Track and Field is back on the campus of New England College for the first time in a decade. After a 10-year hiatus the team competed in their first meet in Boston on Feb. 22. The team will be competing in three meets this season while they are playing a pre-varsity schedule and growing the program.
Athletic Director Dave Decew said he is looking forward to seeing how this can help grow New England College’s campus and he is looking forward to seeing the team grow for next year’s varsity season.
“What we’re trying to do is grow the program appropriately and put ourselves in a position where kids are excited to come back next year and compete at a higher level,” Decew said. “I think having some competitive opportunities is great and there is a lot of recruitment being done and yeah we’ll get to the point where it’s really vibrant and something student athletes feel great about.”
The team’s season’s goal is to keep competing and developing the program so when they play the full varsity schedule in 2027, they are fully prepared, according to head coach Zach Emerson. Emerson said the focus for this year is to build leadership with the athletes on his roster, so when next year’s class is on campus preparing for the season, he has a group of student-athletes that he can already rely on.
“We’re going to rely on them when we have our new incoming class next year to kind of show them the ropes so it’s kind of important that we establish the culture right away,” Emerson said. My expectations are that they kind of learn about what it is like to be a college student-athlete so they can be those social dynamic leaders that we need next year when we have a whole bunch of bright-eyed freshman coming in.”
The team leaders are still looking for the players to earn their spot for meet days. The team will be competing in every event at the meets besides the high jump.
“We expect to have people sprinting, throwing, and running for distance,” Kalie Villagomez said. Right now, we are also just expecting people to show up to practice and have a good time but also put in the work to compete and get their spot.”
