Avery McClellan, a 7th grader at West Collierville Middle School, shares her experiences with Shelby Youth Sports Track and Field.
“It’s my 3rd year doing SYS,” Avery comments. “SYS provides a lot more opportunities for less good runners, and we get to run more events instead of just whatever the coach puts us in.” Avery explains, “SYS is a rec league for anyone ages 4-15 or 16 in all of Collierville. It is all ages and all levels. Our practices are split into age groups with two-year spans where we work on whatever we’re good at. The meets are similar. They are seven to eight hours of running events and field events.” Avery’s usual events are the 3000, 1500, high jump and DMR (Distance Medley Relay). Her favorite event is the 3000 because she “know[s] [her] pace for it.”
Avery shares her favorite SYS memories: “In the spirit of rain, one time, it was hailing, and we all ran into the concession stand and were in there for thirty minutes. There were lots of bugs in there, so everyone was running in and out! It was so funny watching the little kids!” Additionally, she shares, “One time, I was watching the 800s, and a girl stepped out of her shoe at the starting line. She ran the whole time without her shoe, and her sock turned red! We had to pick up her shoe afterwards.” Avery tells another memory: “I guess recently, it was fifteen minutes after practice, and we were sure one kid had left. We were there for ten minutes, and he was five meters away picking up track spikes!”
When asked about workouts, Avery explains, “A really hard workout we do is when we do like eight 400 sprints in a row with jumps in between. We were jumping up and down and doing straddle jumps, then we’d sprint another. My legs hurt for two days after!” She adds, “A very mentally difficult workout we do is when we run 75% speed. Then 80% speed. It’s really hard to base how fast you’re supposed to be going. Mental holds us back more than our body limitations.” To overcome that challenge, Avery explains how “it was less [her] and more the people around [her].” Avery states, “They told me, ‘You can go faster, you can push past this. If you can’t go that fast, do it one step at a time. Go slower and work up to going faster. It’s a process.’”
Her goal for the end of the season in the 3000 is 14 minutes or under her best of 14:20 from last year. Her goal for high jump is to jump at least 4’1’’ because she jumped 4’ last year. “I have been doing it so long that it becomes hard to improve a lot, just a little bit,” Avery says.
For fuel, Avery comments, “Personally, I don’t eat anything for breakfast before a meet. I eat cereal after. Maybe I eat lunch, depending on the time of day that my race is. Or maybe I eat just a protein bar. I eat raisins and crackers before practices.”
Avery adds, “Everyone thinks track is a really individual sport because you run by yourself. Track is a community as much as an individual sport because you bond with the people around you. That’s how we do so well as a team.”