelin and Jayla Dycks, also from Morden, she made it in pentathlon, but there is no pentathlon at the event, so she's going in the 80 meter hurdles, the long jump and the 300 meter, and possibly a relay. The fifth member of the group is Lenaya Roberts of Winkler, she made it in javelin and discus. A pretty well rounded group and it's been a lot of fun."
On top of the high level of competition, Wirth says the life experience the local kids will receive over the course of the travel and event is invaluable. "It's going to be huge for them, and I think it's going to be big for the track and field program in Morden as well, to have these four leaders of the group that will be able to share these experience. They'll be competing against the best from Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan and now they've added the Youkon. It's a fairly comprehensive group they'll be competing against. It's not only locally in the Pembina Valley area, they're now facing over half the nation. It should be a great building experience for them and I'm really looking forward to it."
Another big part that Wirth and the coaches are focused in on is the mental side of things, as there's a lot that goes into the event from travel to scouts watching. "Well, it's not just a 12 hour bus ride. We get to Regina and then we use the University of Regina track, we do some working out and we talk, talk about the key factors that they need to work on. There's a couple of mental things you need to keep in mind, we want them to go out and do their best. Track and field is lovely that way, you do your best and see where you fall. You can do your absolute best and finish dead last, and that's not an indication of you being short, it's the other competition just being stronger. It's a matter of building on that. You look at personal best and if you place somewhere, that's wonderful. You're always looking for personal best, personal improvement, that's where the biggest mental challenge comes in."
Representing the Pembina Valley, Wirth says he and the group take a lot of pride in their community and want to do well for everyone. "It's a great honour to be a part of Team Manitoba. This is the stepping stone for a lot of these athletes, there's Western Canada Games, Canada Games and then you move onto international competition. This is where it starts for them. It starts at this level, they compete against other western provinces and they realize they're competitive, they need to tweak this or that and they can be at the Canadian level. Then all of a sudden you're among the best in Canada and you have the opportunity to compete against others in the world. There's all kinds of opportunities for kids this age. There are the Francophonie Games, that's where I got my first national coaching experience, back in 1989 in Morrocco. It built from there, the Pan-Am games to World Championships, and for me as a coach, that was my journey and now for these athletes, it could be their journey. It's all a step by step process to move up the ranks, then maybe you can be the best in Canada."
The team led by Al Wirth is set to head out later this week and compete this weekend in Edmonton, where they will have an entire province cheering them on.