Almost. It’s almost done. The Gretna High School track is in the making. The asphalt is already settled in and soon the rest will follow. The goal: black gravel, eight lines with multiple starts but one finish line. Not only the track team but also the cheerleaders (who are using it for their stunts during the football game), the football team itself (who are doing their fitness and speed program on it), the cross country team (for their lactic tempo runs) and so many more are waiting impatiently for it to be done.
“About seven years ago, we started to notice that there were some issues in the track,” said Activities Director Mathew Curtis.
The track has gotten redone a couple of times in the history of the school. In recent years, GHS has had to repair the track a lot. Every year, broken spots in the track need to be refilled. That got annoying and expensive, so a year ago the District decided that it would be necessary to do a construct a new track. The planning started last fall, and the actual process began in June. Together with a construction company, the people from the administration building and, of course, the track coaches and GHS implemented the project.
If everything had gone perfectly, the track would have been done right before the school year started, but as often in the construction industry, with the wind and weather situation, it took a little longer. As of now, the school only has the asphalt, but the actual track surface isn’t done yet. Since the construction workers have to close the whole track for about two weeks to fill in the gravel and mark the lines, they have to wait until the varsity football season has a break and isn’t playing on the field, which will be the case in mid-October, when neither GHS nor GEHS uses the stadium. Until then, the track will pretty much stay as it is now.
Besides the old-looking track from before, some other issues occurred. The facilities didn’t have everything they needed. Events like javelin, hammer throw and steeple chase had no area to practice, which they will be able to next season. In addition, there will be more seating for events like long jump.
“We are getting new throwing rings which will be nice,” said junior Andi Yost. Yost throws discus. “And that whole field events area will be more organized and have more seating for spectators which will hopefully make track meets better.”
The goal for GHS is also to host bigger competitions.
“We would like to host college competitions and districts as well as Junior Olympics,” Curtis said.
The new track will have a different material than the old one did. It will be made out of the excellent Olympic track material called “Mondo.”
“We want to be respectful to the money that the taxpayers are paying for the track, but at the same time, we want to be respectful for the kids and student athletes who are using the track,” Curtis said.
The whole project will cost over $2 million.
