In the sport of track and field, it could be argued that there are three different areas that make up one sport, which necessitates three different coaches.

With the distance running, throwing and jumping and the sprinting aspects, these coaches need to work with their athletes but also come together as a team.

Distance running coach Greg Hipp said there is a particular structure to help run the whole entire track and field program.

“The way [head] coach [Connie] Teaberry delegates all the duties, is just each event coach kinda handles generally all the day-to-day things for the athletes they coach typically,” Hipp said. “So, we kinda work as three separate units that come together as a whole team for competitions.”

Field event coach Kevin Dwyer, who handles all the jumping and throwing athletes, said finding a balance where the athletes from each group spend enough time with the whole team can be challenging.

“It is tough. There’s so many dynamic personalities on track and field team,” Dwyer said. “Especially with going from the field eventers to the distance to the sprinters, so we try to do a good job of getting the team together and really respecting each other’s performances and how they go about what they’re doing. So, if we could build that respect throughout event groups, then I think overall as a team we’ll come together.”

Head coach Connie Teaberry, who generally works with sprinters and oversees the program as a whole, said the program has a number of ways to ensure all three units spend enough time together.

“We do a lot of community service as one unit,” Teaberry said. “We have the distance program, the throws and jumps program and then the sprints and hurdles program. We have three different coaches that coach those three different areas and we spend a lot of time together with community service, with team meetings with personal development. So, the girls get to spend a lot of time [with each other] and then they also see each other throughout the days and weeks at practices. So, we just make sure we do things off the track together so that we make sure when we step on the track we’re a team.”