Woodland Regional High School senior Kyla O’Connor joined outdoor track her freshman year and expanded her horizons by joining indoor track her junior year. This season, she has been awarded an honorable title: team captain.
O’Connor first joined the indoor track team because of her love of outdoor track–she was looking for something more. Being on both teams, O’Connor is able to compare the indoor and outdoor track teams. They are mostly similar except for things like where the team practices and the size of the team. While they are similar in some ways, the differences between them is what dictates O’Connor’s favorite parts of the indoor track team.
“My favorite part of indoor track would be how close the team gets,” O’Connor said. “Compared to outdoor track there are a lot less people so the team is able to get a lot closer.”
Some of O’Connor’s responsibilities as captain include leading the team in stretches and warm ups, giving pep talks before each meet and practice, and cheering on all her teammates. A big part of being a team captain is working hard to encourage teammates to be the best player they can be. O’Connor does this by always supporting her teammates during practices and meets.
While a lot of seniors at Woodland are starting to wind down and get ready for college, O’Connor focuses on being the best captain she can be. Leading by example, she works towards doing her best, completing her goals, and inspiring her other teammates to do the same.
“Since it is my senior year, I really just want to improve my times and have fun.” O’Connor said.
With any sport, there are a lot of skills that someone could learn that can help not only during practices but also throughout life. O’Connor has had to push through certain obstacles while training to improve in track. Through these roadblocks, she has learned skills that are important for getting past obstacles everyday in life, such as realizing she is tougher than she may have previously believed.
“Through track, I have learned how to push through struggles,” O’Connor said. “There are many times during workouts or races you feel like you want to give up but it teaches you that you have more in you than you think.”
With the season coming to an end coaches begin to look for captains to take the place of the seniors who will be leaving. Being a senior captain, O’Connor has advice for her teammates who may want to become captains in the future. She believes that how good you are in your events is not as important as how good of a leader you are and how hard you work.
“Be dedicated, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how fast you are,” O’Connor said. “The coaches notice when you come to practice and when you try your hardest.”
