When Their Training Spot Got Turned Into a Vaccination Site, These National Champions Trained in Their School Hallways
The team from the Bronx normally trains at the Armory, which was converted to a COVID-19 vaccination site.
Less than a mile from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx sits Cardinal Hayes High School, an all-boys Catholic school that can now call itself track and field national champions. Earlier this month, the 4x200-meter relay team, anchored by Travis Williams, 18, won a national championship for the event and set a Hayward Field facility high school record of 1:26:36.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Tavon Williams, 18 (no relation to Travis), told Runner’s World. “I was walking around, looking at people run, knowing that Olympians ran on that track [at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June]. My little brother came with me, and it was good to see him watch me medal and run fast.”
The team—coached by Cardinal Hayes alumnus, Craig Joseph—includes Jaavier Jackson, 17, Tavon Williams, 18, Jaden Barrett, 18, Travis Williams, 18, and alternate Kenneth Maxwell, 17.
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The squad was up against the best high school runners in the world, and it wasn’t until the race’s second leg—Tavon—did the team start to smell victory.
“I realized we were going to win when I was seeing how Tavon was able to accelerate, put us into first place, and then maintain that position,” Jackson, who ran the first leg, told Runner’s World. “There were a lot of obstacles, but once I saw my teammates take over and extend, I felt a lot more confident.”
Travis called the moment he crossed the finish line in first place surreal.
“We accomplished a goal at the end of our season, and it was life-changing,” he told Runner’s World. “COVID struck [last year] and we had to make do with what we had. We did our best and came out national champs.”
To say that the COVID-19 pandemic put up roadblocks in every aspect of life would be an understatement. For the Cardinal Hayes track team, the pandemic took away not only the spring 2020 track season but also its winter training facility: the Armory in Washington Heights.
“We normally have access to the Armory twice a week, but this year, it was a vaccination center and it wasn’t available,” Joseph says.
So, the team took to the hallways of the high school.
The workouts varied—30, 60, 200-meter sprints—but were limited by the length of the halls, sharp turns, and slippery surfaces.
“Sometimes we’d get crazy and run 350s [meters],” Travis says. “We’d do anything we could with the little space we’ve got, but it was really hard to run around the curves at our speed.”
Not to mention, the toll running on hallway surfaces can take on the body.
“Being in the hallways four to five days a week was very challenging,” Joseph says. “We had to manage contact time.”
Plus, Maxwell says, sprinting in a hallway doesn’t translate to a track. But there weren’t other options in the northeast winter.
With a national championship under its belt, the Cardinal Hayes track team is already looking ahead to the next season. Three of the five team members—Barrett, Travis, and Maxwell—will attend college this fall. Barrett will play wide receiver at Wagner College on a football scholarship, Travis will run track at the University of Albany, and Maxwell will run track at Fordham University.
That leaves room for up-and-comers to defend the 4x200-meter title.
But Joseph, who’s been coaching at Cardinal Hayes for 17 years, knows nothing is guaranteed.
“Every year I go into the season with my seniors and say, “It’s your turn. The bar was set last year. How high are you going to raise it?’” Joseph told Runner’s World. “Well, this is a pretty high bar. You can’t go any higher. So next year, we’ll come in and set the bar again. The standard has to be to continue to elevate.”
His athletes know this.
“They’re looking at us. Like, we up there now. We’re number one in the nation,” Tavon said. “Hopefully we go back for another one.”
posted Saturday July 24th
by Runner’s World