VERONICA YANKOWSKI Allentown’s Jessica Archer competes in the Distance Medley during Saturday’s Holmdel Relays.
First-year coach Art Raike knew he had his work cut out for him when he decided to take the head coaching job for the Allentown boys’ track and field team this year.
A former coach at both Red Bank Catholic High School and Mater Dei High School in Middletown, Raike had a strong background in the sport, but was not too familiar with the track program at Allentown.
He discovered that the team was filled with underclassmen with only a handful of juniors and seniors with varsity experience.
"We started with about 40 kids and are now down to about 30," he said. "But we only have five seniors and eight juniors. They do very well, but they just can’t carry us."
With 14 freshmen and seven sophomores getting their feet wet against some varsity competition, the future looks bright for the Redbirds. But Raike is concentrating on getting the most out of his seniors while they’re still around.
Dan Gentz and Mike Nemeth are the team’s throwers. Both compete in the shot put and javelin and have been consistently placing in their events.
"Dan has been first most of the time in both the shot put and the javelin, and Mike has been right behind him," the coach said. "They’ve been carrying us in the field events."
Senior Scott Vorwerk is a good distance man, according to his coach, who consistently runs around 16:00 in the 3,200 meters. He is coming off a strong cross country season as well.
Senior Bill Hincher has shown improvement with the discus, and Raike expects him to continue to increase the length of his throws.
Another upperclassman who has been performing well for the Redbirds is junior Charles Rini, a high jump/long jump specialist who has a number of top finishes to his credit already this year.
Junior Pat Mazella is another good distance man whose versatility has helped the team in the early going.
"He has won most of the 3,200s he ran in, and beat some good runners in the 1,600 and 4×400 relays as well," Raike said.
Junior Brian Mayer is the team’s top pole vaulter and has his eyes set on clearing 11-0, a height his coach said he has successfully cleared in practice. Mayer also competes in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200, depending on where he is needed in each particular meet, and does a good job in all of them, according to his coach.
Dan Bryar is another junior who competes in the pole vault and, like Mayer, is hoping to clear 11-0 within the next couple of meets.
Vino Dizas is the top sophomore for Raike’s crew, competing in the hurdles, long and high jumps, and 400 and 4×400 relay.
"He’s a good kid who works really hard in practice," Raike said. "He’s going to be relay tough by the time he’s a senior."
But Dizas is not the only underclassman Raike is expecting good things from in the next couple of years.
"We’ve got some great looking freshmen who are working hard already," he said. "A lot of these kids are learning how to compete at this level and are having to compete in some events that they wouldn’t normally have to do."
Thus far the Redbirds are 2-5 with their wins coming against McCorristin in Hamilton, and Lawrence. But Raike isn’t concerning himself too much with his team’s win-loss record as much as he is concentrating on improving the program.
With the help of his assistant coaches Matt Nemeth (weights) and Anthony Powell (sprinters and hurdles), he has some high expectations for the next few years.
"I get down on the program sometimes because of its lack of depth now, but then I tell myself that most of these kids are only freshmen and sophomores," he said. "Our seniors and juniors are doing the best they can, but at this point we can’t give them much help.
"Over the next two years, we should see some improvement in the program as a lot of these kids reach their potential," he added. "I think some of these kids have a shot at being special."
The Redbirds returned to the track on Tuesday when they took on Princeton at Hopewell Valley. They have a little break until May 1 when they take on West Windsor South with Hamilton and McCorristin.